In a judgment handed down yesterday in Giwa v JNFX & Others [2025] EWCA Civ 961, the Court of Appeal upheld the decision of the High Court, to the extent that it found a foreign exchange services provider, JNFX, liable in deceit for the actions of its agent, Mr. Mervyn, who disappeared after failing to exchange sums worth US$10 million. The decision leaves JNFX responsible for the deceit and resulted in an order for repayment of substantial sums advanced by Mr. Giwa, totalling around Naira 4.9 billion. The court also upheld the dismissal of JNFX’s attempt to rely on its standard terms of business. Mr Giwa’s other claims will proceed to trial.
The judgment reaffirms the scope for a court to reach fraud findings on an interim basis, as well as underlining that, whilst mini trials are to be avoided on summary judgment applications, the court can still conduct a critical and realistic evaluation of the evidence.
The decision can be read here.
4 New Square Chambers’ Matthew Bradley KC acted for the Respondent leading Rumen Cholakov of 3 Verulum Buildings and was instructed by Jonathan Tickner, Vlad Meerovich, and Stefan Ansah of Peters & Peters Solicitors LLP.
This decision follows on from Matthew’s June victory in the Court of Appeal in Kireeva v Zolotova [2025] EWCA Civ 847, in which the Court of Appeal also upheld a decision of the High Court, in which findings of bad faith were made on a summary judgment application.
That decision can be read here.
Matthew was instructed by Smeetesh Kakkad of Gresham Legal in Kireeva v Zolotova.
