The consequences of the significant rise in investment fraud during the global lockdown arising from Covid 19 are still being felt by victims. Many of whom will feel a life-long impact from their losses.

Joanna Bailey, who heads Giambrone & Partners' banking and fraud litigation team, has achieved a significant achievement on behalf of one of our defrauded clients, having successfully obtained a judgment against a broker for the entire sum of our client's losses together with interest amounting to a total of £496,019.00, as well as an order for our client's legal costs in the sum of £81,154.80.

Joanna Bailey commented "our client lost her life savings to the fraudsters and we are delighted that the court recognised the position our client was placed in.  It was a hard-won success with the brokers putting up spurious arguments in order to drag out the proceedings for as long as possible, no doubt in the hope that our client would give up due to the stress and ongoing costs involved." Joanna further remarked "our strategies, developed to match the changing tactics used by fraudsters, plus the tenacity required for a legal challenge, frequently results in successful legal action as in the case in question"

Our client clicked on an advertisement that suggested there was a way of making additional money.  She was then targeted by a persuasive representative of a broker based in Cyprus, Dualix, part of the Maxigrid group which has been banned from trading in the United Kingdom.  Using a well-recognised approach our client was persuaded to open an account and told she would make money, it was implied that she did not need to do anything herself.   Our client was incorrectly told that Dualix was registered with the Financial Conduct Agency (FCA). Our client was unaware that the money she provided would be used to trade in Contracts for Difference (CFD) she was not given the opportunity to substantiate anything that the representative told her.  After a short period of time during which our client provided money to Dualix under instructions from Dualix representative, she was then contacted and told her money had been lost due to her failure to "close the trades" but if she provided more funds this could be remedied.  Our client was slowly but surely lured into parting with more and more money and soon found herself in financial difficulty.  She was then persuaded to provide funds for further trades to enable her to "trade out of the losses".  As with many victims of financial fraud, she had no knowledge of the markets and how they operate and was cleverly deceived and did not recognise the fraud until she had lost her life savings.

The legal battle to recover our client's money began with a protracted challenge, by Dualix, to the question of whether the matter could be heard in the jurisdiction of England & Wales.  After a lengthy legal argument to define the jurisdiction, during which Giambrone & Partners refused to give ground, eventually the lawyers in the banking and financial fraud team were successful. 

Having lost the jurisdiction battle, Dualix then changed tactics and attempted to suggest that our client was a professional trader and again embarked on a number of actions to draw out the legal arguments.  Giambrone & Partners has noticed that the suggestion that the victim of fraud is actually a professional trader is being used more frequently which relies on the fact that the victims have no knowledge of the rules and regulations the financial markets must abide by, allowing the fraudulent brokers manipulate the victims into believing that any type of trading results in being considered to be a professional trader.

Giambrone & Partners easily demonstrated that our client was not a professional trader.  Dualix maintained the position of defending our client's claim. However, after eventually failing to comply with subsequent orders from the court the lawyers in the banking and financial fraud team successfully made an application to the Court for judgment and costs.

Our banking and financial fraud lawyers are knowledgeable and skilled in tracing fraudsters and countering their attempts to avoid legal recourse and the recovery of our clients' funds.  

Joanna Bailey heads the banking and financial fraud team she advises international and UK-based clients in a range of financial services disputes.  Joanna is highly regarded for her meticulous approach and her persistence when investigating international fraud. Her considerable experience and dogged pursuit frequently leads to the successful recovery of funds for clients.  Joanna has enjoyed a substantial level of recovery for our clients, often in cases that did not predict success.

If you are a novice trader and have lost money when trading through a broker you may be the victim of fraud, we can help.