The case against the Bank of England brought by the liquidators of the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International officially ended today with the publication of a judge’s reasons for dismissing the case.

BCCI was closed by the Bank of England in 1991 after major frauds came to light. In 1993, the liquidators of BCCI announced their intention to sue the Bank and its staff alleging misfeasance in public office. This required the claimants to prove bad faith amounting to dishonesty on the part of the Bank and individual officials. In addition to alleging that they acted dishonestly in the period prior to the closure of BCCI in 1991, it was also alleged that they had been lying about their involvement in the BCCI story as part of a cover-up since 1991.

The trial started in the High Court in London in January 2004. But, BCCI’s liquidators unconditionally discontinued their action against the Bank of England and 22 of its present and former staff on November 2, 2005.

Ordinarily, when a plaintiff discontinues an action, no judgment is rendered, but this long-running, important case saw a judgment delivered this morning. In that decision, the judge in the case, Mr Justice Tomlinson, sets out the reasons why he exonerated all of the individuals involved, and the Bank. The publication of his formal judgment brings to an end the BCCI litigation, believed to be the longest and most expensive trial in the UK’s Commercial Court.

In his judgment Justice Tomlinson, refers to the case as “a farce”, and he says, “I warned the Lord Chief Justice that the case had the capacity to damage the reputation of our legal system.” The judge also refers to the “myriad hopeless inconsistencies and implausibilities in the liquidators’ case.”

“The judge’s words speak for themselves,” said Mervyn King, governor of the Bank of England. “It doesn’t need any further comment from me.”