Judge dismisses libel claim against Burgis and HarperCollins over Kleptopia book

The High Court has dismissed a libel claim against author Tom Burgis and publisher HarperCollins, brought by Kazakh-based mining giant Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), over allegations made in the 2020 book Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World (William Collins).   

Burgis’ book details the birth of kleptocracy and the links between dirty money and the UK. Lawyers for ENRC argued that parts of two chapters of the book would be understood by an ordinary reader as claiming the corporation had three men murdered to protect its business interests, or there was a reasonable grounds for suspicion. 

However, at a preliminary hearing in the case, Mr Justice Nicklin ruled that those parts of the book did not refer to the corporation, and dismissed the claim. He said: “Only individuals can carry out acts of murder or poisoning, only individuals can be motivated to do so to protect their business interests." 

ENRC must pay both sides’ costs and was denied leave to appeal.  

Burgis said: “Thanks to my courageous sources, I wrote a book about what I believe is the greatest threat to freedom today: the rise of kleptocracy. I’m delighted that this attempt to censor Kleptopia has failed.” 

A spokesperson for HarperCollins said the publisher was “delighted that this egregious case of lawfare has been dismissed.” 

They told The Bookseller: “HarperCollins is committed to publishing high quality investigative non-fiction and to defending our authors in the face of legal attacks from those who would seek to use the UK courts to silence them.  

“It is grossly unfair that yet again HarperCollins and our author have had to risk substantial legal costs and personal liability defending public interest journalism. This threat came from a company which the judge correctly described as ’a legal device’, which shamelessly claimed that it, not the oligarchs named in the book as the people who had secrets to protect, had been libelled.” 

Burgis’ case was one of several recent libel lawsuits, known as strategic litigation against public participation (or SLAPPs), to face journalists in UK courts. Last year HarperCollins and author Catherine Belton faced various lawsuits from Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosneft and three Russian billionaires, including Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, over the book Putin’s People (William Collins).