Civil & Commercial Fraud & Trusts Disputes

Cooke Young & Keidan’s lawyers have advised on substantial multi-jurisdictional and domestic commercial fraud claims, including claims in deceit, breach of fiduciary duty, misfeasance, and breach of trust. We are experienced in managing and co-ordinating related proceedings in several jurisdictions and are used to having to act without delay to protect our clients’ interests. 

We act to obtain and challenge worldwide freezing injunctions and search orders. We have experience in breach of trust and cross border asset tracing as well as “trust busting” litigation. Creative solutions for uncovering information and tracking money are sometimes required and employed. Our lawyers have expertise and experience in working alongside foreign lawyers to achieve the necessary end result for our clients.

Examples of some of the cases on which our lawyers have worked are as follows:

  • Acting for one of the defendants in litigation brought by JSC BTA Bank, Kazakhstan, where the total alleged fraud exceeds $1.5 billion in value. The various sets of High Court proceedings, taken together, make this one of the largest civil fraud claims in the history of the English Court and the case was featured in “The Lawyer” magazine (3 January 2011) as being one of the Top 20 Cases of 2011;

  • Advising the court-appointed liquidators of a distributor of pharmaceutical products on the alleged fraudulent misappropriation of significant sums of money by former directors; 

  • Acting for a UK PLC in a claim, which went to a full High Court trial, arising out of a corporate acquisition, where the allegations included breaches of warranty, fraudulent misrepresentation and infringements of the prohibition against financial assistance formerly contained in section 151 Companies Act 1985;

  • Acting to swiftly obtain an injunction against a firm of solicitors and their corporate client to prevent the misappropriation of a bearer bond of substantial value which had been deposited with that firm as security for a transaction; 

  • Acting for the defendants in respect of substantial and complex fraud claims arising out of a commercial transaction, which involved dealing with freezing injunctions obtained against the defendants and the co-ordination of actions in various jurisdictions. The litigation also gave rise to an important Court of Appeal decision relating to the enforcement of English freezing orders in foreign jurisdictions (Dadourian Group International Inc v Simms and Others [2006] EWCA Civ 399); and

  • Acting on a claim by a company against a bank where the allegations included the levying of improper banking charges and the subsequent (and allegedly fraudulent) concealment of those charges.

We are also able to assist with fraud related matters such as the following:

  • Trade finance: non-existent goods and forged documents. 

  • Commodities and shipping: false bills of lading, warehouse receipts and other documents; missing cargo. 

  • Insurance: fraudulent claims; recovery of payments through deception. 

  • Mergers and acquisitions: misrepresentation; false accounting; share frauds.

 

 

 

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