Billionaire Iskandar Safa and his shipbuilding firm will be left to face what his lawyer called the “burden of trial” after UBS Group AG’s last-minute settlement with Mozambique’s government in the $1.5 billion tuna bonds scandal.
Judge Robin Knowles said the opening arguments in the trial, which was slated to start on Monday, can tentatively be scheduled to begin October 16. The court’s order came after the lawyer for Safa and his firm Privinvest Shipbuilding Holding said they will have to take over the lead in defending against Mozambique’s case from the lawyers for Credit Suisse, which was bought by UBS in June.
The settlement means Safa and Privinvest are left to pick up the “mess created by settling parties at their chosen time,” Duncan Matthews said in court on Monday. Matthews said he needs more time to consider both the settlement’s impact on the trial’s time line and the remaining amounts of the claim, as he opposed Mozambique’s suggestion to start the trial from Wednesday.
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