The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has struck a confidential deal with the Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) to bring marathon litigation by the Kazakh mining company to an end. Yet without any transparency about the terms of this settlement, the public is left in the dark about how much of the $290 million in damages pursued by ENRC is to be handed over by the SFO.
This settlement comes after the SFO’s probe into the former FTSE 100 company unleashed an avalanche of litigation against the agency, its officers, and journalists who looked into suspected corruption in its mining operations. Founded by the so-called trio of ex-Soviet oligarchs in 1994 and now reportedly funded by sanctioned Russian banks, ENRC and its associates were suspected of paying bribes to secure lucrative mining deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo while it was a London-listed company.
The SFO suffered a major blow in 2023 when the High Court ruled the agency opened its criminal investigation after inducing ENRC’s lawyer to share damaging information he was not authorised to disclose. Shortly afterwards the SFO dropped its decade-long investigation, saying it had “insufficient admissible evidence to prosecute” ENRC.
ENRC’s aggressive and well-funded legal tactics have raised concerns about a chilling effect on the SFO and other law enforcement agencies tasked with pursuing multinational companies and deep-pocketed suspects. While the SFO has been put on the defensive in successive lawsuits and accused of “misfeasance in public office”, ENRC has never had to answer the corruption allegations against it in a court.
This confidential settlement between ENRC, the SFO and the law firm accused of sharing unauthorised information – Dechert – is the second closed-doors deal the agency has reached with the controversial mining company. The first – agreed in October 2024 – saw the agency and two of its staff avoid a trial over allegations that they leaked sensitive information about the investigation to the media and third parties.
This latest deal brings an end to the more substantial damages pursued by ENRC, which was the subject of a lengthy trial in April this year. This settlement means the High Court will no longer deliver a ruling on this claim.
While staff at the SFO will now be breathing a sigh of relief that this sorry episode is behind them, it is deeply concerning that the terms of the settlement are shrouded in secrecy. ENRC had been seeking more than $290 million in damages from the SFO and Dechert, but the SFO’s latest annual report provisioned £15m in legal costs for the ENRC case, stating that this figure “reflects management’s best estimate of the liability payable by SFO”.
This may well be in the ballpark of what the agency has agreed to pay, but guesswork is no substitute for transparency. It is crucial that parliament now ensures the SFO’s books are opened to public scrutiny so that there is clarity about how much this deal has cost the taxpayer.
