The Bermuda-based Ipoc International Growth Fund will today face charges of perverting the course of justice and furnishing false information in a British Virgin Islands (BVI) court.

Inspector Jefferson Knight, of the Royal Virgin Islands Police Force, told this newspaper that the hearing would be in the BVI's Magistrates' Court this afternoon.

Both Insp. Knight and the clerk of the Magistrates' Court in the BVI capital Road Town, said they could provide no further information.

It emerged in an application to collect evidence filed with a US court last November that the BVI was preparing criminal charges against Ipoc and was seeking to confiscate some $40 million from the Fund.

That document showed that "preliminary charges" of perverting the course of justice were being prepared against Jeffrey Galmond, a Danish lawyer who has claimed to be the beneficial owner of the Fund, and Michael Ludwig Rudolf North, a German banker who has served as president and a director of Ipoc. The British Overseas Territory was preparing similar charges against BVI-domiciled entities Lapal Limited, Albany Invest Limited, and Mercury Import Limited.

The November document, which was filed with the US District Court of Delaware, also showed the BVI was preparing four counts of "acquisition, possession or use of the proceeds of criminal conduct" against Ipoc. This newspaper was unable to verify whether the BVI intended to press those charges today or at any later date.

The case is the latest twist in the long-running Ipoc saga, which has been hitting headlines around the world for the past five years.

Litigation going through the courts of Bermuda, the BVI and Switzerland have resulted in claims that the fund is a money-laundering vehicle for the Russian Telecommunications Minister Leonid Reiman. Mr. Reiman has denied that he is the principal beneficiary of the Fund.

Last year, the Bermuda Government had asked the Supreme Court to wind up Ipoc. Finance Minister Paula Cox explained that sometimes it was necessary "to address seeming breaches of our laws and apparent regulatory infractions". The wind-up has yet to be completed.

Much of the litigation related to a long-running dispute over the ownership of a 25.1-percent stake in Russian telecommunications giant Megafon. Ipoc claimed that BVI-domiciled LV Finance had gone back on an agreement to sell the stake and Leonid Rozhetskin, a Russian-born American businessman who was the co-founder of LV Finance, was at the centre of the legal battle. A 41-year-old Russian-born, American businessman, Mr. Rozhetskin went missing on March 16 this year from his villa in Latvia. Police confirmed that traces of blood found in the house in the resort town of Jurmala, were that of Mr. Rozhetskin.