Vincent Tchenguiz

Vincent Tchenguiz
Born	1956 (age 57–58) Tehran, Iran
Residence	Kensington, London
Ethnicity	Persian Jewish
Citizenship	British
Alma mater	Boston University McGill University New York University
Occupation	Chairman of Consensus Business Group
Net worth	£850 million with brother[1]

Vincent Tchenguiz (born October 1956) is a Iranian-British entrepreneur born in Tehran, brother of Robert Tchenguiz.

Early life and education

Tchenguiz was born in Teheran to an Iraqi-Jewish family,^[2] the son of Victor and Violet Khadouri.^[3] His family left Iraq in 1948 and settled in Iran, where his father, a jeweler, worked for the Shah and ran the country's mint.^[3] He also changed the family surname from Khadouri to Tchenguiz. In 1979 the family moved in England after the Iranian revolution.^[3] He has one brother and one sister: Vincent Tchenguiz and Lisa Tchenguiz (formerly married to BBC Radio 1 disc jockey, Gary Davies,^[4] and South African-born Del Monte CEO, Vivian Imerman).^[5]

Tchenguiz completed his Iranian education in Tehran in 1973. He subsequently completed a business administration course at Boston University and then went on to earn a Bachelor of Science in Commerce and a Bachelor of Science Honours in Economics from Montreal’s McGill University in 1978. A master’s degree in business administration from New York University followed two years later.^[6]

Career

Upon completion of university, Vincent Tchenguiz took employment in London with Prudential Bache as senior vice president of their fund management division, where he traded financial instruments. In 1986, he went on to another senior vice president position, this time trading financial instruments for Shearson Lehman Brothers in London.^[6]

Two years later, he and brother Robert established a commercial property business, Rotch Property Group. Vincent Tchenguiz is joint managing director and joint chairman. In 2002, Vincent Tchenguiz set up Consensus Business Group, assuming the position of chairman. Consensus functions as the principal advisor to a family trust, advising on an investment portfolio of residential freeholds and commercial properties valued by Lazard in 2012 at approximately 3.0 billion pounds. Consensus also advises on other investments, including health care, clean technology, biotechnology, homeland security and holdings in funds valued at around 200 million pounds.^{[citation needed]}

On March 10, 2011, Vincent Tchenguiz was arrested by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) as part of a wider investigation into the collapse of Icelandic bank, Kaupthing. However, he was released the same day without charge.^[7]

Subsequently, on March 16, 2011 the High Court in London ruled that Vincent Tchenguiz could sue Icelandic bank, Kaupthing for damages of £1 billion ($1.6 billion).^[8] In September 2011, Kaupthing reached an out of court settlement with the Tchenguiz Family Trust in their pursuit of damages against the Icelandic bank.^[9] All details of the settlement remain confidential.

On 5 December 2011, Vincent Tchenguiz and other parties in the case wrote to SFO, outlining details of allegation against the government department and seeking damages of c.£100 million.^{[citation needed]}

On 22 December 2011, the SFO and the Treasury Solicitors Department (TSoI) admitted factual errors in the information used to obtain the warrants against Consensus Business Group and Vincent Tchenguiz; stated that the warrants should be quashed; and that material seized under the warrants would be returned that day. Furthermore, the SFO offered to pay reasonable legal costs.^{[citation needed]}

Vincent Tchenguiz said: “It beggars belief that the SFO has taken so long to realise the error of their ways and I do not regard their actions … as being of their own initiative – their hand has been forced by our legal actions. Whilst I am glad that they have conceded to pay the significant legal costs incurred – the damage their actions have caused, both financial and to my reputation, are far greater. I intend to pursue them through the civil courts for damages.” ^[10]

In December 2012 the Financial Times reported that the brothers are to seek up to £180m in damages from the SFO.^[11]

Vincent Tchenguiz is unmarried, resides in Mayfair, London, with additional homes in St. Tropez and Cape Town. He maintains a 130-foot Mangusta motor yacht on the French Riviera named “Veni Vidi Vici,” Latin for “I came, I saw, I conquered.”

See also

• List of investors in Bernard L. Madoff Securities

Notes