A jury in Britain has been sworn in for the trial of a 1980s tycoon whose spectacular downfall made his company a byword for the financial freewheeling in the Margaret Thatcher era.
Four women and eight men will appear at London’s Central Criminal Court on Monday for the trial of Asil Nadir, the 70-year-old tycoon whose Polly Peck business empire collapsed under a mountain of debt in 1990.
Nadir was charged with fraud but skipped the country in 1993 and has spent much of the past two decades as a fugitive from British justice. He returned from northern Cyprus in August 2010. He denies any wrongdoing.
The case is expected to last at least four months.