FM Capital Partners Ltd v Marino & Ors

Nathan Pillow QC & Anton Dudnikov (instructed by Hogan Lovells International LLP ) for the Claimant

Laurence Emmett & James Fox (instructed by Cooke Young and Keidan LLP ) for the Third Defendant

In this action the Claimant ("FMCP�) brings a variety of claims against the First Defendant ("Mr Marino") and the Third Defendant ("Mr Ohmura").� Claims against other defendants, principally the Second Defendant ("Mr Bessot") have been settled before this trial. FMCP is a UK company originally incorporated as a joint venture between Mr Marino, Mr Bessot and Libya Africa Investment Portfolio ("LAP"), a Libyan sovereign wealth fund, to manage LAP's assets. It is majority owned by LAP.

At all material times FMCP's directors included Mr Marino, who was also its employee and Chief Executive Officer, and Mr Bessot, who was also its Chief Investment Officer. At the same time Mr Marino and Mr Bessot were joint owners of another company, Ironfly International Limited ("Ironfly"), and Mr Marino was the owner of a company called Leopard Technology Limited (�Leopard�).

In relation to the JB Notes, payments of more than US$8.5m were made by JB's investment arm, GAM Structured Investments Ltd ("GAM"), to Ironfly and Leopard, the source of the funds being the monies invested by LAP.� Of this sum more than US$1m was paid to companies owned by Mr Ohmura, the founder and General Director of GAM until late July 2009, and subsequently a trader on his own account. These companies were a Cayman Islands company called Conquest Capital Limited (�Conquest Cayman� - now dissolved) and a Swiss company called Conquest Financial Partners AG (�Conquest�).