Oswals outlay $70m ahead of $2.5bn Burrup litigation

Pankaj and Radhika Oswal have spent close to $70m in legal fees ahead of their $1 billion lawsuit against the ANZ Bank.

Indian power couple Pankaj and Radhika Oswal have now spent close to $70 million in legal fees as their $1 billion lawsuit against the ANZ Bank starts today in the Supreme Court of Victoria.

The Dubai-based glamour couple, who are being chased for nearly $190m in alleged unpaid taxes, was ordered last week to give $1.8m to the court for security to the defence’s costs if they were to lose the case.

That is on top of Mr Oswal’s suggestion earlier this month that the couple had spent $65m on lawyers in the case against the ANZ and three other companies in relation to an alleged botched sale of a fertiliser plant in Western Australia.

In total, more than $100m has already been spent on lawyers before the mammoth case has begun, with the Oswals contributing nearly $6.5m to the ­defence team in case it loses.

It will be one of Australia’s biggest corporate cases, with about 50 barristers — including eight QCs — involved, with defence barrister Alan Archibald QC to come up against the Oswal’s prominent lawyer Alan Myers QC.

There will be 12 court days set aside for just the opening ­address. Esteemed judge Julie Dodds-Streeton, who was serving as a reserve judge after retiring from the Federal Court of Australia in 2014, was parachuted back to the Supreme Court to oversee the case. The stoush is over the 2011 sale of the Oswal’s $2.5bn Burrup Fertiliser plant, which was ­handled by PPB ­Advisory after ANZ appointed it as the receivers of the business.

The Oswals, who had borrowed more than $800m from ANZ, claim the receivers sold the plant for $800m below its value but just enough to repay ANZ’s debt.

The Oswals in turn are ­accused of misappropriating $150m from the fertiliser company for personal use.

The Australian can reveal that the ANZ Bank’s total losses in the case have the potential to exceed $2bn. The bank has agreed to cover the liabilities of other companies in the stoush, which may be an additional $1.5bn.

A spokesman for the ANZ yesterday would not comment on whether the bank has made provisions for potential losses, noting it was before the courts.

Ms Oswal is also suing ANZ for alleged bullying.

The couple, noted for an ­ostentatious style when they lived in Perth, will next week start a concurrent case in Sydney seeking to overturn an Australian Taxation Office ruling that they owe $190m in taxes.