TOP fraud lawyers at Simons Muirhead & Burton and Magrath & Co are now fully engaged in the Maxwell trial following the decision by Serious Fraud Office (SFO) director George Staple to proceed with certain counts in the case.
Proceedings against Kevin Maxwell, Larry Trachtenberg, and former Maxwell employees Albert Fuller and Michael Stoney are to be pursued in relation to counts 1, 2, 7, 8 and 9 of the original indictment.
Anthony Burton, senior partner of Simons Muirhead & Burton, is defending Stoney. Aileen Colhoun, head of crime at Magrath & Co, is defending Fuller.
Proceedings against Ian Maxwell will not be continued. Proceedings against Robert Bunn will not be continued in view of his continuing ill health.
Three of the counts allege conspiracy to defraud, contrary to common law, the banks Credit Suisse, Bayerische Vereinsbank AG and Swiss Volkesbank, in relation to shares in Berlitz International Incorporated.
Kevin Maxwell faces three counts, Trachtenberg two counts, with Fuller and Stoney facing one count.
Stoney also faces false accounting charges in counts 7 and 8, contrary to the Theft Act 1968.
The earliest possible trial date is thought to be October this year. No decision on prosecution counsel has yet been made, said the SFO.
