LONDON, Jan 30 — The daughter of one of the founders of mining group ENRC has been found guilty of "wilfully” obstructing an investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery and corruption, the UK Serious Fraud Office (SFO) said today.

Anna Machkevitch is the only person charged to date in connection with the seven-year criminal inquiry into Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation (ENRC), but is not a suspect in the case.

Machkevitch, a director of London-based office administration services group ALM Services and the Machkevitch Foundation, was ordered to pay a fine of £800 (RM4,284), a victim’s surcharge of £181 pounds and the SFO’s full costs, the investigator and prosecutor said in a statement.

Colin Nott, a lawyer at Hallinan Blackburn Gittings & Nott who helped represent her in the London trial, said Machkevitch was disappointed and might appeal.

Machkevitch was charged in June for failing to produce documents relating to the ENRC investigation demanded by the SFO. Not complying with a "Section 2” request can carry a prison sentence of up to six months and an unlimited fine.

ENRC, co-founded by three billionaire Kazakh businessmen and the Kazakh government, delisted from London’s blue-chip index after the SFO opened a criminal investigation in 2013 over allegations of wrongdoing surrounding substantial acquisitions in Africa.

ENRC, which denies any wrongdoing, has levelled its own allegations of potential collusion and cover-up against the SFO. — Reuters