Litigation & Dispute Resolution

• Acting for a major bank in a Singapore High Court action against a corporate guarantor of the bank’s borrower in a claim valued at over US$ 30 million involving interesting legal issues relating to forum shopping, the defence of illegality, and the enforceability of certain “no set-off” clauses in the corporate guarantee by the Singapore Courts.

• Acting for the Singapore subsidiaries of one of the world’s largest marine energy transportation, storage, and production businesses listed on the New York Stock Exchange against one of China’s largest shipbuilders in respect of a pre-action discovery application relating to certain EPC contracts for vessels valued at approximately US$ 180 million.

• Acted for a luxury yacht broker in the Singapore Court of Appeal to overturn the decision of the High Court in relation to a claim brought by an ex-customer for the return of a EUR 1 million deposit.

• Acted for a paper trading company incorporated in Singapore in a claim against its trade-credit insurer before the Singapore High Court for non-payment by its Indian counterparty due to the non-supply of goods by the client’s Russian suppliers. The action against the client’s trade-credit insurer was resolved through negotiation where partial payment was secured for our client.

• Acted for a British Virgin Island (“BVI”) entity based in Hong Kong SAR in a share pledge dispute involving a claim exceeding US$ 250 million relating to shares of a company listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ. Successfully secured a Mareva injunction in the Singapore High Court against the lender company and its manager / employee based on a claim for fraudulent misrepresentation and/or breach of contract. Also successfully resisted both an application by the defendants for a stay of court proceedings in favour of arbitration as well as an application for a Tomolugen case-management stay.

• Successfully acted for a Russian client company to resist the defendants’ appeal seeking to overturn a summary judgment that had been secured on behalf of the client.

• Successfully acted for a Singapore fuel-oil supplier in an international arbitration dispute administered by the SIAC involving issues relating to whether a valid contract has been entered into, and the mitigation of damages.

• Acting for a major Vietnamese mobile content distribution and media services company in a multi-million-dollar international M&A arbitration dispute with their Korean counterparts before a three-member Tribunal. The case involves interesting conflict of laws issues as well as issues relating to the attribution of the criminal acts and knowledge of a company’s key management personnel to a company.

Fraud & Asset Recovery

• Successfully acted in obtaining a Mareva injunction in the Singapore High Court against two ex-employees of a Russian company and certain BVI entities controlled by these ex-employees based on information obtained from the online ICIJ Offshore Leaks Database. The action relates to a Russian company’s recovery claim for corrupt commission payments made by its commercial counterparties to the Singapore bank accounts of the Russian company’s two ex-employees and the BVI entities controlled by them.

• Worked with Brunei lawyers in successfully obtaining a Mareva injunction in the Brunei High Court against the majority shareholders and directors of a Brunei International Business Company (“IBC”) in the O&G industry. Also worked with Bruneian lawyers to obtain an injunction in the Brunei High Court to reinstate the minority shareholder as a director of the IBC in a minority oppression action.

• Secured a US$ 5 billion Mareva injunction as well as a sealing order on behalf of one of the largest banks in Central Asia in respect of a massive fraud perpetrated by the bank’s former chairman and by other individuals and entities associated with the bank’s former chairman. The Mareva injunction secured in Singapore is one of the largest seen by the Singapore Courts and was part of a co-ordinated effort to simultaneously obtain freezing orders in jurisdictions across the world including the UK, Hong Kong SAR, Luxembourg, and Cyprus.

• Acted for a Middle Eastern national bank in the Singapore High Court involving claims valued at over US$14 million against defendants who had perpetrated an elaborate fraud by incorporating various companies to impersonate entities related to multinational oil majors such as British Petroleum and Total in order to induce the bank to extend trade credit facilities. Mareva injunctions were successfully secured against the defendants. We also assisted the bank to obtain partial recovery through enforcement proceedings to seize gold bars belonging to the defendants.

• Acted for a Canadian-incorporated company to secure a US$3.9 million Mareva order against the Singapore bank account of a Hong Kong incorporated company as part of a worldwide Bitcoin sale and purchase fraud involving parties from various jurisdictions including Canada, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong SAR, Malaysia, and Singapore.

• Acted for a financial services firm and worked together with the local authorities to stop and recover US$500,000 which were transferred out of the client’s bank account further to a cyber fraud, and wired to a bank account in Hong Kong SAR.

• Singapore Business Review recognises Lionel as one of Singapore’s top 20 lawyers aged 40 and under.

• Legal 500 Asia Pacific highlights Lionel as a name to note for his work in Dispute Resolution.

• Lionel has been commended in Asialaw Profiles for displaying outstanding client service. Clients praised him for his “good knowledge of Singapore law” and commended Lionel for being “very hard-working and patient”.