Norwegian billionaire forced back to London in £285m Deutsche Bank dispute
Norwegian billionaire Alexander Vik has been ordered to return to the City to be interrogated about his hidden assets during a 13-year-long legal dispute with Deutsche Bank.
The bank first sued the business mogul’s company, Sebastian Holdings, in 2009 after the company suffered a series of losses on foreign exchange and equities trade deals during the 2008 financial crisis, ordering it to pay £203m in damages and 83 per cent of its legal costs, pushing the claim up to £285m.
After failing to reclaim the firm’s debt, the lender went after Vik instead, who was later convicted of contempt of court for lying about his understanding of the Turks and Caicos Islands-registered Sebastian Holdings in 2015 and for withholding information about the firm’s assets.
The businessman, who moved to Monaco following the legal battle, failed to overturn the conviction in February 2023, arguing that High Court judge Jane Moulder was wrong to convict him.
The Court of Appeal said today it has “inherent power” to force the magnate to return to London to be interrogated again because he was originally issued the order in 2015 when he still lived in London.
The court also struck out a previous decision blocking the bank from further interrogating the billionaire and said Vik “has done everything in his power” to avoid paying the debt he owes to Deutsche Bank.
“He lied repeatedly about the whereabouts and nature of Sebastian Holding’s current or former assets, and deliberately failed to provide key categories of documents,” the court said.
An ‘important’ decision for Deutsche Bank
Beyond the initial 14-week trial, Deutsche Bank has made a number of repeated unsuccessful attempts to recover the debt owed by Vik.
The lender had also successfully applied for Vik to be sentenced to prison for contempt of court after he lied in the 2015 examination, but failed because of a suspended sentence which ultimately expired.
“This decision is an important one for Deutsche Bank as it continues to take steps to recover an outstanding judgment debt, and we are very pleased that the English court has reaffirmed its willingness to take robust action to ensure that Court orders are complied with,” Fieldfisher partner Christopher Robinson, acting solicitor for Deutsche Bank told CityAM.
The court will imminently issue an order for Vik’s examination and will face a “narrower” round of questioning from Deutsche Bank compared to its 2015 order.