Anna Machkevitch, the daughter of a billionaire oligarch, has had her criminal conviction quashed after the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) provided no evidence at her appeal.
Back in 2020, Machkevitch was found guilty of failing to supply documents required by the SFO under Section 2 of the Criminal Justice Act.
She was ordered to pay a fine of £800, victim surcharge of £181 and the SFO’s full costs.
She is the daughter of billionaire businessman Alexander Mashkevich, one of the founders of Kazakh mining company Eurasian Natural Resources Company (ENRC), the business the SFO has been in a brawl with.
The request she was found guilty of in 2020 related to the probe the SFO had with ENRC, however, she was not a suspect in relation to that investigation.
In April 2013, the SFO placed ENRC under investigation over allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption.
This probe was at the heart of civil litigation against the SFO, the company’s former law firm Dechert and partner Neil Gerrard.
The parties went to a lengthy trial at the High Court in 2021 and a year later, Mr Justice Waksman handed down a damming ruling noting that Gerrard breached his duties. It also noted that senior officers at the SFO also breached their duties.
The civil case is still ongoing but the SFO dropped its investigation into the mining company.
With the judgment noted, Machkevitch’s lawyer Namita Pawa, at Hallinan Blackburn Gittings & Nott lodged an appeal against her conviction.
In a letter addressed to Westminster Magistrates’ Court, it highlighted Mr Justice Waksman’s judgment in the civil proceedings.
Her lawyer stated that Waksmans “found that but for the wrongdoing of the SFO there would have been no criminal investigation into ENRC.”
“Given that Anna Machkevitch’s entire section 2 prosecution was underpinned by the requirement that there must be an investigation, Waksman J’s findings against the SFO nullifies the legitimacy of the prosecution against Anna Machkevitch,” they added.
On 16 September at Southwark Crown Court, His Honour Judge Rimmer granted Machkevitch permission for Anna to appeal, out of time, her conviction.
As the SFO decided not to oppose her appeal, her conviction was quashed and she was found not guilty.
A Serious Fraud Office spokesperson to City A.M.: “Any damages awarded are subject to ongoing proceedings, and will need to be based on actual proof of loss.”