QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
COMMERCIAL COURT
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL |
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B e f o r e :
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THE PUBLIC INSTITUTION FOR SOCIAL SECURITY |
Claimant/ Applicant |
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- and - |
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FAHAD MAZIAD RAJAAN AL RAJAAN & OTHERS |
First Defendant/ Respondent |
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Tom Weisselberg QC and Kendrah (instructed by Mishcon de Reya LLP) for the First Defendant
Hearing dates: 3rd and 4th June 2020
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Crown Copyright ©
Mr. Justice Jacobs :
A: Introduction: the application
" the Respondent must inform the Applicant's solicitors of all assets exceeding £ 50,000 in value whether in his own name or not and whether solely or jointly owned and whether the Respondent is interested in them legally, beneficially or otherwise, giving the value, location and details of all such assets."
" if Mr. Al Rajaan gives the disclosure that we would expect him to give and discloses many hundreds of millions under 7, then it may cast the necessity of 9A (2) into a different light".
"The Applicant's application for the relief set out at paragraph 9 (a)(ii) of the draft order at tab 6b of the hearing bundle both in relation to the schemes identified in the Consolidated Particulars of Claim and any further schemes identified in the Respondent's affidavit served pursuant to paragraph 8 is adjourned with permission to restore."
a) Disclosure to assist PIFSS to trace the proceeds of the alleged secret commissions. This application is made by way of restoration of PIFSS' original application for proprietary disclosure, which was adjourned by paragraph 9 of the WFO. This part of the application is also pursued on the basis that there are substantial grounds to believe that Mr. Al Rajaan's asset disclosure is incomplete.
b) Further disclosure concerning two alleged trusts for the alleged benefit of Mr. Al Rajaan's children ("the Myrose Trust" and "the Dukesmews Trust" or "Myrose" and "Dukesmews"), referred to in Mr. Al Rajaan's evidence but in respect of which he has provided only limited information.
c) Further disclosure concerning assets that Mr. Al Rajaan had not fully disclosed in his original disclosure Affidavit (FAR 1) served in November 2019. This category has significantly narrowed after the issue of the application in March 2020, principally (on PIFSS' case) in light of subsequent disclosures and explanations provided in Mr. Al Rajaan's subsequent witness statements (FAR2 and FAR3) and Ms. Garbett's 5th witness statement.
d) Variation of the WFO to include expressly assets that Mr. Al Rajaan has disclosed so far.
B: Legal Principles
"The importance of disclosure in rendering freezing orders effective has often been emphasised. See, for example, what was described by Steyn LJ, as he then was, in Grupo Torras S.A v Al Sabah [2014] 2 CLC 636 as a seminal article of Mr Lawrence Collins as he then was at 105 LQR [1989] 262 and what Waller LJ said in Motorola Credit Corporation v Uzan [2002] C.P. Rep 69 at paragraph 29. Unless proper disclosure is given, it is impossible to police the freezing order, and if it cannot be policed, then fraudulent defendants are able to ignore the order and to breach it with impunity. Disclosure is, in almost all cases, essential in order to render effective a worldwide freezing order. The importance of disclosure is reinforced where a claimant has a proprietary claim and is seeking to recover specific sums or their traceable proceeds. Again, an order freezing such sums will be ineffective if the claimant cannot know what has happened to them. It is essential to the protection of the claimant's rights to pursue its proprietary claim that full disclosure is given of what has happened to the money so that the claimant may take steps to freeze the proceeds and then to establish its right to recover those traceable proceeds. That is all part of the substantive claim which has to be adjudicated on in the proceedings. Those are considerations which apply with full force in the current case, in which Angola has established a strong prima facie case that these defendants have perpetrated a large scale fraud, and that there is a real risk of dissipation of their own assets as well as a risk of dissipation of the assets to which Angola has a proprietary claim."
"[38] I can be brief in this context: the test is in effect whether the court is satisfied that further evidence is necessary in order to make the freezing order more effective.
[39] As it seems to me, the court must be persuaded that there is practical utility in requiring such evidence and that it is necessary to enable the freezing order properly to be policed. It will be vigilant to prevent the abuse of seeking further evidence for some other purpose: such as to expose further inconsistencies, unduly pressurise a defendant who has already been cross-examined, yield ammunition for an application for contempt, or provide further material which might be of assistance, even if not actually deployed, in the main (foreign) proceedings.
