On 18 January 2023, the Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal from a decision of the SICC rejecting the appellants’ claim that they were beneficially entitled to USD 10 million held by the respondents on the basis that, as part of a Ponzi scheme, the appellants’ money had been transferred to the respondents. Colin Liew acted as co-counsel for the successful respondents.
The Court of Appeal upheld the first instance decision that the transfers were made pursuant to agreements governed by Swiss law, which did not recognise the cause of action which the appellants sought to assert. The fact that the actual transfers were made by an entity which was not in a contractual relationship with either the appellants or the respondents did not matter.
A copy of the Court of Appeal’s grounds of decision in [2023] SGCA(I) 2 can be found here. A copy of the SICC’s judgment at first instance can be found here.