Commercial disputes, Banking and financial services, Civil fraud and asset recoveryWednesday 8 December 2021
Judgment has been handed down by HHJ Pelling QC (sitting as a judge of the High Court) last week in The Libyan Investment Authority v Credit Suisse and others. The Court granted summary judgment for two of the defendants and set aside service out of the jurisdiction on the remaining three defendants. Alan Gourgey QC and Anna Littler, (instructed by PCB Byrne LLP) acted for one of the successful defendants in his jurisdiction challenge – a Libyan businessman against whom a claim had been brought by the Libyan Investment Authority alleging fraud and corruption in relation to transactions valued at US$200 million that it had entered into with Credit Suisse bank in 2008 and 2009.
Permission to serve three of the defendants outside the jurisdiction had been granted by the High Court ex parte in June 2020. However, on the application by those defendants to set aside service out of the jurisdiction and by the other two defendants for summary judgment against the claimant, heard in June/July 2021, the Court found that the Libyan Investment Authority’s claim against them in fact had no real prospect of success because it was time-barred. This was on the basis that the claimant was unable to show any real prospect that it could establish at trial that, under s. 32 of the Limitation Act 1980, it could not with reasonable diligence have discovered the facts allegedly giving rise to its claim more than six years prior to its issue.
Read the full judgment here.
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