[40] I consider also that the court must be satisfied that a yet further round of evidence is proportionate."
" directing a party to provide information about the location of relevant property or assets or to provide information about relevant property or assets which are or may be the subject of an application for a freezing injunction."
"[41] Another subsidiary point I should address in this context (since it may affect the question whether a further affidavit should be ordered and it may also be relevant on the issue of costs) is in relation to any obligation to "make all reasonable inquiries". The claimants submitted that this was implicit in every disclosure order, citing Gee on Commercial Injunctions, 5th ed (2006), para 22-017, and Bird v Hadkinson [2000] CP Rep 21.
[42] It seems to me to be obvious that a defendant required to comply with such an order must take reasonable steps to investigate the truth or otherwise of any answer he gives as regards assets in which he has or had an interest and has or can obtain information in right of that interest. However, in my view, that does not (at least at the point of initial compliance with a disclosure order) extend to making inquiries of persons in relation to assets in which the defendant unequivocally asserts he no longer has any interest of any kind or any right to information, although the court may make available the means of testing that assertion if there is credible evidence that it may be false: and see the Court of Appeal's decision in these proceedings JSC Mezhdunarodniy Promyshlenniy Bank v Pugachev [2016] 1 WLR 160, paras [43] [60] and the cases there cited".
C: The alleged 'disconnect' or 'discrepancy' the premise of the application
D: Purpose of the present application
E: Discretionary considerations: general arguments
The parties' arguments
"it is necessary to limit the inherent risks involved in a foreign stateor, as in this case, an entity that should be considered as suchi.e., the private claimant in the Swiss criminal proceeding, having access to the documents to which that state in principle is only able to access through international mutual legal assistance in criminal matters".
Conclusion as to the general arguments
F: The tracing orders sought
F1: Banking transfers and documents
"Where this Schedule 1 requires the First Defendant to provide information, the obligation in each case is to provide such information to the best of his belief and knowledge, after having made (or caused to be made, where it is not practicable for the enquiry to be made personally) all enquiries as are reasonably practicable, including such specific steps as are set out further below."
"Provide the information and undertake the steps requested in relation to the cash transfers set out in Schedule 3 to this Order. To the extent that the requested information is obtainable with the assistance of the third parties specified in Schedule 3, the First Defendant is to seek their assistance. For the avoidance of doubt, the First Defendant must give the requested disclosure to the best of his ability after undertaking the steps specified in Schedule 3, even if the Claimant's identification of any transfer is inaccurate in any technical respect."
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Transfer |
Disclosure required |
Action to be taken vis-ΰ-vis third parties |
A |
The sum of US$42,296,031 transferred from an account held in the name of Chulani Investments Inc at Pictet Bank (account number 188076) to an account with Deltec Bank and Trust Co. Limited on or around 29 May 2012, in the name of Fyne Properties |
Bank statements for the account at Deltec Bank and Trust Co Limited that received the funds from 1 May 2012 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Ask the directors, officers and fiduciary service providers of Fyne Ltd to provide them, and if they are unable to do so, ask them to request them from Deltec Bank and Trust Co Limited |
B |
The sum of US$27,000,000 transferred from an account held in the name of Chulani Investments Inc at Pictet Bank (account number 188076) to an account held by Mr Al Rajaan at Citibank on or around 27 May 2014 |
Bank statements for the account at Citibank that received the funds from 1 May 2014 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Request them from Citibank |
C |
The sum of US$25,180,371 transferred from an account held in the name of Silvermoon Finance SA at VP Bank to an account held by Mr Al Rajaan at Fransabank in the Lebanon on or around 10 May 2012 |
Bank statements for the account at Fransabank that received the funds from 1 May 2012 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Request them from Fransabank |
D |
The sum of US$22,000,000 transferred from an account held in the name of Dryden Worldwide SA at Pictet Bank, account number 190684 to an account held in the name of Whipple Holdings Limited at the Bank of Singapore (account number 500152) on or around 11 May 2012 |
An explanation to the best of the First Defendant's recollection and/or after making any appropriate inquiries as to why Whipple received this sum from Dryden |
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E |
