Fort Hood shootings: 'escalating argument' preceded attack

Lt Gen Mark Milley address news media at Fort Hood military base near Killeen, Texas. Photograph: Ashley Landis/EPA

The senior officer at Fort Hood said Friday an “escalating argument” with fellow soldiers preceded a shooting rampage in which a soldier fatally shot three people and wounded 16 others before killing himself this week.

Lt Gen Mark Milley said investigators believe Spc Ivan Lopez’s mental condition was not a "direct precipitating factor" in the shooting, a day after officials said it appeared to be an underlying factor in the attack.

Also Friday, Lopez's father said his son had struggled with the recent deaths of his mother and grandfather and the stress of being transferred to a new base.

Lopez's father, who shares the same name, said his son was receiving medical treatment but was a peaceful family man and a hard worker.

"This is very painful for me," the elder Lopez said in the statement from his native Puerto Rico, calling for prayers for the dead and the 16 people who were wounded in the shooting rampage. "My son could not have been in his right mind. He was not like that."

As investigators continued to examine how and why the soldier brought a gun on to the Texas base and began a shooting spree that injured 16 others, details emerged of the victims.

On Friday, the army identified them as: 39-year-old Daniel Ferguson, of Mulberry, Florida; 38-year-old Carlos Lazaney Rodriguez, of Puerto Rico; and 37-year-old Timothy Owens, of Effingham, Illinois.

Sergeant 1st Class Daniel Ferguson was from a small Florida town near Tampa. He had just returned from Afghanistan, WTSP News reported. Ferguson's fiancee, Kristen Haley, is also a soldier stationed at Fort Hood and was nearby when the incident started. She said that he used his body to keep a door closed so that Ivan Lopez could not enter.

"If he was not being the one against that door holding it, that shooter would have been able to get through and shoot everyone else," she told the station.

Sergeant Timothy Owens, 37, was originally from Illinois and later lived in Missouri. The father of two teenage children, he had recently remarried and was working as a counsellor. His mother, Mary Muntean, told the Associated Press that he dropped out of high school in 1995 and joined the army in 2004.

She said she was still celebrating a recent reunion with a daughter she gave up for adoption at birth when she saw the news on television and was unable to reach her son. She took phone calls from his wife, telling her first that he had been shot and was in hospital and then that he had died from a chest wound.

"She said, 'Mom, I want to tell you how sorry I am. Tim's gone.' I broke down. I'm 77 years old and I can't hardly take this," Muntean said.

Sergeant Carlos Lazaney Rodriguez was planning to retire from the military soon, according to CNN. The 38-year-old reportedly had family in Puerto Rico and Florida and had served in the armed forces for 20 years. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that Rodriguez spent time as a supply sergeant at a barracks in Hawaii before leaving for Fort Hood in 2011.

"He was the epitome of what you would want a leader to be in the army," Joshua Adams, who served in the same company as Rodriguez, told the newspaper. "He has always taken care of soldiers. He survived all these deployments, just to come back … It's super unfortunate."

Investigators have said Lopez was undergoing treatment for mental problems including depression, anxiety and insomnia and was being assessed to determine whether he had post-traumatic stress disorder. They said he was taking medication and had undergone a full psychiatric evaluation last month which did not indicate any likelihood of violent behaviour.

Lopez, a married 34-year-old from Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, lived in an apartment near the base with his family. US army records show he entered active service in June 2008, and spent time in Egypt and Iraq. He received several awards and decorations and arrived at Fort Hood last February from another Texas base, Fort Bliss.

His mother reportedly died suddenly last November. A family spokesman said Thursday that Lopez was upset that he was granted only a 24-hour leave to attend his mother's funeral in November. That leave was then extended to two days.

The Lopez family said in their statement on Friday that "recent changes when transferring to the base surely affected his existing condition because of his experiences as a soldier." Ivan Lopez said his son "must not have been in his right mind" and asked for prayers "for the affected families".

Lopez died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head after he was confronted in a parking lot on the base by a military police officer.

Security protocols were reviewed after the base was the scene of another mass shooting in 2009 that killed 13 people and wounded more than 30. However, Milley said that Fort Hood is so large that it is not feasible to conduct detailed searches of everyone who enters.

Lopez bought the semi-automatic handgun used in the attack a month earlier from a local store called Guns Galore. Nidal Hasan, the shooter in the 2009 rampage, also bought his FN 5.7 tactical pistol at Guns Galore.

