CL-2020-000117 - [2025] EWHC 1620 (Comm)

On 17 September 2015, Falcon acquired 60 units of WSV Pro Mittelstand ETI (“WSV ETI”) for €6.0 million. The WSV ETI was issued by Delta1 Securities Plc. The collateral was to be in the form of performance bonds issued by AI Undertaking VIII Inc., a public limited company incorporated in St Vincent and the Grenadines and a wholly owned subsidiary of Delta1 Securities Plc, linked to the performance of a trading account held at Dr Willburger & Schluchter Wermögensmanagement AG.

The investment was originally used to acquire units of a currency fund called Wakett Currency Fund. The investment in Wakett Currency Fund was redeemed in January 2016 for €5.9m. €5.8m was then converted to US$6.2 million and transferred to a UK-registered company called Optimus Socially Responsible Investment Ltd (“OSRI”) which was owned beneficially by Mr Bishop who was also its director. Mr Holt’s evidence, based on the chronological documentation available, is that from this sum US$5.7 million was paid to ABS Investment Group, a US registered company controlled by Mr Bishop which in turn transferred (i) US$3.2m to Mr Serwin’s UBS Jersey bank account; (ii) US$1.5m was paid to SVC and (iii) US$1m was paid out in total to various individuals including Mr Bishop, members of his family and Optimus Fonder, whose role in the Optimus Phase I described much earlier in this judgment. From the US$3.2m credited to Mr Serwin’s UBS Jersey bank account, (a) US$1.5m was transferred to SVC; (b) US$700,000 was transferred to Mr Serwin’s Lloyds Bank account and (c) the balance was paid out to various entities or individuals including Mr Gergeo. Of the US$3m paid to SVC as described above, US$2.8m was utilised to pay for Falcon’s redemption of its investment in the Solid Venture P2P ETI.

This ostensible investment suffers from all the hallmarks that apply to those that preceded it – that is there was no appraisal of the investment by TAM or Mr Ökten or if there was there is no documentation that demonstrates there was any such appraisal. Following redemption by the Wakett Currency Fund, there was no appraisal by either TAM or Mr Ökten (or no documentation showing any such appraisal) concerning the reinvestment of the redeemed funds in ORSI. Given how the funds were expended this is unsurprising. It was not ultimately used for any of the purposes that the investments were supposedly to be used for but was used in various ways described above for the benefit of Mr Bishop by reason of his ownership and control of SVC and Messrs Serwin and Gergeo.