The Court of Appeal has handed down its decision on Mr Bedzhamov’s appeal against the decision of HHJ Jarman QC (sitting as a Judge of the High Court) ([2019] EWHC 1906 (Ch)), in which the Judge had determined the Bank’s and the Mr Bedzhamov’s respective cross applications to vary the amount of the ordinary living expenses Mr Bedzhamov was permitted to spend under the terms of a Worldwide Freezing Order (‘the WFO’) freezing his assets in the sum of £1.34 billion. The WFO was obtained earlier this year in support of the claim made by the Bank to recover that sum from Mr Bedzhamov as a result, the Bank says, of his involvement in a massive fraud against it. The leading judgment of Lord Justice Males (with whom Lord Justice Newey agreed; Sir Geoffrey Vos C dissenting in part) contains a review of the authorities and principles governing the amount a defendant should be permitted to spend on his or her ‘ordinary living expenses’ under the terms of a WFO granted in support in a non-proprietary claim.
Romie Tager QC, Philip Kremen and Simon McLoughlin acted for the Bank, both on appeal and below.
The full Judgment can be found here.