Soldiers are not allowed to bring unregistered personal weapons on to the installation.

The nearby Scott & White Memorial Hospital said on Friday that it is continuing to treat four of the victims and that the most-seriously injured patients are showing signs of improvement. "One patient is in good condition and will most likely be discharged today. The three patients previously listed in critical condition have been upgraded to fair condition and are expected to remain in the hospital for the next several days. Five patients have been discharged from the hospital," it said in a statement.

Drone killings case thrown out in US

Anwar al-Awlaki, a US citizen, was killed in an American drone strike in Yemen. Photograph: AP

A US federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed against the government by the families of three American citizens killed by drones in Yemen, saying senior officials cannot be held personally responsible for money damages for the act of conducting war.

The families of the three – including Anwar al-Awlaki, a New Mexico-born militant Muslim cleric who had joined al-Qaida's Yemen affiliate, as well as his teenage son – sued over their 2011 deaths in US drone strikes, arguing that the killings were illegal.

Judge Rosemary Collyer of the US district court in Washington threw out the case, which had named as defendants the former defence secretary and CIA chief Leon Panetta, the former senior military commander and CIA chief David Petraeus and two other top military commanders.

"The question presented is whether federal officials can be held personally liable for their roles in drone strikes abroad that target and kill U.S. citizens," Collyer said in her opinion. "The question raises fundamental issues regarding constitutional principles and it is not easy to answer."

But the judge said she would grant the government's motion to dismiss the case.

Collyer said the officials named as defendants "must be trusted and expected to act in accordance with the US constitution when they intentionally target a US citizen abroad at the direction of the president and with the concurrence of Congress. They cannot be held personally responsible in monetary damages for conducting war."

Awlaki's US-born son Abdulrahman al-Awlaki was 16 years old when he was killed. Also killed was Samir Khan, a naturalised US citizen who had moved to Yemen in 2009 and worked on Inspire, an English-language al-Qaida magazine.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Centre for Constitutional Rights, both based in New York, represented the families. They had argued that in killing American citizens the government violated fundamental rights under the US constitution to due process and to be free from unreasonable seizure.

"This is a deeply troubling decision that treats the government's allegations as proof while refusing to allow those allegations to be tested in court," said ACLU lawyer Hina Shamsi. "The court's view that it cannot provide a remedy for extrajudicial killings when the government claims to be at war, even far from any battlefield, is profoundly at odds with the Constitution."

Centre for Constitutional Rights lawyer Maria LaHood said the judge "effectively convicted" Anwar al-Awlaki "posthumously based solely on the government's say-so". LaHood said the judge also found that the constitutional rights of the son and of Khan "weren't violated because the government didn't target them".

"It seems there's no remedy if the government intended to kill you, and no remedy if it didn't. This decision is a true travesty of justice for our constitutional democracy and for all victims of the US government's unlawful killings," LaHood said.

Collyer ruled that the families did not have a claim under the Constitution's fourth amendment guarantee against unreasonable seizures because the government did not seize or restrain the three who were killed. "Unmanned drones are functionally incapable of 'seizing' a person; they are designed to kill, not capture," she wrote.

Collyer wrote that the families had presented a plausible claim that the government violated Awlaki's due process rights. "Nonetheless the court finds no available remedy under US law for this claim," the judge wrote.

"In this delicate area of war making national security and foreign relations the judiciary has an exceedingly limited role."

Allowing claims against individual federal officials in this case "would impermissibly draw the court into the heart of executive and military planning and deliberation", she wrote. It would "require the court to examine national security policy and the military chain of command as well as operational combat decisions".

Nasser al-Awlaki, father of Anwar al-Awlaki, said he was disappointed in the American justice system and "like any parent or grandparent would, I want answers from the government when it decides to take life, but all I have got so far is secrecy and a refusal even to explain".

Drone attacks have killed several suspected figures in al-Qaida's Yemen-based affiliate including Awlaki, who is accused of orchestrating plots to bomb a Detroit-bound airliner in 2009 and US cargo planes in 2010.

The United States has faced international criticism for its use of drones to attack militants in places such as Pakistan and Yemen. A UN human rights watchdog in March called on the Obama administration to limit its use of drones targeting suspected al-Qaida and Taliban militants.

