The recent English Court of Appeal decision in Dos Santos v Unitel SA [2024] EWCA Civ 1109 provides welcome clarification as to the test for obtaining a freezing injunction. The English Court of Appeal found that an...more
Lakatamia Shipping Company Ltd v Su and others [2024] EWHC 1749 (Comm) illustrates how the Babanaft proviso typically included in a worldwide freezing order may serve to limit the liability of foreign third parties who...more
Financial fraud is one of the most corrosive forms of corruption. Digital assets, and particularly cryptocurrency, are a ripe target for fraud. Frauds involving digital assets have grown significantly in recent years....more
By: Jeffrey M. Haber On many occasions, we have written about Ponzi schemes that have been the subject of enforcement actions brought by, and/or settlements with, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or the...more
Equitable distribution orders often direct the payment of money from one former spouse to the other. And normally money judgments are entirely enforceable during an appeal, unless the appellant gets a supersedeas bond. So...more
The Hong Kong Court of Appeal has overturned a first instance judgment that had held that the longstanding use of "letters of no consent" to preserve monies held in bank accounts suspected of harbouring the proceeds of crime,...more
In this post, we describe the economic sanctions imposed by Canada since our November 5, 2022 update, as well as Russian asset freezing order and a judicial decision in the sanctions law area. We expect more sanctions and...more
Typically, pursuing fraudsters is an exercise in detective work, forensic analysis and a lot of circumstantial evidence. Rarely does a fraud come with a smoking gun or confession. Parties must cobble together evidence...more
As leading international financial centres, both Bermuda and the Cayman Islands have detailed legislation in place providing methods for the civil recovery by Governmental agencies of the proceeds of crime and unlawful...more
In Convoy Collateral Ltd v Broad Idea International Ltd and Cho Kwai Chee [2021] UKPC 24, the majority judgment of Lord Leggatt in the Privy Council upheld the decision in Black Swan, overruling the Eastern Caribbean Court of...more
The judgment of Mr Justice Henshaw of the High Court of England and Wales was handed down on 10 January 2022 in Barclays Bank plc v Shetty. The judge ruled that while the High Court will adjourn a hearing if it is in the...more
ACI’s and C5’s 10th Edition of Fraud, Asset Tracing & Recovery Miami conference is returning on January 24 – 25, 2022 in person! Deemed as the foremost, can’t-miss event for the Fraud community, it gathers the pre-eminent...more
In XL Insurance Company SE v. IPORS Underwriting Ltd, Paul Alan Corcoran & Others [2021] EWHC 1407 (Comm), Mrs. Justice Cockerill DBE imposed an immediate maximum sentence of two years’ imprisonment following an application...more
Although receiving little fanfare since its issuance, a recent trial court order in Florida state court has sent a warning shot to American defendants embroiled in litigation abroad. In Gorsoan Ltd. v. Bullock, the...more
The UK Serious Fraud Office (the “SFO”) has reached a £1.2 million civil recovery settlement with Julio Faerman, a Brazilian national linked to the sprawling “Operation Car Wash” investigation involving the Brazilian...more
The year 2019 has been something of a mixed bag for the UK’s criminal and regulatory authorities. While the Serious Fraud Office (“SFO”) and Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”) appear to have taken involuntary sabbaticals...more
In Vneshprombank LLC v Georgy Bedzhamov and ors [2019] EWCA Civ 1992 the Court of Appeal reaffirmed the approach to ascertaining the "ordinary living expenses" of a respondent to a freezing injunction....more
In Rogachev v Goryainov [2019] EWHC 1529 (QB) the High Court discharged a freezing injunction for non-disclosure at the return date hearing and refused to grant further injunctive relief highlighting the significance of full...more
In recent weeks, courts in England and Hong Kong have taken the opportunity to set out the serious consequences that follow from deliberately breaching disclosure orders made in the context of freezing orders....more
Third-party assets controlled (de facto or de jure) by the respondent are ordinarily outside the scope of a freezing injunction unless exceptional circumstances can be established. In the recent case of FM Capital Partners...more
Due to the general flexibility granted to banks by their standard account opening terms, corporate victims of online banking frauds often face substantial hurdles in court in their attempts to recover the sums lost from the...more
An important pre-trial remedy in cases of fraud is the Mareva injunction, now more commonly called a “freezing order”. This remedy, in simple terms, allows the victim of a fraud, as a plaintiff in the civil courts, to prevent...more
A High Court in England and Wales recently confirmed the Court’s ability to order a worldwide freezing order (WFO) to aid enforcement of an arbitral award as a judgment of the Court. In the recent decision of Great...more
The Hong Kong Court has confirmed that a bank notified of a freezing injunction does not owe a duty of care to the party in whose favour the injunction is granted. ...more
In the recent case of Kevin Taylor v Van Dutch Marine Holding Ltd and others, the High Court decided that the exercise of existing rights by a secured creditor should not be regarded as a disposal by a defendant, and as a...more