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Collecting Judgments in International Jurisdictions
Partner George Calhoun recently secured a significant victory for a client in a long running effort to collect a multibillion dollar judgment.
The firm’s client, Motorola Solutions Credit Company LLC, secured a judgment in the United States against defendants who had sought to defraud the company. In an attempt to avoid collection, the judgment debtors refused to provide discovery and hid their assets – using multiple nominee owners and shell companies all over the world. Working with talented investigators, George located significant assets held through shell companies in far flung jurisdictions like Hong Kong, Singapore and Jordan.
George Calhoun led the effort to domesticate Motorola Solutions’ judgment in those foreign jurisdictions and collect from the defendants. Ifrah’s team successfully navigated the disparate foreign laws and obtained judgment in Hong Kong and Singapore. In response to those collection efforts, the debtors attempted to sell off assets held through a Jordanian holding company, which was itself the principle asset of the Hong Kong and Singapore entities. Ifrah’s team succeeded in obtaining an injunction and then getting receivers appointed to halt the attempted transfer of assets. Through the receivership process, Ifrah eventually achieved the sale of the Jordanian company’s primary asset – a controlling interest in a Jordanian bank. That sale closed in January 2017 and Ifrah’s client received over $50 million from the sales proceeds in March, 2017.
We continue to seek full enforcement of the judgment through the continued search, identification and liquidation of the judgment debtors’ assets across international jurisdictions.
This case highlights Ifrah Law’s strong ability to follow up on judicial success by creating and implementing successful strategies to locate and collect judgments, especially in a global context. George, who leads our Financial Services and Commercial Litigation practice, brings litigation savvy coupled with decades of experience in insolvency and creditor’s rights law to our team. Over the course of his career, he has developed a strong network of relationships with international lawyers, regulators and organizations, giving him the ability to skillfully navigate domestic and overseas jurisdictions with widely divergent legal systems for the ultimate benefit of his clients.
IFRAH Law