The former chief executive of Powerscreen International, Mr Shay McKeown, has applied to have the case being taken against him by Britain's Serious Fraud Office dismissed in the UK.
Legal representatives acting on behalf of Mr McKeown yesterday made an application at Bristol Crown Court to have the case against him dropped.
He and two fellow Powerscreen directors, Mr Barry Cosgrove, the company's former finance director, and director Mr Edward Holmes, are charged in connection with a Serious Fraud Office inquiry into accounting irregularities at Matbro, an English subsidiary of the Tyrone company.
A £47-million sterling (#77 million) black hole was discovered in the accounts of the Gloucestershire-based tractor manufacturer.
Powerscreen management acknowledged there were problems at Matbro barely two months after it had raised £18 million from a new share-issue.
The events at Powerscreen sparked a three-year investigation into the company by the Serious Fraud Office which brought charges against three former directors.
The Fraud Office yesterday informed the court it plans to apply to have a fourth defendant extradited from the Republic to stand trial in the Powerscreen case.
Mr McKeown has been accused of withholding information, a breach of the Financial Services Act in the UK, while Mr Cosgrove has been charged with two counts of theft and one breach of the Financial Services Act.
Mr Holmes, who ran the Matbro subsidiary, has been charged with 25 offences of falsifying the company's sale invoices and of carrying on Matbro's business for a fraudulent purpose between January and December 1997.
The three former Powerscreen directors had been scheduled to enter pleas yesterday at Bristol Crown Court in the next stage of the proceedings against them.
However, Mr McKeown's application for the case against him to be dropped halted the proceedings which cannot continue against the Powerscreen directors until further details of the application are lodged by Mr McKeown's legal advisors.
It is likely the case will resume in early October, which is the deadline by which Mr McKeown's supporting details for his application must be lodged.