Barack Obama's administration increased the number of drone strikes after he took office in 2009 but attacks have dropped off in the past year. The US has come under pressure from critics to rein in the missile strikes and do more to protect civilians.

Cuba beats US 5-0 in first boxing bout on Cuban soil in 27 years

Although political tensions between the US and Cuba remain, cultural and athletic exchanges have become increasingly common. Photo: Ramon Espinosa /AP

On Friday night, boxers from the US and Cuba went glove-to-glove on Cuban soil for the first time in 27 years, in a semiprofessional World Series of Boxing meeting that in many ways resembled a big-time Las Vegas bout.

Cuba won the bouts 5-0, with one knockout and four technical decisions. Friday's matches were the first of a home-and-away series between the Knockouts, from the US, and the Wranglers of Cuba. The winner of the series goes on to face Ukraine or Russia – two other countries which have been subject to political tensions recently – on 25 April and 2 May for a ticket to the finals.

The US leg was originally set for 28 March in South Florida, the cradle of the Cuban exile community, but it was postponed days before the bouts were to take place. It was rescheduled for 12 April in Salem, New Hampshire, the Cuban Federation of Boxing says.

Although political tensions between the US and Cuba remain – this week seeing controversy over a “Cuban Twitter” company, ZunZuneo, that was run by the US government, reportedly in an attempt to foment political opposition to the island's communist government – cultural and athletic exchanges have become increasingly common.

Sixteen years after a regular baseball series between Cuba and the USA was called off, a team of American collegian all-stars visited the island in 2012. The Cubans reciprocated the following year. In boxing, Cuba and the USA met each year from 1977 to 1995, though the last time they did so on the island was in 1987. Cuba won every time except in 1991, when a squad featuring a teenage Oscar de la Hoya managed a 6-6 tie in Fort Bragg, California.

On Friday night, after a reggaeton duo got the crowd revved up, boxers entered Havana's Sport City arena through the haze of smoke machines and flashing lights. In between the action, models circled the ring holding up round cards as huge flat-screen displays showed replays of crunching jabs and uppercuts.

"I am prepared for a tough match and I want a tough match," Mohamed Salah, a welterweight who fights for the USA Knockouts, said at the weigh-in before the bout. "That's why I am here, and I am excited to be here … I'm a real boxer."

Cuba's entry into the 12-team international semipro league last year marked a major departure from more than 50 years during which professional sports were banned on the island. As recently as 2005, Fidel Castro railed against the "parasites that feed off the athlete's hard work" when money is involved with sports.

But since younger brother Raúl Castro took over the presidency, Cuba has not only joined the World Series of Boxing but announced that athletes from other sports will be allowed to sign contracts to compete overseas – as long as they fulfill their duties to national teams.

"We know it is a traditional clash that always recalls connotations that can be bigger than sports," two-time world lightweight champ Cuban Lazaro Alvarez told the online magazine OnCuba recently. "Against the United States one always enjoys a win more and suffers a defeat more. But in my experience, until now, we have always beaten them."

Several hundred spectators turned out to cheer on the home team even though Havana's baseball club was playing the same night for a chance in the playoff finals.

Despite being based in the United States, the Knockouts boxing squad that came to Cuba had a distinctly international flavour. Two of the five pugilists are originally from Venezuela, and there was one each from Brazil and Sweden. Cuba, an island of some 11 million inhabitants, has a rich boxing tradition.

World Series of Boxing fighters compete for sponsored teams and do not wear headgear during bouts, unlike amateur competition. They earn about $1,000 to $3,000 a month – which would be a big raise for the Cubans, though how much the Wranglers make has not explicitly been made public.

"It's exciting for everyone to have a direct clash with the United States, known for its sporting strength and traditional quality in boxing," said Rolando Acebal, the Cuban coach. "Everyone wants to have their best performance and put on a good show."

EasyJet's Luton deal set to boost jobs and passenger numbers

An easyJet plane landing at Luton airport. Easyjet has 15 aircraft based at the site, its second largest base in the London area, and employs 1,600 staff locally. Photograph: ATM / Barcroft Media

Low-cost airline easyJet has secured a 10-year deal with Luton airport which could see it more than double passenger numbers at the site from 4 million to 9 million a year.

It said the expansion would also lead to the creation of 2,500 jobs at the airport and in the surrounding region.

