The UK Gambling Commission has persuaded a High Court judge to impose a reporting blackout on the details of “Operation Incendiary” in Kenny Alexander’s legal case against the regulator.
On 26 November, Justice Hill DBE approved a Restricting Reporting Order (RRO), preventing media outlets from publishing any information related to the criminal investigation into GVC’s former Turkey operations from 2011–2018. The probe involves ex-CEO and chair Kenny Alexander and former chair Lee Feldman.
Operation Incendiary is the long-running HMRC and CPS investigation into GVC’s previous Turkey-facing business and has already resulted in Entain entering a £615m Deferred Prosecution Agreement in 2023. The inquiry has since widened to include personal charges against Alexander and Feldman.
Their civil lawsuit against the Gambling Commission is unfolding at the same time as the criminal proceedings, creating a highly sensitive disclosure situation. Prosecutors argue that releasing investigation details publicly could jeopardize a future jury trial.
This comes after the two former executives sued the regulator last October, accusing it of misusing private information and breaching confidentiality in connection with their alleged attempt to acquire 888 in mid-2023, which has since been rebranded as Evoke.
In August, UK prosecutors charged Alexander and Feldman with conspiracy to defraud and conspiracy to bribe, in a major case focused on alleged bribery in Turkey during the 2010s. HMRC and the CPS advised the Commission that publishing any details from the investigation could harm their prosecution, and therefore requested that information remain confidential until Alexander’s trial concludes – scheduled to begin in February 2028.
The judge mentioned:
When seen in the context of all the evidence provided by the Defendant, it is clear that the stated views of HMRC and the CPS on the need for an order have been reached after a detailed consideration of the closed bundle, mindful of the statutory test and with an acute awareness of the sensitivities of the criminal proceedings.
HMRC and the CPS are the relevant investigative and prosecuting bodies. They, and prosecuting counsel who has also been consulted, are best placed to understand and assess the risk of substantial prejudice in the criminal proceedings.
The new order prevents the media from reporting anything contained in the HMRC and CPS investigation files, the CPS’s 2019 case summary, or any other information about Operation Incendiary that surfaces through Alexander and Feldman’s legal action against the Gambling Commission.
HMRC and the CPS insisted this restriction was necessary. They made it clear that they would not hand over the documents unless the court guaranteed that the press could not publish their contents.
This is not the first attempt by prosecutors to keep details of the investigation out of the public eye. In 2023, they sought a similar reporting ban related to Entain’s £615m Deferred Prosecution Agreement, which settled the corporate charges tied to the same probe.
Although the court granted the request, the judge subtly criticised the Commission for seeking the gag order so close to the start of the September trial and for failing to properly support its application with detailed witness evidence.
Hill continued:
I have reminded myself of the need to give ‘careful scrutiny’ to any application for an RRO, bearing in mind the very strong common law principle of open justice, which remains the default position…
The trial will take place in public and the media can attend… The proposed RRO only relates to reporting about one relatively distinct issue in the civil trial, namely the detail of the information the Defendant had received about the criminal investigation.
