The Serious Fraud Office arrested property entrepreneur Mr Tchenguiz and his brother Robert in March 2011, in a publicity-seeking raid on the morning of the Cannes MIPIM property conference.
After that the investigation descended into farce, culminating with the SFO apologising to Mr Tchenguiz, the Attorney General launching an investigation into the SFO’s operations and a judge criticising the SFO’s “sheer incompetence“.
Today the SFO, which apparently seriously considered placing agents in Annabel’s nightclub as part of its activities, informed Mr Tchenguiz that it is dropping its investigation. (Robert Tchenguiz remains under investigation.) Here’s today’s punchy statement from Vincent’s Consensus Business Group (via FT Alphaville).
UPDATE 31 July 2012: The High Court has declared that the search warrants issued to the Serious Fraud Office were unlawful as they were obtained by misrepresentation and non‐disclosure to the judge – summary of judgments here and SFO press release here.
Follow us on Twitter @CoFinLaw
