Seohyung Kim

Seohyung is frequently instructed in high profile commercial disputes, a number of which involve allegations of fraud, including conspiracy, deceit, knowing receipt, dishonest assistance and the payment and receipt of bribery/secret commissions. Seohyung is familiar with injunctions and interlocutory applications in the commercial and civil fraud context, including security for costs, pre-action disclosure, Norwich Pharmacal applications.

Seohyung has a degree in maths and is at ease handling complex expert evidence and all things numbers including forensic accountancy evidence, financial projections and valuations, complex financial and banking instruments and transactions.

Featured Commercial & Civil Fraud cases

• Hua She Asset Management v Kei Kin Hung (Comm): Contempt of Court/Committal proceedings following freezing order and order for asset disclosure in a claim to enforce a multi-million dollar Shanghai arbitration award. Successful adjournment application on behalf of the defendant before a three-day trial in March 2024;
• Afan Valley Limited v Lupton Fawcett and others [2024] EWHC 909 (KB): successful strike-out application of a £68m claim by investors against law firm that gave advice on whether an investment scheme (which turned out to be a Ponzi scheme by a fraudster) was a collective investment scheme under FSMA 2000. Dealing with MBS v Grant Thornton questions in respect of scope of duty, causal nexus, loss;
• Clifford Chance v Societe Generale [2023] EWHC 2682 (Comm): Acting for Societe Generale in challenging the jurisdiction of the Court in a professional negligence matter flowing from the Goldas Dispute in which £384m of gold bullion were misappropriated. Seohyung obtained a stay pending the appeal at the consequentials hearing, and the appeal is being heard by the Court of Appeal in October 2024;
• A v B (Comm.): Pre-action proceedings against a magic circle firm for negligent transactional work resulting in £25m of loss;
• Fibula Air Travel v Just Us Air [2023] EWHC 1049 (Comm): Acting for the claimant travel company in a successful amendment application, involving issues of estoppel by Res Judicata, Henderson v Henderson abuse, collateral attack, issue estoppel;
• Luxx PCC Limited (in liquidation) and others v EFG Bank and others (Guernsey): Acting for the defendant directors in a claim brought by twenty-two shareholders and the liquidators of the company for misrepresentation of share particulars (analogous to s.90/90A FSMA 2000) and for negligent management of the company with loss pleaded at £80m+. Successful security for costs application, successful strike out/summary judgment application;
• A v B (Comm.): Pre-action proceedings against an auditor for negligent audit work of a green fuel company now in liquidation, whose fraudulent director misappropriated sums from the company.
• Bonnier v Haysmacintyre (Comm.): Acting for the Defendant auditor in a substantial professional negligence claim for damages in excess of £80m in connection with an alleged management fraud (settled);
• Insurance Dispute (Confidential): Acting for one of the first excess insurers in a coverage dispute concerning the aggregation of more than a hundred claims under a block notification in excess of £500m;
• ARA v CMS Cameron Mckenna Nabarrow Olswang LLP (KBD): Acting in a claim against a magic circle firm for the negligent preparation of transactional documents, involving trusts principles (settled);
• Henderson & Jones v Veolia: (Acting in breach of contract claim involving a waste processing facility (settled);
• A v B, C (LCIA, confidential): Defending a shareholder against allegations of conspiracy and receipt of bribery and secret commissions following the breakup of a hotel group worth £1 billion (led by Hugh Jory KC);
• A v B (LCIA, confidential): Acting in a £70m+ fraud claim arising out of a failed public-sector healthcare IT implementation, which was the largest ever IT public procurement project in the UK and has been the subject of Parliamentary scrutiny (settled);
• A v B (ICC, confidential): Acting in a claim concerning fraud, corruption and secret commissions in relation to the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in North Africa and long-term gas supply agreement, in excess of several billions of pounds (settled).
• Barnett, Bune v Crouch: Defeating a pre-action disclosure application where wide-ranging allegations of conflict of interest by a fiduciary, dishonesty and professional negligence had been made against a financial director/accountant.
• Swindon Town Football v Axis Football Investments (ChD): Acting in a claim brought by a former footballer against the chairman of a footballer concerning the sale of a Club, in an application to restrain the presentation of a winding up petition and the fortification of an undertaking given in an injunction.