Matthew Goucke
Partner
Cayman Islands
The hearing, which finished at the end of January 2024, arose out of the high profile collapse of the Abraaj Group (a UAE based private equity group) in 2018. Mr Jafar (the Plaintiff) alleged that he was deceived by Mr Naqvi (the founder and CEO of the Abraaj Group) into advancing US$350 million by way of loans to entities within or associated with the Abraaj Group, and that Mr Naqvi's conduct should be attributed to entities within certain investment funds. The alleged deception was said to be a series of implied, oral misrepresentations made at a meeting between Messrs Jafar and Naqvi in Dubai over 6 years ago.
Also, the Joint Official Liquidators (the "JOLs") of Abraaj Holding (another Plaintiff and an entity within the Abraaj Group) claimed that certain payments made by it prior to its winding-up constituted voidable transactions at an undervalue under section 146(2) Companies Act (2020 Revision) or alternatively, were voidable preferences under section 145 Companies Act (2020 Revision). To date, claims under section 146 Companies Act have not been adjudicated before the Cayman Islands courts.
The trial was a hotly contested, multi-party proceeding lasting 8 weeks. The three related proceedings (tried together) concerned claims for damages in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Each party was represented by Cayman Islands attorneys and had leading and junior counsel from London, who advanced complex arguments regarding: constructive and resulting trusts, antecedent transactions, the tort of deceit, the legal test for attribution of a deceit to a corporate entity, the test for vicarious liability of corporate entity for deceit, the application of the double actionability rule and enrichment without cause under UAE law. The Court heard from 6 factual witnesses, alongside 3 UAE law experts and 2 valuation experts.
Walkers, together with Mr Stephen Atherton KC and Ms Sarah Tresman (of Twenty Essex Chambers), acted on behalf of the Second and Third Defendants (a Limited Partner and General Partner of an investment fund previously associated with the Abraaj Group) in their defence and counterclaim of two of the related proceedings.
The team was assisted by Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton's litigation team based in London (led by James Norris-Jones and Naomi Tarawali) and received instructions from FFP's Cayman Islands office (led by Richard Lewis and Nicola Cowan, who were supported by FFP’s litigation support team led by Jasmine Herrod and forensic analysis by Kieran Clarke).
The following attorneys of Walkers' IDR Group were also heavily involved in this proceeding, which had been on-going since 2020: Jonathan Turner, Harriet Ter-Berg, Patrick McConvey and Charlotte Raynor.
The Honourable Mr Justice Segal's judgment is reserved and, given the various issues in dispute, will no doubt be instructive to practitioners in the jurisdiction when handed down. Further commentary will be published at that time.
