Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), a mining group of Kazakh origin, and the UK's Serious Fraud Office (SFO) have settled a long-running dispute out of court, infohub.kz reports.

The parties kept the financial terms of the deal confidential. As a result, the exact sum ENRC will receive has not been disclosed, although the company's initial claim exceeded $290 million.

The dispute followed an SFO criminal investigation into ENRC that lasted from 2013 to 2023. The UK agency examined suspicions of corruption and possible bribes linked to the company's mining assets in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and other countries.

The investigation ended without charges. The SFO closed the case, citing a lack of admissible evidence. ENRC denied all corruption allegations.

The company subsequently filed civil lawsuits against the SFO and its former legal adviser, the firm Dechert, claiming losses caused by their actions.

In 2023, the High Court of England and Wales found violations by the SFO, including obtaining unauthorized information through interactions with ENRC's former lawyer.

In March 2026, the UK Supreme Court refused to allow the SFO and Dechert to appeal further. After that, ENRC could continue seeking compensation, with claims exceeding $290 million.

The case did not reach a public decision on the amount of damages — the parties reached a settlement. In addition to ENRC and the SFO, Dechert and former law firm partner David Neil Gerrard were also parties to it.

The exact sum ENRC will receive has not been disclosed. In the SFO's annual report for the 2025/26 financial year, about €15 million was set aside for legal costs related to the ENRC case. The agency previously said that by January 2025, costs for the civil litigation had already exceeded €21.1 million.

The SFO confirmed the settlement and said the current agency is substantially different from the structure that conducted the ENRC investigation.

ENRC is a mining group of Kazakh origin whose holding company was registered in the UK. In 2013, ENRC was acquired by Eurasian Resources Group (ERG) and ceased to exist as a separate public company. ERG's shareholders are Samruk-Kazyna JSC (40% of shares), Shakhmarat Mutalip — 39.3%, and the heirs of Alijan Ibragimov — 20.7%.