A delay in the $2 billion litigation in London regarding shares in OJSC Kryvy Rih Iron Ore Combine (Dnipropetrovsk region) "exacerbates the risk" of evidence being destroyed by defendants Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov, a lawyer of complainant Victor Pinchuk, Lord Grabiner, said at the pre-trial hearing held in April, the Daily Telegraph reported on Wednesday.

He took the case of Felman Production in the United States, which is under control of the defendants via Privat Intertrading.

"Both the defendants have form … for cheating over disclosure and doing so on quite a big scale," he said.

"His evidence? A $39 million insurance claim filed in the U.S. by Felman Production, a company controlled by Boholiubov and Kolomoisky through their Privat Intertrading vehicle, which was thrown out as a sanction for its “extraordinary misconduct in relation to disclosure."

"They’ve done it before and, given the opportunity, they will do it again," Lord Grabiner warned.

The oligarchs, who both contest Pinchuk’s claims, hope to push back the full court hearing to 2016, the Daily Telegraph said.

In the latest twist, it emerged in a pre-trial hearing this month that Kolomoisky’s computer was destroyed in December 2013 – seven months after Pinchuk filed his lawsuit claiming that his $143 million payment in 2005 to buy Ukraine’s Kryvy Rih Iron Ore Combine was not honored, the publication said.

The court also heard how Kolomoisky's "standard working practice” was to dispose of hard copy documents and business meeting notes “immediately," and to "double-delete" his emails, reads the report.

Boholiubov, meanwhile, "mysteriously lost access" to a Googlemail account he used between 2008 and 2010, the Daily Telegraph said.

As reported, in March 2013, the claimant filed claims to British courts on the ownership right to the stake in Kryvy Rih Iron Ore Combine.

The Independent said that Pinchuk claims the mining assets are now worth $1 billion and that he is owed a further $1 billion in unpaid dividends.

Pinchuk has business interests in various sectors, including the pipe and wheel business (Interpipe), and the ferroalloy and oil and gas sectors managed by EastOne Group.

Boholiubov and Kolomoisky are long-term partners and cofounders of the Privat Group, which has interests in several sectors and controls the largest bank in Ukraine – PrivatBank.

Kryvy Rih Iron Ore Combine mainly sells its products to Yenakiyeve Iron and Steel Works and Mariupol Illich Iron and Steel Works. Starmill Limited holds a 99.98% stake in the company.

The Metinvest Group told Interfax-Ukraine that the SCM Group holds a certain stake in Kryvy Rih Iron Ore Combine, while Metinvest has no relation to the company. The SCM Group is only an investor, while the Privat Group manages the combine.