A company (company A) which specialises in ecologically friendly investments has won an asset freezing injunction against those it accuses of perpetrating a £2.2 million fraud relating to a 35 hectare plot of Brazilian teak forest.
Company A claimed to have been duped into making the disastrous investment by company B and two of its directors. It launched proceedings against all three, claiming deceit and fraudulent misrepresentation. Company B, which specialised in promoting unregulated investments in Brazilian forestry, had been wound up and bankruptcy orders had been made against the directors.
Company B and the directors denied any wrongdoing; however, company A sought to trace and recover monies which it had lost in the debacle. In confirming an asset-freezing injunction, which had previously been granted on a temporary basis, the High Court found that company A had a ‘good arguable case’ that it had been defrauded and that there was ‘a serious issue to be tried’.