Finance Minister Paula Cox has asked for the Supreme Court to wind up the controversial IPOC International Growth Fund and eight related companies.

In a written statement yesterday confirming the move, Ms Cox said that it was sometimes necessary to take legal action ?to address seeming breaches of our laws and apparent regulatory infractions?.

Some matters relating to the case have been passed on to the Bermuda Police Service for investigation.

A writ was filed last month by the Registrar of Companies against IPOC and related entities. The petition for a winding-up will be held in a closed hearing on April 27.

The legal action is the latest twist in the IPOC saga, which has sparked litigation in several countries amid claims that the Fund was a money-laundering vehicle.

In January last year, the Wall Street Journal revealed that the Fund had been set up on the Island in 2000 by a convicted fraudster.

It was alleged that it was effectively a holding company for around $1 billion in telecommunications assets transferred through a network of shell companies. The WSJ claimed the scandal went all the way up to the Russian IT and Communications Minister Leonid Reiman.

A Swiss tribunal in May last year, found that Mr. Reiman was the ?sole beneficial owner? of the Fund. The tribunal stated that the close ally of President Vladimir Putin had amassed great personal wealth in the IPOC Fund by taking advantage of his role in public office.

Puisne Judge Ian Kawaley later upheld the ruling in a related case in the Bermuda Supreme Court.

It was alleged in Zurich that money skimmed during the privatisation of the Russian telecommunications industry during the early 1990s was laundered through the Bermuda-based fund.

IPOC has consistently claimed that Danish lawyer Jeffrey Galmond is the Fund?s owner. Mr. Galmond did not respond to our call yesterday.

The scandal has dealt blows to Bermuda?s reputation as an offshore jurisdiction with its repeated appearances in the international press.

KPMG Advisory Services was commissioned by the Ministry of Finance in 2004 to carry out an investigation of IPOC. The findings were passed on to Government in June last year.

Ms Cox said yesterday: ?Bermuda is a premier jurisdiction of choice with a highly sophisticated financial infrastructure. However notwithstanding this, on occasion there are issues that result in legal action having to be taken to address seeming breaches of our laws and apparent regulatory infractions.

?We can confirm that a writ has been filed in the matter of IPOC Capital Partners Limited and in the matter of IPOC International Growth Fund. This is a matter that will be heard before the court and has been in the local and international press for some time.

?The issues are highly complex and a simplistic approach does a disservice to the complexity of the issues at stake.

?However, what is clear is the unwavering determination by the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of Bermuda to take action to protect the Island?s reputation as a leading financial centre.?

The KPMG report was the basis for the legal action, Ms Cox added.

?Following the examination of the inspector?s report, the Minister directed the Registrar of Companies to petition the court for a winding up of the company and the Ministry can confirm that a winding-up petition was filed on Friday, January 12, 2007.

?We are liasing on a number of cross-border cooperation issues and there are matters that the Ministry has referred to the Bermuda Police Service for investigation, in compliance with various international protocols for cooperation in such matters.

?Given the issues that there are before the courts in a number of other jurisdictions and the number of regulatory and other agencies involved, no further comment will be made at this time.?

The writ has been filed against IPOC Capital Partners Ltd and in the matter of IPOC International Growth Fund Ltd., Gamma Capital Fund Ltd., Convergence Capital Ltd., Com Tel Eastern Ltd., First National Telecommunication Fund Ltd., Convergence Capital Management Ltd., Augmentation Investments Ltd. and Telco Overseas Ltd.

Most of the previous litigation surrounding the Bermuda fund was sparked by a dispute between IPOC and and LV Finance Group. The three-year legal battle has been fought over a 25 per cent stake in Megafon, Russia?s third largest mobile operator.

Alfa Group bought LV?s stake in Megafon in 2003, but IPOC claims it signed option agreements to obtain those same stocks back in 2001.

The dispute has sparked lawsuits in the Bahamas, the British Virgin Islands, Russia and Switzerland.

The BMA declassified the fund as a Bermuda-registered mutual fund in December last year, just one day after IPOC paid for a half-page advertisement in that declared restated an announcement by the Office of the Russian Federation?s Prosecutor General that IPOC has no case to answer in connection with fraud allegations made against it.