Offshore Litigation Blog

The English Commercial Court recently gave summary judgment in Gary Jones v Persons Unknown et al [2022] EWHC 2543 (Comm), in which it found that Huobi Global Limited (Huobi), an exchange registered in Seychelles, was constructive trustee of the Claimant’s stolen Bitcoin.

On 26 October 2022, the BVI Commercial Court handed down its decision in Nokian Shina LLC v (1) Andrei Valerevich Smyshliaev and (2) Olga Borisovna Smyshliaeva, refusing to enforce two Russian judgments at common law.

On 21 October 2022, the EC Court of Appeal handed down judgment in Fang Ankong v Green Elite Ltd (In Liquidation) (BVIHCMAP 2022/0048) refusing an appeal of a BVI Commercial Court decision which authorised liquidators to share, with their third-party funder, asset disclosure information that had been produced by a defendant under compulsion pursuant to a post-judgment freezing injunction.

The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom handed down a “momentous” judgment addressing directors’ duties and the extent to which they must act in the interests of creditors.

In our first episode of this season’s Take 10 podcast, Asia Managing Partner Ian Mann and Counsel Andrew Chin talk about how the legislature and judiciary of the British Virgin Islands (BVI) and the Cayman Islands are constructing a favourable landscape for the application of interim measures in aid of international arbitration, no matter where those arbitrations are seated.

In the recent decision of Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri [2022] EWHC 2113 (Comm), the English High Court has considered whether to permit a defendant to deal with his assets in the ordinary course of business in the context of a post-judgment freezing order. While this is an English decision, it will be of relevance and interest to practitioners in the Cayman Islands, British Virgin Islands and Bermuda, where the legal principles relating to freezing orders are largely derived from English law.

In its recent decision in Virgin Gorda Yacht Harbour Limited (VGYH) v Little Dix Hotel (LDH) the BVI High Court considered and affirmed the relevant legal principles governing the interpretation of an option contained in a contract for the purchase of land.

In the recent decision in Re Green Asia Restructure Fund SPC, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands considered an application by a creditor for the appointment of receivers to the portfolios of a Segregated Portfolio Company (more commonly referred to as an SPC) on the grounds of their insolvency. The decision highlights some of the practical difficulties that creditors of a portfolio of an SPC face when seeking to have the portfolio wound up.

In the recent case of Oscar Trustee Limited v MBS Software Solutions Limited, the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the Commercial Court and reaffirmed that the convenience of witnesses including their availability and location remains not simply a relevant but in fact a core factor in forum non conveniens applications.

On 9 August 2022, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands dismissed a winding up petition in Seahawk China Dynamic Fund. In giving his judgment, Justice Doyle took the opportunity to urge practitioners to exercise more discipline and focus on making skeleton arguments and written submissions shorter.