GHF Fund wins $300M fraud case over Abraaj collapse in Cayman Islands

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands dismissed all fraud claims against GHF Fund tied to the 2018 Abraaj collapse. Claimant Abdulhameed Jafar had sought $300 million in damages.

Grand Court dismisses $300M fraud claims against GHF Fund in Abraaj case

The Grand Court of the Cayman Islands has dismissed all claims brought by Abdulhameed Jafar against GHF General Partner Limited and The GHF Group Limited, according to clearygottlieb.com. The litigation, filed in 2020, stemmed from the collapse of the Abraaj Group in 2018.

Jafar alleged that the GHF Fund was liable for fraudulent misrepresentation or, alternatively, unjust enrichment, in connection with $300 million in loans he advanced to the Abraaj group. Those loans followed meetings he held with Arif Naqvi, Abraaj's founder and CEO, in December 2017.

The GHF Fund is a $1 billion vehicle originally created to finance healthcare projects in the developing world. Its investor base includes the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, IFC — a member of the World Bank Group — as well as DFC and BII, the U.S. and UK national development finance institutions.

The eight-week trial began in November 2023 and concluded in January 2024. The resulting judgment, running to 938 pages, found that the GHF Fund and its investors bore no responsibility for any wrongdoing. Central to the ruling was the court's determination that Naqvi was not acting for or on behalf of the GHF Fund during his discussions with Jafar. As a result, the alleged false representations Naqvi made concerning Abraaj's finances and governance could not be attributed to the fund.

Jafar had brought parallel claims against Neoma Private Equity Fund IV and the Joint Official Liquidators of Abraaj Holdings; those proceedings were jointly case-managed and heard alongside the GHF matter.

Cleary Gottlieb represented the GHF Fund throughout the proceedings. The firm's team was led by partner James Norris-Jones and included partner Naomi Tarawali and associates Emma Williams and Georgina Rawson. The team worked alongside claims manager FFP (Cayman) Limited, led by Richard Lewis and Nicola Cowan; Cayman Islands attorneys Walkers (Cayman) LLP, led by Matt Goucke and Shelley White; and counsel Stephen Atherton KC, Sarah Tresman, and Patrick Dunn-Walsh of Twenty Essex.

Source: Google News KY — Crime