Anthony Smellie

Walkers law firm in the Cayman Islands has successfully appealed a summary judgment that was entered against it in favor of former clients - two Brazilian bankers and related companies - who are seeking damages of up to $400 million for alleged breaches of trust, loyalty, and confidence.

Application for Leave to file Constitutional Motion in Bilika Harry Simamba v. Attorney General and Governor of the Cayman Islands at the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal.

In what appears to be an ongoing effort to conceal allegations of insolvency against hedge funds and other firms from foreign investors and creditors, one-third of all cases filed at the financial services court in the Cayman Islands for the first seven months of 2019 are sealed from public view, OffshoreAlert can reveal.

Questions from OffshoreAlert to the Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands, Anthony Smellie, regarding his Court's mass sealing of financial services cases and the Court's secrecy practices, to which Smellie did not respond.

Brazilian bankers Katia Rabello and Fernando Toledo and related companies have obtained summary judgment in the Cayman Islands against major offshore law firm Walkers and will ask the court to award damages of up to $400 million, the plaintiffs' lead attorney has announced.

In the first seven months of this year alone, the international business court of the Cayman Islands concealed 21 insolvency petitions in which the liabilities collectively exceeded $1.2 billion, including five against companies listed on foreign stock exchanges. Their existence is only now known because the Court unsealed dozens of cases after OffshoreAlert's exposé of its draconian secrecy practices.

As any fule kno, the biggest enemy of fraud, corruption, money laundering, and other forms of financial crime is transparency, while their best friend is secrecy. That's why the unprecedented mass sealing of cases that's taking place at the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands is repugnant to anyone with a genuine concern for financial crime.

The court that hears international business disputes in the Cayman Islands is sealing records of liquidation petitions and other cases at unprecedented levels, meaning that foreign investors, creditors, and clients of Cayman-domiciled hedge funds and other companies are not alerted to insolvencies and other problems, OffshoreAlert can reveal. Secrecy has escalated to the point where more than half of all cases filed in recent months are sealed.

A table showing the growth of secrecy at the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands from when it opened on November 1st, 2009 to July 23rd, 2018.

Caledonian Bank received requests for withdrawals of more than $68 million in the few days after being sued by the SEC in the United States last Friday, it has been disclosed.

A resolution by shareholders of Caledonian Bank and Caledonian Securities to put the companies into voluntary liquidation in an apparent attempt to stymie regulatory action locally has been rejected by the Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands.

Ex Parte Application for Leave to Apply for Judicial Review in John Gordon Hewitt v. Grand Court of Cayman Islands at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands. Interested parties are Tara Rivers, Delano Solomon, The Attorney General of the Cayman Islands, and the Governor of the Cayman Islands.

Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie has set aside a default judgment in a defamation action after determining that a client of law firm Stuarts Walker Hersant benefitted from a "deliberate" breach of a court order.

The Royal Cayman Islands Police has expanded its investigation into alleged corruption by Cayman Islands Premier McKeeva Bush to include his involvement with other foreign business people operating on the island, OffshoreAlert understands.

Investors in two Bear Stearns-operated offshore hedge funds which have a combined insolvency estimated at more than $550 million have won a legal battle in the Cayman Islands to name their own liquidators. In a verbal opinion rendered on February 22, 2008 at the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, Chief Justice Anthony Smellie ordered the removal of Simon Whicker and Kris Beighton, of KPMG, as Joint Voluntary Liquidators of Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies Enhanced Leverage (Overseas) Ltd. and Bear Stearns High-Grade Structured Credit Strategies (Overseas) Ltd.

Offshore investment firm Lines Overseas Management, which is headquartered in Bermuda and has offices in Cayman, the Bahamas and England, claims to have spent US$2.75 million over the last two years on legal fees concerning two securities fraud investigations into its activities by the Securities and Exchange Commission; The International Financial Services Authority in St. Vincent & the Grenadines has revoked these Class I banking licenses: Horizon International Bank Limited, on April 4, 2005; Transglobal Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; and Triton Capital Bank Limited, on April 13, 2005; How times have changed. On May 26, 2005, something happened that would have been unthinkable when OffshoreAlert was launched in 1997: the Cayman Islands Government issued a press release lauding its co-operation with U. S. authorities in clamping down on financial crime and disclosing that Cayman Islands Chief Justice Anthony Smellie; and OffshoreAlert has unearthed yet another red-flag concerning GISBeX, a Costa Rica-based stock exchange that purports to specialize in securities offered under Regulation S of the Securities Exchange Act in the United States and operates from a web-site at www.gisbex.com.

The Privy Council in London has issued a ruling that limits the rights of debtors of Cayman-registered entities to seek the removal of liquidators they do not approve of. The decision represents a victory for Christopher Johnson and John Dinan, of PricewaterhouseCoopers, and a defeat for rival accounting firm Deloitte & Touche.

In a ruling that could have implications for other offshore ‘paper' companies registered in the Cayman Islands and operated elsewhere, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has allowed the enforcement of a foreign judgement against a Cayman entity called Socoa International.The Grand Court rejected one of the main defence arguments that to allow the enforcement of a foreign judgement would be against the national interests of the Cayman Islands and ruled that the Canadian judgement could be enforced without the plaintiff having to prove its case all over again in Cayman.