But the chief executive, Carolyn McCall, said the pace of the growth depended on site improvements being approved, adding that Luton could make a "real and immediate" contribution to the need for more airport capacity.

EasyJet has 15 aircraft based at Luton, its second largest base in the London area, and employs 1,600 staff locally.

It said it planned to increase capacity by 20% over the next year by adding new business and leisure routes and increasing the frequency of flights on some of its 39 routes.

McCall said: "This is a substantial, long-term deal with London Luton airport – our first base and the airline's home – which will enable us to double our size at London Luton in the next decade and add an even greater range of business and leisure destinations."

Last week the airline signed a deal with Gatwick airport, which will give it certainty over user charges for the next seven years. The plan is for easyJet, which already flies 45% of the passengers from Gatwick, to be housed entirely in the larger north terminal, where it will become the dominant operator.

EasyJet revealed last week that it was set for a smaller-than-expected loss over winter, after it benefited from improved revenue trends and benign weather.

Manufacturing surveys show mixed outlook for UK and eurozone

Chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne peaks with with works manager Richard O'Neil (R) during a visit to Tata Steel in Port Talbot, Wales. Photograph: Matthew Horwood/AFP/Getty Images

There are renewed hopes that the eurozone economy picked up steam as it entered 2014 after a return to growth for France's manufacturers and a surge in activity at Spanish and Italian factories.

The news from a batch of closely watched manufacturing surveys by data specialists Markit was less upbeat for the UK, however, with growth there slowing to an eight-month low and missing forecasts in the City.

For the eurozone as a whole there was a slight loss of momentum for manufacturing last month. The headline measure on the Markit Eurozone Manufacturing PMI eased to a three-month low of 53.0 from 53.2 in February, confirming an earlier "flash" estimate in a shorter release. But over the first quarter of the year, growth was the fastest for almost three years.

"This suggests that eurozone GDP growth in the first quarter has a very decent chance of exceeding the 0.3% quarter-on-quarter rate achieved in the in the fourth quarter of 2013," said Howard Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight.

Within the region there was mixed news at country level. French manufacturing activity expanded for the first time since July 2011 with the activity reading at 52.1 from 49.7 in February. A level above 50 denotes expansion in the surveys, which are based on interviews with purchasing managers.

In Spain, manufacturers enjoyed the strongest growth for four years and in Ireland activity accelerated to a 35-month high. But there were slowdowns in Germany, the Netherlands and Austria.

The report also fanned fears over deflation in the eurozone, as the prices of raw materials and finished goods dropped.

In the UK, the pound fell against the dollar as the PMI report came in much weaker than expected and showed manufacturers' costs falling. Inflation for the goods leaving factories – or output prices – eased to a seven-month low. That news of benign pipeline pressures on consumer price inflation in the UK bolstered expectations the Bank of England will be in no hurry to raise interest rates.

The headline reading on the UK report came in at 55.3, down from 56.2 in February. That still showed expansion but was below even the weakest forecast from a Reuters poll of economists, where the consensus was 56.7.

Rob Dobson, senior economist at the survey compilers Markit, said the headline reading should be taken in the context of the "super- strong, near-record growth rates seen in the second half of last year".

"Growth is merely hot rather than scorching, and the take home messages from the March survey are that the recovery remains solid and continues to drive strong job creation," he said.

The survey signalled manufacturing employment rose for the 11th consecutive month in March but export orders grew at the slowest pace for 10 months.

The thinktank Capital Economics, said that slowdown suggested UK exporters may finally be feeling the effects of the strong pound. But overall the sector would enjoy "healthy" growth of around 3% this year, it predicts.

"With consumers' real incomes set to increase this year, and firms signalling they intend to invest more, demand for manufactured products should build over the course of the year," said the thinktank's economists Paul Hollingsworth and Samuel Tombs.

Royals' car seat request for Prince George doesn't sit well in Wellington

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge requested that George be transported in a forward-facing car seat during the tour. Photograph: John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images

Prince George headed off on his first official overseas tour and, as is the nature of such tours, was due to fly straight into controversy.

As the eight-month-old, and his parents the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, were set to land in Wellington, New Zealand, a royal row was being whipped up over his official car seat.

Usual tensions accompanying royal visits "Down Under" can include a light fanning of the republican embers, or demands for official apologies for the actions of forebears a century or so previously.

