UK: Closed Cases

We were instructed on behalf of the former directors of a print design company that had gone into administration following a downturn in business. Shortly before administration, a number of business assets, including goodwill, had been transferred to a new venture. We were asked to value the goodwill, which the administrator alleged had been sold under value. Given that the directors were committed to leaving the company, we demonstrated that the business had negligible future maintainable earnings, and the dispute was settled.

A firm of accountants was accused of professional negligence concerning advice given during a corporate finance transaction in the late 1990s. We were instructed to act on its behalf, and were able to provide highly credible opinion evidence by combining our corporate finance and forensic expertise. Other experts engaged by the co-defendants and the claimants either had little corporate finance experience or were rarely involved in contentious matters. The case was settled during the course of the trial.

A fashion garment company’s goods had been seized by the company responsible for transfer of goods from the manufacturer to partially settle unpaid bills. As part of the action to force the release of these goods, we were asked to testify on the fashion company’s ability to meet any adverse judgment at a notional date in the future. In the face of expert accounting evidence to the contrary, the court preferred ours, which showed that the orders secured by the company and the strength of its current balance sheet meant it was likely that it would be able to meet any such judgment.

We were instructed to assist with an investigation into a suspected international boiler room operation. Our work involved investigating the backgrounds of a number of individuals from the UK and several overseas jurisdictions, analysing a large volume of financial and non-financial information, and assessing whether the relevant regulatory and statutory reporting requirements had been complied with. As a result of our investigation and findings, the matter was settled out of court.

A firm specialising in white-collar crime defence work appointed us on behalf of a client accused of theft and false accounting from the IT training businesses he ran. After a review of the work undertaken by the Crown’s forensic expert, it was apparent that many of the transfers from the business to the defendant’s personal credit cards were used to repay balances relating to the purchase of equipment and services for the company. We also looked at a number of the supplier companies and were able to trace transactions back to genuine invoices addressed to the training business for goods that were delivered. Following the disclosure of our witness statement, the Crown dropped the charges in relation to these companies.

We were instructed by the defendants in an action for breach of warranty, following the sale of a leisure business. It was claimed that the value of the acquired company was less than the consideration paid, which had allegedly been based on warranted management accounts for a short period before the sale. Using a co-ordinated approach to quantify the realistic valuation effect of a restatement of the warranted management accounts, we were able to reduce the implied damages substantially. This led to a favourable settlement for the defendant before the trial.

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