Error: Can't connect Warning: mysqli_query() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli, null given in /home/customer/www/hsfnotes.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/hsfnotes/template-parts/tpl_filters.php on line 186
Warning: mysqli_fetch_assoc() expects parameter 1 to be mysqli_result, null given in /home/customer/www/hsfnotes.com/public_html/wp-content/themes/hsfnotes/template-parts/tpl_filters.php on line 187
An increasingly important tool available to victims of fraud is the civil court procedure under which an action can be commenced and injunctions obtained against defendants who are identified only as “Persons Unknown”, described only by reference to their conduct in connection with the wrongdoing. Previously used only in niche areas, such orders have recently … Read more
Adding to the run of recent cases involving fraud or theft of cryptoassets, the High Court has granted an order restraining “persons unknown” from dissipating NFTs allegedly stolen from the claimant’s cryptoasset wallet: Lavinia Deborah Osbourne v (1) Persons Unknown (2) Ozone [2022] EWHC 1021 (Comm). (The decision dates from March this year, but the … Read more
The circumstances in which the English courts can grant permission to serve civil claims out of the jurisdiction will soon be expanded substantially, including a number of changes that could potentially make it easier to pursue cross-border fraud actions in some cases. A suite of proposals to amend and add to the existing list of … Read more
The High Court has acceded to a letter of request (LOR) from a Canadian court to order a number of banks to disclose documents for use in Canadian proceedings, but has declined to make other orders requested in the LOR. The judgment is a useful illustration of how the English courts approach such foreign judicial requests … Read more
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 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
In the case of GML International Ltd v Harfield [2020] 7 WLUK 362, the High Court granted a post-judgment worldwide freezing order against a judgment debtor who had advanced a concocted case at trial. The Judge’s finding that there was a risk of the judgment debtor dissipating his assets appears to have been based substantially … Read more
The High Court has held that cryptoassets (in this case Bitcoin) can be treated as property under English law. As such, the owner of a cryptoasset can, in appropriate circumstances, avail itself of the various proprietary remedies that a court is able to grant. The practical significance here was that an insurer that had paid … Read more
