A former financial adviser accused of fraudulent trading in relation to a legal financial fund faces a retrial in March 2024.
David Kennedy, 69, stood trial this year on one count of fraudulent trading relating to the Cayman Islands-registered Axiom Legal Financing Fund, which collapsed in October 2012.
He was allegedly party to carrying on The Synergy Solution Limited for a fraudulent purpose in order to dishonestly enrich himself to the detriment of investors in the Axiom fund between December 2008 and March 2012, according to the indictment. Kennedy denies the charge.
Last month, after deliberating for around 30 hours, a jury was unable to reach a verdict and was discharged. Kennedy, of Hetton-le-Hole, Tyne and Wear, appeared remotely at Southwark Crown Court this afternoon as prosecutor Paul Raudnitz QC told Judge Adam Hiddleston that the Serious Fraud Office sought a retrial.
The court heard that the earliest possible date for a retrial is in November 2023 but that Kennedy’s junior counsel would not be available until January 2024. Hiddlestone told Kennedy that ‘it is the court’s wish in all cases to seek to list a case sooner rather than later’, but that he is also entitled to be represented by the same counsel who has acted for him throughout the case. The judge fixed the date for the retrial, which is expected to last six weeks, for 18 March 2024.