The sum of US$18,645,120 transferred from an account held in the name of Thaxton Foundation at Pictet Bank to an account held by Mr Al Rajaan at Fransabank in the Lebanon on or around 11 May 2012 |
Bank statements for the account at Fransabank that received the funds from 1 May 2012 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Request them from Fransabank |
K |
The sum of US$2,560,020 transferred to Gemcut, a jeweller based in Switzerland, from Domini Trading SA on or around 2 July 2008 |
An explanation to the best of the First Defendant's recollection and/or after making any appropriate enquiries as to what was purchased from Gemcut with those funds and what became of the items purchased; and to the extent that the full sum was not used to purchase items, what became of the money |
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L |
The sum of US$36,093,080 transferred to an account in the name of Evelyn Assets at Pictet Bank (account number 189194) in or around the period 18 June 2003 to 12 April 2012 including US$25,564,988 from Madrina Corporate Inc; US$7,019,003 from Atena Management Limited; US$2,918,350 from Creative Management Limited; and US$590,740 from Morel Management Limited as particularised further at Appendix 6.2 to the Particulars of Claim |
Bank statements for account 189194 from 1 June 2003 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
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M |
The sum of US$12.8 million transferred to an account in the name of Suncoast Finance SA at UBP (account number 201-0254314) |
Bank statements for account 201-0254314 from 6 February 2007 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Ask the directors, officers and fiduciary service providers of Suncoast to provide them, and if they are unable to do so, ask them to request them from UBP |
N |
The sum of US$34.7 million transferred from an account in the name of Bordertown Trader Limited (190890) at Pictet Bank to an account in the name of Lipuno Foundation at VP Bank (10.501.972) |
Bank statements for account 10.501.972 from 1 January 2006 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Ask the directors, officers and fiduciary service providers of Lipuno to provide them, and if they are unable to do so, ask them to request from VP Bank |
O |
The sums transferred from an account in the name of Orkina Foundation at VP Bank AG to an account in the name of Dugamo Foundation at VP Bank |
Bank statements for the account at VP Bank that received the funds from 1 January 2006 to date (or until the credit balance fell below US$50,000) |
Ask the directors, officers and fiduciary service providers of Dugamo to provide them, and if they are unable to do so, ask them to request them from VP Bank |
F2: Bernabeu Investments Ltd. and Bordertown Trader Ltd.
"In relation to the companies (i) Bernabeu Investments Ltd and (ii) Bordertown Trader Ltd, provide details as to their alleged liquidation and how and to whom the assets held by each company prior to liquidation were disposed of. Alternatively, if it is the First Defendant's case that he is unable to give this disclosure because the companies were not in his ownership or control, provide particulars explaining why the same is alleged."
F3: Gifts of property to Mr. Al Rajaan's children
"After undertaking reasonable searches of any relevant documents in his possession and enquiries of the First Defendant's family, set out in relation to the following properties (referred to in the First Defendant's Third Witness Statement): (i) their full address; and (ii) details of any transfers of the legal or beneficial title to the property that have occurred since they were acquired by the First Defendant's children:
a. three properties located on West Century Drive in Los Angeles, California allegedly purchased for the First Defendant's daughters;
b. apartment in St Moritz allegedly gifted to the First Defendant's children."
G: Other applications
G1: Bank accounts
G2: Companies
G3: Myrose and Dukesmews
Alleged Trusts
4. In relation to "the Myrose Trust" and "the Dukesmews Trust" (as referred to in a letter of the First Defendant's solicitors dated 31 January 2020), after undertaking reasonable searches of any relevant documents in his possession and enquiries with the advisers, trustees, and beneficiaries involved, the First Defendant must:
a. set out the identity of the trustee(s), settlor(s), any protector(s), and the beneficiaries of, and any other person carrying on some or all of the functions of a protector or trustee under another title in relation to the trusts;
b. set out details of the assets subject to those trusts (including their value and location and whether they were formerly owned by or on behalf of the First Defendant); and
c. supply copies of the trust deed(s) and/or any other instruments of settlement (with the exception of the original Dukesmews Trust deed that the First Defendant has disclosed) and subsequent amendments thereto, and correspondence (written and electronic) passing between the alleged settlor(s) (including any of their representatives) and trustee(s) (including any of their representatives) in relation to the settlement and on-going management and control of the trust and its assets.
G4: Addition of assets to the order