Dechert’s London office hosted meetings used to devise a false ‘cover story’ about how an aviation tycoon’s hacked emails were obtained ahead of a multi-million pound fraud trial, the High Court heard yesterday.

The allegation emerged in the latest hearing in long-running litigation between Farhad Azima and the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), which instructed Dechert in relation to an investigation into Azima's friend Khater Massaad, RAKIA's former chief executive, and later Azima himself.

The firm's former head of white-collar crime, Neil Gerrard, is said to have put key witnesses through a ‘mock trial’ as part of what has been described as ‘an extraordinary conspiracy to submit dishonest evidence to the court’.

Azima claims RAKIA hacked his emails before using them in a case in which the High Court found Azima engaged in ‘seriously fraudulent conduct’. His counterclaim, alleging RAKIA was responsible for the hacking, was dismissed as there was not ‘sufficiently cogent evidence’ to establish a conspiracy between the RAKIA witnesses.

But last year Azima’s hacking claim was remitted by the Court of Appeal, which found there were grounds to consider whether ‘RAKIA’s defence to the counterclaim was dishonestly advanced’.

Azima’s appeal in relation to the judgment against him on RAKIA’s original claim was refused and a decision on his application for permission to appeal to the Supreme Court is pending. RAKIA, Gerrard and Dechert all deny responsibility for the hacking or dissemination of Azima’s data.

Gerrard, who is now retired, is accused of putting witnesses through ‘perjury school’ at a boutique Swiss hotel to help private investigator Stuart Page and journalist Majdi Halabi rehearse false evidence about the ‘innocent discovery’ of Azima’s emails on the internet.

The plan to ‘mislead the court’ about how Azima’s emails were obtained was first ‘concocted’ at meetings in Cyprus involving Gerrard and were ‘followed by meetings in London, including at Dechert’s offices, in May 2019’, Azima’s barrister Thomas Plewman QC told the court yesterday.

Laura Newton, for Gerrard and Dechert, said her clients ‘deny the new and very serious allegations against Mr Gerrard in the strongest possible terms’.

The court also heard that Page has ‘switched sides’ and is giving evidence in support of Azima’s case, including the allegation that Gerrard ‘deliberately’ gave false evidence about his dealings with Karam Al Sadeq, a Jordanian lawyer who has been detained in Ras Al Khaimah since 2014.

RAKIA is applying to strike out Azima’s allegations about Gerrard’s evidence at the first trial in relation to Al Sadeq, with RAKIA’s counsel Hugh Tomlinson QC telling the court that they are ‘entirely irrelevant to the material facts which arise for determination in the counterclaim’.

The hearing, which is also considering applications to strike out various other sections of the parties’ pleadings, will resume on Thursday.