This action related to a transfer in September 2009 of shares in five Saudi Arabian banks, then collectively worth about US$318m, by Mr Maan Al-Sanea (who at that time held those shares) to Samba Financial Group (Samba). The claimants were the liquidators of Saad Investments Company Ltd (SICL). They alleged that Mr Al-Sanea had at the time of the transfer held those shares on trust for SICL. The claimants brought a number of different actions against Samba in respect of the transfer of the shares, formulating the case on various legal bases in the various different actions. The iteration...
This was a trial of the preliminary issue of whether claims made by the joint liquidators of two Jersey-incorporated companies against the respondents were time-barred as a matter of Jersey law.
In the proceedings, the applicants claimed that between 10 April 2007 and 10 June 2008 payments were made of €16m and €18m from ‘Level One’ and ‘Special Opportunity’ respectively, to or for the benefit of the first respondent or companies owned beneficially by him. Those payments were claimed not to have been made in good faith for a legitimate commercial purpose of the companies, and the ...
Mr Mikhaylyuk (M), a manager for the first respondent, NOUK, with responsibility for negotiating the charters of vessels owned by companies within the Novoship group, the remaining respondents, owed fiduciary duties to all the respondents. M had arranged a series of schemes by which he defrauded his principals and enriched himself and others by the payment of bribes given to him by those who chartered his principals’ vessels. These schemes included one concerning vessels chartered to companies owned and controlled by Mr Ruperti (R) which R then sub-chartered at substantially higher rates...
Mr John Bayley settled property on trust on 17 November 1983. He died in 1987. The trust was established with the assistance of the settlor’s longstanding business associate and friend, Mr Derek Gray, who provided various services to the trust through the first defendant, SG Associates (SGA), a company of which he was a director. From 1998, Mr Gray was also director of a US company known as Clean Diesel Technologies (CDT), which developed, designed, marketed and licensed technologies and solutions for the reduction of emissions from combustion engines. He was also a director of SGA...
In connection with a transaction dating back to 1986 the respondent paid $6,520,190 to a solicitor in England to be held in trust on terms that it should not be released until certain funds were made available to him in Nigeria. The solicitor pocketed $500,000 and, in fraudulent breach of trust, paid out the balance to the appellant’s account with Midland Bank in London. It was alleged that the appellant was a party to the fraud. The respondent obtained permission to serve a claim form out of the jurisdiction and an application was made to set aside that permission.
Supperstone J ...
L C
Continue reading "Equity: Fiduciary failings"
In 1986, Dr Williams (D) participated in a transaction under which, he alleges, he was defrauded of $6,520,190. He commenced proceedings on 10 March 2010 against Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) alone, asserting that: an English solicitor, Reuben Gale (R), held that sum of money in his client account in trust for D on terms that he would only release it if and when certain funds had been paid in Nigeria; in May 1986 R fraudulently paid away $6,020,190 of the sum held by him for D to the account of CBN with Midland Bank in England; CBN was party to the fraud; and R retained the balance of $5...
Privy Council (Lady Hale, Lord Mance, Lord Kerr, Lord Clarke and Sir Robin Auld)
The respondents made claims for breach of trust against the appellant in respect of breaches that occurred in Guernsey at a time when Guernsey customary law governed the duties of Guernsey trustees and also after the introduction of the Trusts (Guernsey) Law 1989 (the 1989 Law), but before that law was amended by the Trusts (Amendment) (Guernsey) Law 1990 (the 1990 Law). The trust instrument included an exoneration clause in respect of negligence by the trustee and ...
Continue reading "Breach Of Trust: Dishonest or unconscionable?"