top of page
Writer's pictureTERRA SS

Proving Misrepresentation in Arbitration Proceedings

About the rubric: In series of publications we tell you more about diferent cases we worked on in our practice. The aim is to show the nature of our work, how we solved complicated issues and how we manage crises protecting the interests of our clients. We respect the privacy of those who trust us which is why we will not mention brands and names in tese publications.


Our client faced a large-scaled arbitration proceedings, initiated against him on grounds of an alleged breach of a signed contract for conducting an infrastructure project between the plaintiffs and the client.


The client vehemently denied the mere existence of the contract, let alone signing it, and needed to gather evidence to prove that the contract was never signed and the business relations subject of the contract had never occurred.


The client, who is a large and well-established player in the market, argued that the plaintiffs misrepresented their size and essence and claimed that it is unlikely that it would get involved in a significant infrastructure contract with companies of such size, as suggested by the alleged contract.


TERRA-SS succeeded in gathering relevant intelligence that demonstrated that there is a considerable doubt in regards to the existence of any business activity of the plaintiffs, and thus undermined the representations submitted by the plaintiffs in regards to the scope and volume of their business.


A thorough investigation which included researching both open sources and typically inaccessible sources, as well as actively approaching relevant individuals, proved that the plaintiff presented a false picture of his conduct. It showed that there were no employees in any of the plaintiffs companies in the past or present, that a person who was mentioned by the plaintiffs as one of their employees does not exist, that the plaintiffs did not reside in their alleged, official addresses and that all the phone numbers allocated to them had been disconnected.


Furthermore, TERRA-SS performed a comprehensive research regarding several contracts signed by the plaintiffs, which were disclosed in the arbitration.


TERRA-SS managed to reach the signatory of each contract, and managed to get the majority of them confirming that they do not know and have not conducted any business neither with the plaintiffs nor with its director, despite of the fact that they have allegedly signed these contracts. Some other signatories did know the plaintiffs, but have positively refute any business relationship with them, emphasizing that they only had a friendly relationship with the plaintiffs’ director.


TERRA-SS submitted its findings as an expert opinion, as part of the arbitration proceedings.

Comments


bottom of page