Enyo Law has successfully had claims of fraud and unlawful means conspiracy brought by the di Montezemolo family against Federico Faleschini, a former senior executive at the XY Group, and current board director of Twinkle Capital SA (“Twinkle”), dismissed in their entirety. The judgment follows a 7-week trial in the Commercial Court between October to December of 2024.

The Claimants were members of an ultra-high net worth family including: (i) Luca Cordero di Montezemolo (“LDM”) (the former Chairman of Ferrari); (ii) Matteo Cordero di Montezemolo (“MDM”); and (iii) G.I. Globinvestment Limited (“GIG”), the London-based family office used by the di Montezemolo family to make and hold investments which were subject of the claim.

The claims arose out of investments made in a Luxembourg alternative investment fund called the “Skew Base Fund”, for sophisticated investors. A significant portion of the Claimants’ investments collapsed in March 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit resulting in the financial markets suffering a severe fall, amounting in the Claimants’ losses of approximately EUR50 million.

The Claimants alleged that (a) Mr Faleschini fraudulently made a number of representations at the initial meetings in 2016 which were attended by the Claimants and/or their representatives and Daniele Migani (“Mr Migani”), a wealth manager and owner of XY UK ERS Limited (“XY”) and Mr Faleschini about XY’s independence; and (b) in relation to the unlawful means conspiracy claim, Mr Faleschini was a co-conspirator with all of the other Defendants including Mr Migani, XY, Twinkle, two fund management entities. From the outset, Mr Faleschini robustly denied the serious and baseless allegations advanced against him.

The case against Mr Faleschini collapsed during cross-examination when MDM gave evidence that he did not rely on anything that Mr Faleschini had said and LDM did not know who he was [106]. Notwithstanding the embarrassing spectacle of LDM’s cross-examination culminating in the discontinuance of the deceit claims against Mr Faleschini, GIG pursued its fraudulent misrepresentation claims and GIG and MDM pursued their unlawful means conspiracy claims for the remainder of trial.

In a 1410-paragraph judgment, Mr Justice Jacobs dissects each of the claims advanced against Mr Faleschini and all of the other Defendants in detail before dismissing the claims in their entirety.  Notably for civil fraud practitioners, Jacobs J also concurred with the Defendants’ submissions that there was an element of “reverse engineering” of the claim “i.e. advancing a case on the basis of the result to be achieved, rather than on the basis of the actual facts”. [106]

The Claimants have been ordered to pay Mr Faleschini’s costs on the indemnity basis as well as repayment of costs paid by Mr Faleschini in relation to a strike-out application.

Mr Faleschini has been embroiled in a “bitterly fought” litigation and the subject of serious allegations of fraud and deliberate wrongdoing since late 2020. The judgment clears Mr Faleschini of the serious and groundless claims brought against him.

The Enyo Law team comprised: Timothy Elliss, and Krupa Vekaria, instructing Philip Ahlquist of Fountain Court Chambers.