Continue reading "Fiduciary Duties: Staying virtuous"
Mr H was a ‘belonger’ (a citizen of the Turks and Caicos Islands) and appointed as a government minister in 2003, remaining in government until 2008. There was a policy entitling a belonger to apply for a conditional purchase lease over Crown Land subject to certain conditions which, if met, entitled the belonger to purchase the freehold title at a discounted rate, in this case of 50% of the open market value.
In 2004, Mr H applied for a lease and in setting the sale price the government relied on a 1998 valuation of the land resulting in a discounted price of $75,200. Unknown to ...
Continue reading "Equitable Tracing: Overdrawn accounts and backward tracing"
The plaintiffs were the former trustees of the Tchenguiz Discretionary Trust (the ‘trust’), which had been established in Jersey by Declaration of Trust dated 26 March 2007 for the benefit of a class of beneficiaries comprising Robert Tchenguiz and his children a remoter issue. The Trust was funded initially by an appointment from the Tchenguiz Family Trust which had previously been established in the British Virgin Islands. Subsequently, the trustee of this trust entered into a loan agreement for borrowing of monies from Kaupthing Bank (the ‘bank’) and then made an appointment of assets...
The effective plaintiff was the municipality of Sao Paulo (the municipality). The Federal Republic of Brazil was nominally the plaintiff because its constitution required it to be a party to any action brought outside Brazil by a Brazilian public authority. The defendants were companies registered in the British Virgin Islands (the companies) which were, at the relevant time, under the practical control of Mr Paulo Maluf and/or his son Mr Flavio Maluf. From 1993 Mr Paulo Maluf had been mayor of the municipality.
The case concerned payments made to Mr Paulo Maluf, or others on his ...
Continue reading "Trusts: Trust comes first"
Continue reading "Secret Commissions: Unauthorised profits"
Anthony Morris (Mr Morris) orchestrated a series of frauds between August 2007 and April 2008 by which £52m was misappropriated from various occupational pension schemes by their trustees, GP Noble Trustees Ltd and BDC Trustees Ltd. The appellant was Independent Trustee Services Ltd (ITS), which had been appointed as trustee of the 1653 pension schemes by the Pensions Regulator in July 2008. Mr Morris was found liable in dishonest assistance for £52m and in knowing receipt for £4.89m by Peter Smith J in July 2010 ([2010] EWHC 1653 (Ch)) (the chancery action).
Mr Morris had married...
Continue reading "Equitable Tracing: Proprietary base needed?"