Kazakh-based mining giant Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC) has denied ‘very serious’ allegations made in a book about so-called ‘dirty money’, which the company says means that it had three people murdered ‘to protect its business interests’.

The former FTSE 100 company – which has brought separate legal action against the Serious Fraud Office for alleged misfeasance in public office over its ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption and bribery – is suing Financial Times journalist Tom Burgis for libel at the High Court over his 2020 book Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World.

ENRC is also suing Kleptopia’s publisher HarperCollins, alleging that certain chapters of the the book – which is said to mention ENRC more than 250 times – mean there are at least ‘strong grounds to suspect’ it had two former employees and a geologist killed.

However, Burgis and HarperCollins’ lawyers argue that, while Kleptopia ‘clearly portrays the three deaths as suspicious’, the book ‘nowhere makes an allegation of murder by anyone connected with ENRC business’.

ENRC’s barrister Adrienne Page QC said at today’s brief preliminary hearing: ‘None of the issues for the court’s determination involve the court deciding whether any of the allegations in the book [are] true or false – that is, or may be, for another trial on another day. In the meantime, the claimant disputes the contents of the book.’

She added in written submissions: ‘The many very serious allegations contained in the book which refer to the claimant or its owners, shareholders or officers are highly disputed.’

Andrew Caldecott QC, for Burgis and HarperCollins, said in written arguments that the ‘historical allegations of corruption, which connect with the suspicious nature of the deaths … are not directed at the board of the claimant … but at the trio and/or individuals connected with the trio’: namely, the three billionaire founders of ENRC, Alexander Machkevitch, Patokh Chodiev and the late Alijan Ibragimov.

He added that the meaning of the words complained of was that the three deaths ‘are suspicious and the cause of death in each instance remains an open question which merits further investigation’.

The hearing before Mr Justice Nicklin, to determine the natural and ordinary meaning of the words complained of and whether they refer to ENRC, was adjourned due to a medical emergency shortly after it began. It is expected to be relisted in the near future.