And, while the royal couple may be well briefed on how to deal with such sensitive matters, it is unlikely they gave a second thought to their request for a forward-facing child seat.

However, Plunket, a charity providing support to parents with young children, and which obliged the royal request by providing and fitting such seat, has found itself accused of fawning hypocrisy, as its own guidelines recommend a rear-facing seat for infants under two years, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Plunket is due to play host at a coffee morning in Wellington to the first of two planned appearances by George during the 19-day tour of New Zealand and Australia, which some 450 members of the international media will cover.

William, 31, and Kate, 32, have designed the tour around their first-born's needs, adopting a "hub and spoke" approach which means they will base themselves in three locations – Wellington, Sydney and Canberra.

The couple and their entourage, which includes a nanny, were travelling by scheduled flight to Sydney, then transferring to a New Zealand Royal Airforce plane onwards to Wellington.

As George is, reportedly, "teething madly" and learning to crawl, it could be an eventful journey. It is the duchess's first visit to either country. Announcing details last month, William's private secretary Miguel Head, said: "The duke has no doubt that his wife will fall in love with New Zealand and Australia every bit as much as he did some years ago

Kaupthing creditors fear Investec intends to walk away from £150m debt

The remaining assets in Robert ­Tchenguiz's trust are estimated to be worth about £30m. Kaupthing is owed £180m. Photograph: Bob Strong/Reuters

Investec, the FTSE 250 banking and asset management group, is preparing to walk away from a debt of about £150m owed by one of its offshore businesses, according to those chasing the money on behalf of creditors to the failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing.

The debt, equivalent to almost 40% of the Anglo-South African group's profits for 2013, is an unintended legacy of Investec's administration of a hugely complex offshore trust on behalf of Robert Tchenguiz, one of London's most active corporate raiders before the 2008 banking crisis.

At its peak, the Investec-administered trust sat on top of a business empire that had heavily debt-financed interests in Sainsbury's, Mitchells & Butlers, Somerfield, Welcome Break and an extensive property portfolio – as well as homes, offices and yachts used by Tchenguiz. It had borrowings of £4bn.

The banking crisis saw many of Tchenguiz's investments come crashing down as the banks seized trust assets. Although it was not until last December that receivers were officially appointed over the trust, it has long been accepted that the Kaupthing claim, if successful, left Tchenguiz's empire horribly insolvent.

In January a court in the Channel Islands found that an Investec subsidiary, Investec Trust Guernsey (ITG), must be held liable for some of the borrowings Tchenguiz had taken on, through his trust, to finance investments. Investec is appealing against the judgment.

With remaining assets in the trust – Tchenguiz's home, his office in Mayfair and several other properties – estimated by creditors to be worth about £30m, the shortfall on the £180m owing to Kaupthing is likely to be enormous.

Tchenguiz is not personally liable for the shortfall. He is appealing against the Guernsey court's decision affirming Kaupthing's claim over trust assets.

ITG had been at the heart of Investec's offshore trust business for many years, targeting Europe's super-rich. But in 2010, Investec effectively wound down ITG to a shell company, with trust administrating functions shifting to offices in Jersey. Last November, the group's entire offshore trust operations, with offices in Switzerland, South Africa, Mauritius and Jersey, was sold.

Those acting for Kaupthing fear that, should ITG's appeal fail, then Investec will not honour the debt owed to Kaupthing creditors. ITG will be allowed to go bust.

Last December, this possibility was raised in court by the judge, lieutenant bailiff Sir John Chadwick. Addressing lawyers acting for Kaupthing creditors' interests, he said: "Your problem at the moment is that if the parent company … of ITG says: 'We are going to walk away from this. We are not going to support our subsidiary', you are left with a very personal judgment against somebody who is virtually worthless."

Lawyers for Kaupthing pointed to evidence submitted by Investec, insisting it showed: "That is exactly what the parent is saying, of course."

The Guardian put the allegation to Investec that it is planning to walk away from the ITG liability. In response, it would only stress that it is appealing against the Guernsey court's decision. It did, however, reiterate a statement from its annual report: "Investec does not expect the ultimate resolution of the proceedings to have a material adverse effect on the financial position of the group."

It is not the first time Investec has clashed with receivers acting for Kaupthing. In late 2008, shortly after the Icelandic bank began rapidly calling in loans to Tchenguiz trust companies and liquidating assets, Investec trustees wrote to Reykjavik revealing that they had removed some of the remaining collateral assets – interests in Somerfield and Welcome Break – from Kaupthing's grasp.

