A GROUP of top British lawyers will arrive this week in the steamy heat of Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei’s curious half-modern, half-rustic capital, where office blocks look down on traditional Malay stilt houses.

The appearance of the lawyers will be of more than passing interest to the local authorities — it signals the start of a new chapter in one of the great dynastic battles of modern times: the saga of Brunei’s missing billions.

Prince Jefri, brother of the ruling sultan and long regarded as the villain of the piece, has decided to fight back.

He has been accused of plundering billions from the state coffers to fund a decade-long orgy of spending and a playboy lifestyle of almost comic excess.

Now he wants to clear his name. His legal team, who touch down in Brunei this week, plan to use a looming court battle to claim he acted with the sultan’s full knowledge and authority, and that much of the money was spent on the sultan and his immediate family.

“Prince Jefri has had enough of being made the scapegoat,” said a source close to the prince. “He intends to clear his name.”

At the same time separate legal actions are being launched in America to recover for Jefri two landmark hotels, the New York Palace and the Bel-Air Hotel, a favourite hang-out of the Hollywood elite.

The legal battle promises some explosive revelations. Sources close to the prince claimed he had documentary evidence of the transfer of billions of dollars from Brunei state funds to numbered accounts — many held with Citibank — to the benefit of the sultan and his immediate family. The dossiers include lists of artworks and other assets allegedly bought for the sultan by Jefri.

The case could also cast light on one of the great British business controversies of recent years: Mohamed al-Fayed’s purchase of Harrods, the Knightsbridge department store. It has long been rumoured — but never confirmed — that Fayed received backing from the sultan to finance the acquisition.

Jefri’s team said it had documents that could give an insight into how the deal was done.

And if that was not spice enough, there is sex. The court cases may provide further details on the lurid allegations — aired in a number of American legal actions in recent years — that western women, including former beauty queens, were paid to act as prostitutes to Brunei’s ruling elite.

The Brunei case is the result of a breakdown of an out-of-court settlement reached after a similar legal battle four years ago.