The High Court has granted the first third-party debt order in relation to cryptocurrency in an application involving allegations of fraud related to a cryptocurrency initial coin offering.  A third-party debt order (formerly known as a garnishee order) is a method of enforcing a money judgment by recovering sums that are in the hands of … Read more

The Court of Appeal has dismissed a knowing receipt claim against a bank for receipt of shares transferred to it in breach of trust, on the basis that the claimant did not have a continuing proprietary interest in the shares: Byers & Ors v The Saudi National Bank [2022] EWCA Civ 43. The decision provides helpful … Read more

In the context of an application to strike out or summarily dismiss a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation, the High Court has held that conscious awareness of the alleged implied representation was not necessary for the claim to have a real prospect of success at trial: Crossley & Ors v Volkswagen Aktiengesellschaft & Ors [2021] EWHC 3444 … Read more

The High Court has published a summary of its findings on liability in the long-running USD$5 billion civil fraud action brought by the Hewlett Packard group in connection with its acquisition of the UK software company Autonomy Corporation Limited (“Autonomy”) in 2012.  The claimants have “substantially succeeded” in their claims against two former Autonomy executives: … Read more

In the context of a claim by a fraud victim seeking damages for consequential loss of investment opportunity, the Court of Appeal has rejected an argument by the fraudster that the victim was obliged to give credit not only for the cash they received as part of the relevant fraudulent transactions, but also for the … Read more

In a recent judgment, the Privy Council has delivered a “ground-breaking exposition of the law of injunctions” (in the words of the Master of the Rolls), including a restatement of the test for freezing injunctions.  Although the analysis is technically obiter dicta, it will be highly influential on any English or other common law court … Read more

The Court of Appeal has allowed a party to proceed with an action seeking to set aside a default judgment against him in earlier proceedings on the basis that the judgment was procured by fraud. The fact that, prior to the original proceedings, the party was aware of the factual circumstances now relied on to … Read more

The High Court has interpreted the contractual release in a settlement agreement as extending to unknown claims based on dishonesty and fraud, despite the terms of the release not expressly referring to such claims. The claimant was therefore precluded from pursuing further claims alleging deliberate wrongdoing following the receipt of what it said was new … Read more