Investment Recovery

2016, Japan

Clients of Deminor reached an in-court settlement before the Tokyo District Court on 26 December 2016 on the Olympus case, where they will recover 45%  of their recoverable losses for which they claimed compensation in the lawsuit. A group of more than 60 institutional investors syndicated by Deminor sought the reimbursement of damages for losses suffered following the revelation in 2011 of a decade-long fraudulent scheme at Olympus. The stock price lost more than half of its value following the announcement of accounting irregularities. Upon payment, this settlement represents the highest recovery thus far achieved by non-Japanese investors, relative to the amount of their claims, in any of the lawsuits settled so far by Olympus.

2017, U.S.

Deminor filed claims with the Madoff Victim Fund for more than 4,000 investors.  These investors had collectively suffered more than USD 200m of losses in connection with the Ponzi scheme run by the New York-based broker Bernard Madoff. The Madoff Victim Fund was set up by the U.S. Department of Justice to indemnify the victims of the Madoff fraud. As part of the filing process, investors needed to provide evidence for the existence of an investment chain between themselves and Bernard Madoff Investment Securities LLC. The filing process took around 4 years to completion and first distributions from the fund were made at the end of 2017. 

2018, Cayman Islands

Deminor advised shareholders of Zhaopin, the operator of the leading online recruitment platform in the People’s Republic of China, in connection with a merger proposed by its controlling shareholder SEEK International Investments Pty Ltd.  Zhaopin has its operational headquarters in Beijing, China. The company’s shares were listed as American Depositary Shares in New York, and its registered office is in the Cayman Islands. As part of the merger, Deminor’s clients were forced to tender their shares against a cash payment. Deminor’s clients believed that the consideration offered for their shares was below fair value. Consequently, they filed a petition with the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, where Zhaopin has its registered office, to have the court determine the shares’ fair value. In 2018, a settlement was reached.

2017, Luxembourg

Deminor advised and represented more than 800 investors in the Luxembourg-based investment fund Herald Lux SICAV, which went into liquidation after the New York broker Bernard Madoff admitted that he had operated a large-scale Ponzi scheme. Deminor’s clients sued Herald Lux and its custodian bank HSBC Security Services.  In 2017, a settlement was reached between all parties involved in the litigation. The settlement with HSBC and further settlements reached between Herald Lux and the Madoff estate will allow Herald Lux investors to recover a significant portion of their losses through Deminor.

2017, Italy

A group of former minority institutional and private shareholders of La Fondiaria Assicurazioni (“Fondiaria”), advised and assisted by Deminor, reached a settlement with UnipolSai and Mediobanca. The investors’ claims had stemmed from the takeover of Fondiaria in 2002 by a consortium of bidders. Following a long court battle up to the Court of Cassation, Deminor’s clients were able to recover a substantial part of damages claimed. Settlement terms have not been publicly disclosed.

2015, France

Deminor obtained a judgement before the court of appeal of Paris for its clients who suffered losses as a result of misleading information. The court of appeal of Paris awarded damages between 50% and 80% of the loss.