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The enforcement of foreign judgments is a challenge, especially if they emanate from the US because there is no automatic recognition. How Ireland treats enforcement efforts of foreign judgments is an excellent example of the challenges faced by plaintiff's counsel. The enforcement of non-EU judgments in Ireland is whether there is a "solid practical benefit" derived from the Irish proceeding. And, the absence of assets (or of a real possibility that assets will come into Ireland) is likely to support…

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 20, 2016, inRJR Nabisco Inc. v. European Community, 579 U.S. ___, addressed the application of the RICO statute 18 U.S.C. Section 1961 et seq.,  to activities outside the U.S. and the injury that must be suffered by private litigants in order to recover. This case involved a global money-laundering scheme, wherein drug traffickers smuggled narcotics into Europe and sold the drugs for Euros that through a series of transactions involving black-market money brokers, cigarette…

The purpose of the appointment of a protector is to monitor the actions of a trustee and to ensure that appropriate action is taken to preserve the trust fund. Protectors are commonly given "positive" powers such as the power to appoint and remove trustees and "negative" powers such as the right to withhold consent to distributions to beneficiaries. The role of a protector is a significant one to the administration of a trust. In Guernsey, the court was asked to…

There are approximately 800,000 companies registered in the British Virgin Islands ("BVI"). BVI entities are used as vehicles for investing in Hong Kong, Singapore and mainland China where anywhere from 40-50% of BVI entities are used. There are three types of funds that can be organized under BVI law-private, professional and public. High net worth individuals are most interested in private funds, which is limited to 50 investors. A private fund can be set up using a partnership, a company…

The Eleventh Circuit recently addressed an issue of first impression as to whether discovery obtained under 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 could later be used in civil litigation in the United States. InGlock v. Glock, Inc, 797 F. 3d 1002, plaintiff filed a proceeding under 28 U.S.C. Section 1782 seeking to discover evidence for use in her Austrian divorce proceedings. About one and one half years later, she filed a separate RICO lawsuit in the U.S. Plaintiff returned to the Section…

A substantial portion of the world's hard and soft commodities are sold and shipped from Australia. Many of the companies involved are based in foreign jurisdictions, but hold substantial assets in Australia in the form of mining licenses or commodity stockpiles. The ability to freeze these Australian assets can be a valuable weapon in claims recoveries. Australian courts will grant a freezing order against a prospective judgment debtor where there is a sufficient prospect that a foreign court will give…

The new Civil Procedure Code (CPC) entitles a party to apply to the court to secure evidence that could later be lost, where a statutory rule provides for the taking of such evidence or where an applicant can demonstrate a legitimate interest. The intent of the provision is to enable potential litigants to assess their trial chances ahead of having to lodge a court action. The question is then who bears the court costs of such pre-action proceedings. The rule…

The issue in Matter of B&M Kingstone, LLC v. Mega Intl. Commercial Bank Co., Ltd., 2015 N.Y. App. Div. Lexis 6345, (1st Dept. August 11, 2015), is whether the "separate entity" rule bars New York courts from compelling a bank's New York branch to produce information pertaining to that bank's foreign branches. The "separate entity" rule is that "each branch of a bank is a separate entity, in no way concerned with accounts maintained by depositors in other branches or…

The doctrine known as "backwards tracing" operates where victims seek to trace and recover the proceeds of the fraud where no direct connection can be established between the funds lost and the funds found in the hands of the fraudsters. The Privy Council in Jersey in Federal Republic of Brazil eta l v. Durant international Corporation et al, (2015) UKPC 35, considered a claim brought by the Municipality of San Paulo against two BVI companies (Durant and Kildare) which held…

The Bankruptcy Appellate Panel for the 9th Circuit in Chantel v. Pierce, 2015 Bankr. Lexis 2174, recently explained what can constitute a sham trust to enable creditors to reach assets transferred to that trust. A California trust had been created with the Chantels as co-trustees. After a judgment had been entered against them, they filed a Chapter 13 bankruptcy, which was converted to a Chapter 7. In their schedules, the Chantels claimed they owned no real property and had not…

Cyprus has become a financial hub for companies and trusts managing assets of foreigners, particularly Russia. However, creditors should not be perturbed because the courts in Cyprus exercise powers in relation to asset freezing, discovery and tracing in aid of foreign judicial proceedings. The Civil Procedure Rules are identical to rules applicable in England prior to Cyprus' independence from British colonial rule in 1960, thus benefiting from considerable legal authority that clarifies the scope, method and result of legal process.…

Enforcing a foreign judgment in relation to a debt against a party with assets located in the United Arab Emirates ("UAE") is directed to the Dubai International Financial Centre courts ("DIFC"). This is particularly true for judgments from the United Kingdom that as January 2013 are governed by a treaty. The enforcement of a foreign judgment is initiated by filing a claim for a  judgment debt. A judgment issued by the DIFC courts is final on parties within the jurisdiction…

In emerging economies, there tends to be poor institutional environments characterized by corruption, regulatory uncertainty, underdeveloped intellectual property rights protection and governmental interference. In such cases, direct investment to alternative locations with more supportive institutions in place provides a means of escaping institutional constraints. For instance, in Russia, in 2012, the largest recipients of direct investments were the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands and Cyprus. The investment in Cyprus grew from $206 million in 1988 to $4 billion in…

Recently, the District Court in Vera v. Republic of Cuba, 2015 U.S. Dist. Lexis 32846 (S.D. N.Y. 2015), was confronted with a situation where a judgment creditor sought post-judgment discovery pertaining to the defendant's foreign accounts "in order to decide whether to seek recognition of his judgment abroad and, if so, in which countries and against which banks." Plaintiff served information subpoenas on several banks seeking information concerning assets of defendant located in the their branches in and outside New…