Jia Wei Lee

Trusts, probate and estates: contentious

Jia Wei has significant experience in complex trusts litigation. Much of it concerns substantial wealth (whether belonging to individuals or corporate entities) held offshore, with instructions from jurisdictions including BVI, the Cayman Islands, and Hong Kong.

Before commencing practice, Jia Wei taught equity and trusts at the University of Cambridge and University College London.

A representative sample of his recent instructions includes:

• Raiffeisen International Bank AG v Scully Royalty Ltd. With John Wardell KC. Acting for various defendants in civil fraud proceedings in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, involving claims over €40m under the Cayman Fraudulent Dispositions Law and in conspiracy. This includes two separate appeals on interlocutory matters before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.
• Chia Hsing Wang v Otaibi & Ors. With John Wardell KC, John McGhee KC and Tom Roscoe. Acting in an ongoing dispute between a private individual and his financial advisors about his substantial investments in various offshore investment funds in the Cayman Islands and the BVI (with John Wardell KC and Tom Roscoe).
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a large offshore trust in relation to potential claims in mistake, misrepresentation and under the Re Hastings-Bass jurisdiction arising out of historic dispositions made to the guardian of various beneficiaries.
• (Confidential) Acting for a court-appointed deputy in confidential Court of Protection proceedings relating to the management, investigation, and disposition of a protected person’s assets.
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a multimillion-dollar Guernsey settlement as to any claims in restitution, misrepresentation, breach of trust or mistake that may lie against the beneficiary’s guardian.
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a trust over land, settled for the benefit of a rugby club, as to the. impact on such trust of the dissolution of the rugby club, and its subsequent reconstitution as a limited.

Download Trusts, probate and estates: contentious CV

International / offshore

Jia Wei has significant experience in complex trusts litigation. Much of it concerns substantial wealth (whether belonging to individuals or corporate entities) held offshore, with instructions from jurisdictions including BVI, the Cayman Islands, and Hong Kong.

Before commencing practice, Jia Wei taught equity and trusts at the University of Cambridge and University College London.

A representative sample of his recent instructions includes:

• Raiffeisen International Bank AG v Scully Royalty Ltd. With John Wardell KC. Acting for various defendants in civil fraud proceedings in the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands, involving claims over €40m under the Cayman Fraudulent Dispositions Law and in conspiracy. This includes two separate appeals on interlocutory matters before the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.
• Chia Hsing Wang v Otaibi & Ors. With John Wardell KC, John McGhee KC, and Tom Roscoe. Acting in an ongoing dispute between a private individual and his financial advisors about his substantial investments in various offshore investment funds in the Cayman Islands and the BVI (with John Wardell KC and Tom Roscoe)
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a large offshore trust in relation to potential claims in mistake, misrepresentation and under the Re Hastings-Bass jurisdiction arising out of historic dispositions made to the guardian of various beneficiaries.
• (Confidential) Acting for a court-appointed deputy in confidential Court of Protection proceedings relating to the management, investigation, and disposition of a protected person’s assets.
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a multimillion-dollar Guernsey settlement as to any claims in restitution, misrepresentation, breach of trust or mistake that may lie against the beneficiary’s guardian.
• (Confidential) Advising the trustees of a trust over land, settled for the benefit of a rugby club, as to the impact on such trust of the dissolution of the rugby club, and its subsequent reconstitution as a limited.

Download International / offshore CV

Civil fraud and asset recovery

Jia Wei is often instructed on complex, high-value fraud and conspiracy claims with a multi-jurisdictional element.

Before commencing practice, Jia Wei taught equity and trusts at the University of Cambridge and University College London.

A representative sample of his recent instructions includes:

• Takhar v Gracefield Developments Limited. Acting for the claimant in a case where she alleges that two members of her extended family, by a conspiracy involving repeated lies and undue influence, cheated her out of ownership of 5 properties in Coventry. Judgment was originally given against her in 2010, but Jia Wei (acting with John Wardell KC) secured an order setting aside that original judgment on the basis that it had been procured by the fraud of the defendants. Jia Wei is set to appear for the claimant in a 7-day retrial of her original claim in December 2023.
• Ajayi v Ebury. Acting for the claimant in a case where she alleges that her former employers had procured judgment in their favour by fraud. The client had originally brought a claim in the High Court asserting that she was, in fact, entitled to share options worth several millions of pounds, but was only granted approximately one tenth of her actual options entitlement. She maintains that the defendants managed to procure judgment in their favour by, inter alia, misleading the Court as to the price of its shares.
• Raiffeisen International Bank AG v Scully Royalty Ltd. With John Wardell KC. Acted for the defendants to a claim made under the Cayman Fraudulent Dispositions Act, and in conspiracy, in which the claimants alleged that Jia Wei’s clients had restructured hundreds of millions of pounds in assets, in an effort to defeat obligations owed to RBI. The claim was valued at up to €153m. Jia Wei was initially instructed in an appeal against a freezing order granted against his clients, which was heard over 2 days and resulted in an order limiting the maximum sum on the freezing order.
• Chia Hsing Wang v Otaibi & Ors. With John Wardell KC, John McGhee KC and Tom Roscoe. Acting in an ongoing dispute between a private individual and his financial advisors about his substantial investments in various offshore investment funds in the Cayman Islands and the BVI. Jia Wei’s client has since obtained orders for the appointment of receivers and liquidators over these investment vehicles.
• Ensign House Limited v FEC Development Management Limited & Ors. With Joanne Wicks KC, acting successfully for the claimant developer who had, over several years, assembled a deal to redevelop a development site in Canary Wharf. The claimant alleged that the defendants, a major international development consortium, engaged in a conspiracy with one of the claimant’s agents to misuse confidential information and hijack the deal. Judgment was given in the claimant’s favour after a 6-week trial at the end of 2022.

Download Civil fraud and asset recovery CV