Miami-Dade County Circuit Judge Jose M. Rodriguez agreed with BDO Seidman that it could not receive a fair trial.

A lawyer for Banco Espirito Santo last week mentioned the suicide while questioning a witness. The judge had prohibited references to the suicide in an order issued before the trial began.

In a 2004 lawsuit, Banco Espirito Santo accused BDO Seidman of failing to uncover the fraud at a former partner of the bank, E.S. Bankest LLC. The bank said BDO Seidman, hired to audit Bankest's books, failed to find signs of the fraud beginning in the late 1990s, in part because the firm had financial ties to another Bankest partner.

A lawyer representing BDO Seidman, Mark Schnapp, argued that the jury would associate the suicide with the uncovering of fraud at the financial services firm, a connection that was never suggested.

Testimony in the aborted trial began in late January. A meeting was set for Wednesday to plan for a new trial.

BDO Seidman praised the ruling in a statement and condemned what it called "highly prejudicial and inflammatory" remarks by attorneys for Banco Espirito Santo.

"These remarks were merely the latest example of plaintiffs' counsel attempting to distract the jury from the facts of the case, including the bank's wrongdoing, through improper insinuations that had no basis in this trial," the statement read.

A Banco Espirito Santo spokesman had no immediate comment, but was trying to reach a company attorney.