ERG boss Benedikt Sobotka summoned to appear before court
The boss of a Kazakhstan-based mining company has now been summoned to appear before a London court, after failing to turn up to questioning by the UK’s Serious Fraud Office.
Benedikt Sobotka, the chief executive of Eurasian Resources Group, had been issued with an arrest warrant last month, after not turning up to an SFO interview as part of its probe into subsidiary Eurasian Natural Resources and its acquisition of mining rights.
Mr Sobotka is not a suspect in the corruption investigation, given the focus is on the period before he took charge of the company in 2013, but he had been called for questioning as a witness.
At the time of the warrant’s issue, Mr Sobotka’s lawyer, Kevin Roberts of Morrison & Foerster, called the move an “unprecedented and extraordinary attempt to intimidate a CEO of a multinational group”, and said Mr Sobotka was ready to assist the investigation.
The arrest warrant was withdrawn on Wednesday, and Westminster Magistrates' Court instead issued Mr Sobotka with a summons to appear before the court for the offence of failing to comply with an SFO direction.
It is not clear why the warrant was withdrawn, but representatives for Mr Sobotka said it came following Mr Sobotka’s application to court.
Once proceedings have finished, the SFO will seek to interview him again.
Mr Roberts said: “While we are pleased the court has withdrawn the arrest warrant against Mr Sobotka, the behaviour of the SFO has been disappointing. There was clearly no reasonable basis for a warrant in the first place.”
The SFO declined to comment.
