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Commercial People Moves

ClaimShare Joins The European Litigation Funders Association (ELFA)

By Harry Moran |

The European Litigation Funders Association (ELFA) is pleased to announce that Dutch collective claim manager and aggregator ClaimShare, has joined ELFA as an associate member. 

“ClaimShare‘s mission is to support people and SMEs that have suffered harm and seek redress from corporate wrongdoers. ClaimShare does this by bundling their claims and providing professional services to organizations that represent the claimants’ interests. Seeking the appropriate litigation funder is a crucial part of that service and for access to justice in general. For years, ClaimShare has advocated the necessity and added value of a dedicated litigation funding association in the EU. The establishment of ELFA is crucial to better inform clients, the legal industry and policy makers in the EU of the essential role litigation funding plays and its mechanics, as well as develop and foster best practices”, said Dirk Jan van den Broek, Managing Director of ClaimShare. 

Omni Bridgeway‘s Managing Director and ELFA Chairman, Wieger Wielinga, expressed his enthusiasm about ClaimShare joining as an associate member. He stated, “ELFA is delighted to have ClaimShare on board. With Dirk Jan and the broader ClaimShare team, we gain a wealth of experience accumulated through years of assisting claimants and interest organizations, specifically in the European Union in obtaining the redress they might not have otherwise achieved. Their perspective as a claims manager and aggregator will significantly contribute to our organization’s mission and benefit the entire industry.” 

About The European Litigation Funders Association: 

ELFA was founded by three leading litigation funders with a European footprint, and today includes almost all European litigation funders. ELFA, was established to serve as the European voice of the commercial litigation funding industry. With the objective of representing the industry’s interests before governmental bodies, international organizations and professional associations, ELFA also aims to act as a clearinghouse and reference for relevant information, research and data regarding the uses and applications of commercial legal finance within the European continent. ELFA aims to be inclusive for all professional litigation funders of larger or smaller size and to allow specific contributing market participants and academics as associate members. 

About ClaimShare: 

ClaimShare exists to support individuals and interest groups to set up and manage class actions and group actions advancing equitable access to justice. ClaimShare has successfully initiated several well-known impactful claims, helping its clients obtain legal redress regarding leaking silicone breast implants, wrongful electricity pricing and metals fraud.

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Harry Moran

Harry Moran

Commercial

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Case Developments Commercial

SEC Sues Father and Son over Fraudulent Mass Tort Funding Scheme

Whilst litigation finance is now a mature and established industry, this does not stop rogue actors from engaging in fraudulent schemes to try and reap personal benefit at the expense of unwitting investors.

Reporting by Bloomberg Law provides details on a lawsuit brought by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) against a father and son in Florida who are accused of using a supposed litigation funding scheme to defraud investors out of $125,000. The lawsuit filed last Friday alleges that Michael Chhabra and Vineet “Vincent” Chhabra set up Tort Fund LLC in April 2019, claiming that the company would provide litigation finance to law firms, when in reality the pair used it as a personal fund for their own legal fees and miscellaneous expenses.

The SEC’s suit, which was filed in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, claims that Tort Fund LLC’s owners had advertised the fund as a way for investors to support mass tort cases being brought against medical device and household product manufacturers, but did not enter into any funding agreements with law firms to do so. The $125,000 raised was then used to cover legal costs in Michael Chhabra’s own bankruptcy proceedings, paying for the pair’s personal expenses, with around $40,000 spent on maintaining the fraudulent scheme by paying individuals who solicited new investors. 

In its lawsuit, the SEC is asking the court to impose civil penalties and pay out the profits from the scheme, and to prohibit the pair from running any companies that have a class of securities registered in the future. The SEC’s filing can be read here.

Case Developments Commercial

Dutch Supreme Court Denies Sulu Heirs’ Appeal to Enforce Arbitration Award

The long-running dispute between Malaysia and the heirs to the Sultanate of Sulu has been one of the most high-profile cases in recent years, and one that has generated plenty of debate about the role of litigation funders in legal proceedings targeting national governments. A new development in the dispute has seen the Sulu heirs receive yet another unfavourable judgement, with potentially negative implications for their litigation funder, Therium Capital Management.

Articles in Bloomberg Law and Solicitors Journal covers last week’s ruling from the Supreme Court of the Netherlands, which dismissed the Sulu heirs’ appeal to enforce the disputed arbitration award given out by arbitrator Dr. Gonzalo Stampa in Paris. As a result of the Dutch Court’s ruling, the Sulu claimants will now have to cover the legal costs for the appeal and have lost the opportunity to enforce the award by seizing Malyasian assets in that jurisdiction. The finality of this ruling represents a blow to Therium, which invested $20 million in the Sulu heirs’ claim.

Azalina Othman Said, minister in the Malaysian Prime Minister’s Department (Law and Institutional Reform), stated: “Malaysia welcomes this landmark ruling as a momentous victory for the rule of law, representing a further step towards the end of the Sulu case and the preservation of the sanctity of international arbitration as an alternative form of dispute resolution.”

Therium did not respond to Bloomberg Law’s request for comment at the time of publication.

Commercial People Moves

Aperture Investors Hires Luke Darkow to Launch Litigation Finance Strategy 

Aperture Investors, an alternative asset manager and part of the Generali Investments platform, today announced that Luke Darkow has joined the firm to lead its new private credit Litigation Finance strategy. 

Darkow joins Aperture from Victory Park Capital, a global alternative investment manager, where he was a Principal and Portfolio Manager responsible for sourcing, analyzing, executing, and managing investments within the litigation finance asset class. Prior to Victory Park Capital, Darkow held roles at TPG Capital and Morgan Stanley. 

"With Aperture entering its next phase of growth, we see significant potential in specialty lending, particularly in litigation finance, which we believe remains a relatively underbanked asset class. Estimates suggest that the litigation finance market could double annually through 2035," said Peter Kraus, Chief Executive Officer and Founder, Aperture Investors. “Litigation Finance is a niche, relationship-driven sector—and Luke is no tourist. His expertise in both private and public debt investments, his deep network of law firms and legal service providers, and his ability to source opportunities and raise capital will allow us to build out this unique offering at Aperture.”

Litigation Finance involves the provision of third-party capital to help finance law firms or plaintiffs pursuing legal claims in exchange for, or collateralized by, a percentage of proceeds received upon the successful resolution of legal disputes. Aperture’s Litigation Finance strategy will primarily provide structured loans to law firms backed by expected legal fee receivables from procedurally mature, settled, and/or short duration legal cases, targeting uncorrelated returns.

“I’m incredibly pleased to join Aperture and help drive the firm into new opportunities in private credit with this niche, asset-based lending strategy,” commented Darkow. “As Aperture expands its slate of strategies and products, I’m also attracted to the intellectual horsepower and best-in-class infrastructure within the broader firm.” 

About Aperture Investors 

Aperture is an alternative asset management firm offering credit and equity strategies in commingled and bespoke portfolios for institutional investors. Aperture's mission is outperformance, and it is focused on identifying portfolio managers who it believes have a unique edge and can consistently deliver innovative, solutions-oriented investment results throughout market cycles. Since inception, Aperture has steadily grown its breadth of products, and as of August 31st, it manages approximately $4 billion. Its investment strategies are diversified across asset classes and geographies – each managed by a dedicated investment team – with distribution across North America, Europe, Middle East and Asia. 

Aperture Investors was founded in 2018 and is led by industry veteran Peter Kraus and by Generali, one of the largest global insurance and asset management providers. For more about Aperture, visit us at www.apertureinvestors.com.

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