Cases

Loutchansky v Times Newspapers Ltd and others (No. 8)

Facts

The Claimant sued on two Times articles alleging that he was a mafia boss linked to money-laundering whose company, Nordex, was associated with Russian criminal activity and the smuggling of nuclear weapons. The Defendants did not justify but pleaded Reynolds qualified privilege. That defence failed, both in April 2001 and (after a successful appeal) when the case was remitted to Gray J for reconsideration in November 2002. The Defendants had come into possession of information (particularly a report prepared by the Italian public prosecutor's office) which for the first time enabled them to advance a defence of justification, and now sought to justify the meanings that the Claimant had been involved, through companies owned or controlled by him, in the criminal laundering of money, or that by his conduct he had given reasonable cause to suspect him of criminal money laundering.

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