These interests, trustees said, would be frozen, and courts in the British Virgin Islands invited to determine who had a rightful claim over them.

Receivers were furious, and accused Investec of fraud. Investec trustees, meanwhile, insisted such allegations were "scandalous and vexatious", and that the assets rightfully belonged with the trust.

Some 18 months later, Investec trustees decided to settle with Kaupthing. Frozen assets were released and Kaupthing's allegation of fraud dropped. Less than two weeks later, Tchenguiz – who at the time was pursuing a claim, since dropped, for "fraudulent misrepresentation" against Kaupthing – removed Investec as trustees.

Anatomy of a non-dom's £4bn offshore trust

Legal rows over what little remains of fallen investment tycoon Robert Tchenguiz's trust empire – which at its peak had about £4bn of borrowings – offer a rare glimpse into the secret world of offshore wealth.

The trust finally fell into the hands of receivers last December, having already surrendered most of its assets to a handful of banks, including Royal Bank of Scotland and Lloyds Banking Group.

Refusing to accept defeat, however, Tchenguiz, a UK "non-dom" for tax purposes, continues to fight for the remaining assets, battling against the trust's last – and largest – creditor Kaupthing, the Icelandic bank that had pumped more than £1.6bn of loans into his empire before itself crashing into insolvency in the 2008 banking crisis.

While almost all of the trust's underlying investments were in UK assets, diagrams mapping out the full corporate structure reveal a bewildering labyrinth of offshore companies, many based in the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean.

At the top of the structure was Investec Trust Guernsey (ITG), operating out of offices up a back street in St Peter Port, the island's harbour town capital. Court papers show that two trusts associated respectively with Tchenguiz and his brother – each containing billions of pounds of assets – were administered by a team of just 20 Investec staff.

Although ultimate responsibility for trust affairs lay with this team, it is clear significant power was exercised by Robert Tchenguiz and a handful of his chief lieutenants, leaving Investec trustees often feeling they were struggling to keep up.

Relations between trustees and the Tchenguiz inner circle, were described to the court by one Investec manager as "good in general … [but] far from perfect".

Not only was the investment tycoon, together with his family, a trust beneficiary; he was also the director of R20, a business that advised the trustees on investments and financing. Furthermore, as trust protector, Tchenguiz was also responsible for directing and monitoring the role of his trustees – and sacking them if need be.

Of concern to Investec was the extent to which Tchenguiz and his lieutenants were too busy brokering deals and not always keeping the trust in the loop. "Most of all, R20 were not forthcoming in providing information," one manager told the Guernsey court. She herself had stepped up to lead interactions in the second half of 2007 after a colleague went on maternity leave.

"Although … [there was never] any particular concern, I nevertheless took the view that I should go to R20 to try to obtain the information myself, because it was very much the case with R20 that you would not receive anything if you did not persistently ask for it," she explained. "As time passed, R20 would get a bit better at giving us information, but I still felt they were holding information back, even after the consultancy agreement was in place.

"R20 also did not always seem to appreciate the need to keep [Investec] informed about their activities. I got the feeling that sometimes things could happen which we did not know about and would not know about unless R20 needed us to do something which they could not."

At the height of Tchenguiz's powers in 2007, his trust had taken major stakes in Sainsbury's and Britain's largest pub operator Mitchells & Butlers and was threatening to force a takeover at both businesses.

The trust had also taken an interest Somerfield (now part of the Co-op), Phase Eight, House of Fraser, Welcome Break, video games group Eidos, Slug & Lettuce, Yates, La Tasca, Menzies Hotels, Finnish insurer Sampo and Icelandic investment group Exista.

Extensive property assets include the Farnborough head office of BAE Systems, 15 LA Fitness gyms and hundreds of tenanted pubs.

Then there is Tchenguiz's Mayfair office, Leconfield House, the former headquarters of MI5, from which R20 operated. It too was owned by the trust, as was the tycoon's yacht My Little Violet and its unfinished successor, the 75-metre M25.

Tchenguiz's home, the former Royal College of Organists, next to the Albert Hall in London, also belongs to the trust, and is one of a shrinking number of remaining assets. It too will be sold off to help repay debts owing to Kaupthing if an appeal against the Guernsey judgment fails later this year.