Three former directors of Powerscreen International are scheduled to appear today at Bristol Crown Court to enter pleas in the case being taken against them by Britain's Serious Fraud Office.
Mr Shay McKeown, the former chief executive of the Co Tyrone-based company, its former finance director, Mr Barry Cosgrove, and director Mr Edward Holmes are required to enter pleas, either in person or through their legal representatives, in the next stage of the proceedings against them.
The Serious Fraud Office is also likely to make representation to the court on "directions hearing" for the case, which will establish a timetable for the subsequent legal proceedings.
Today's hearing marks the latest development in the fraud office's three-year investigation of the events that led to the discovery of a £47 million sterling (€77 million) black hole in the accounts of one of Powerscreen's former English subsidiaries.
The Serious Fraud Office was called in after accounting irregularities were uncovered at Matbro, a Gloucestershire-based tractor manufacturer.
Management at Powerscreen had been forced to admit there were problems at its subsidiary in January 1998, which was barely two months after it had raised £18 million from a new share issue. Until the accounting black hole became public, Powerscreen International, with its headquarters in Dungannon, had been one of the darlings of the Irish and London stock exchanges.
When trouble emerged at Matbro, Powerscreen's previously unstoppable share price nose-dived and the group, which had long boasted about its homegrown, Northern Ireland credentials, was subsequently acquired by the Terex Corporation in the United States.
Legal representatives for the Serious Fraud Office will today present the charges against Mr McKeown, Mr Cosgrove and Mr Holmes at Bristol Crown Court.
The three men were initially charged in February at Stroud Magistrates' Court in Gloucestershire in connection with the fraud office inquiry, and were granted bail.
Mr McKeown has been accused of withholding information, a breach of the Financial Services Act in the United Kingdom, 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, was charged with 25 offences of falsifying the company's sales invoices and of carrying on Matbro's business in Gloucester for a fraudulent purpose between January and December, 1997.
