Matthew Goucke
Partner
Cayman Islands
Our IDR team, led by Matthew Goucke and Shelley White, has successfully defended a claim for c. US$300+ million in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands brought by Mr Abdulhameed Jafar, a businessman based in the UAE, against certain former Abraaj group funds, including Walkers' client, an investment fund acting by its general partner.
The proceedings were issued in 2020 and culminated in a hotly contested multi-party 8-week trial, which came to a close in late January 2024.
As reported here , Mr Jafar alleged that, before the high profile collapse of the Abraaj Group (a UAE based private equity group) in 2018, he was deceived by Mr Naqvi (the founder and CEO of the Abraaj Group) into advancing US$300 million by way of loans to entities within or associated with the Abraaj Group, and that Mr Naqvi's conduct should be attributed to entities within certain investment funds. The alleged deception was said to be a series of implied, oral misrepresentations made at a meeting between Messrs Jafar and Naqvi in Dubai over six years ago.
On 25 July 2025, the Honourable Justice Segal handed down judgment, dismissing Mr Jafar's claims in their entirety. The judgment is currently subject to confidentiality restrictions.
Walkers' highly experienced and capable team, including Jonathan Turner, Patrick McConvey, Laure-Astrid Wigglesworth, Charlotte Raynor and Florence Allan, along with Stephen Atherton KC, Sarah Tresman and Patrick Dunn-Walsh (of Twenty Essex Chambers), James Norris-Jones, Naomi Tarawali and Georgina Rawson of Cleary Gottlieb Steen and Hamilton in London, supported Claims Manager FFP's Richard Lewis, Nicola Cowan, Kieran Clarke and Jasmine Herrod in this long running, high value and complex dispute.
