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Business week in review

Saturday 20 October 2012 15:00 BST
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In profit...

Robert Tchenguiz, one half of the ostentatious property tycoon brothers, saw the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) embarrassingly scrap its investigation into failed Icelandic bank Kaupthing on Monday.

The SFO said it had "insufficient evidence to justify" any further investigation into Robert, just four months after abandoning its case against elder sibling Vincent.

Robert, a major bank shareholder through Exista, an investment vehicle, said he realised "the SFO has an important role to play in investigations of this nature".

However, such a consideration doesn't look like stopping him from joining Vincent in a £100m compensation claim. That should buy a few bottles of champers.

One man who can afford a round is Henrique de Castro. No, he isn't a Seventies singer-cum-lothario, but the new chief operating officer of Yahoo. He was lured to join from Google on Monday by $58m (£36m) in pay and shares over four years.

Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester was all smiles on Thursday, as his bank left the Asset Protection Scheme, the Government-backed insurance scheme to cover toxic assets.

...at a loss

Party animal, financier, and mining entrepreneur Nat Rothschild bared his teeth on Monday, abruptly quitting the board of Bumi, the mining venture he established to such great fanfare.

He accused Bumi's chairman, Samin Tan, of being "complicit" in the "oppression" of some shareholders. This is the result of a long-running feud with Indonesia's Bakrie family, who put some of their coal assets into a London shell, Vallar, last year, to create Bumi. All very complicated and nasty, particularly as the deal was the brainchild of Rosthschid.

One of India's corporate success stories, the high-flying career of Vikram Pandit, crashed down to earth on Tuesday.

Investors were shocked to hear that a boardroom row ended in Pandit's resignation from Citi, the US bank he led for more than five years. Michael O'Neill, who became chairman in April, is said to have clashed with Pandit over management styles.

We take little joy in the plight of bankers, but Wednesday saw Bank of America boss Brian Moynihan announce a net income of $340m (£212m) for July to September – 95 per cent down on last year.

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