Our client and his wife were granted an investor visa that required them to invest AUD 5 million in authorised investments in Australia. However, our client and his wife later separated. Our client was concerned that his now ex-wife would remove part of the investment sum from Australia in breach of their visa requirements and lose the opportunity to apply for a permanent residency visa. Consequently, our client contacted us asking for urgent assistance.
To assist our client, we successfully applied for a Mareva injunction urgently and in a small timeframe restraining our client's ex-wife from accessing the AUD 5 million investment and performed investigation works to determine how the money had been invested. This was all done while our client was in China.
Enforcement of Foreign Judgment
Our client attempted to enforce a foreign judgment for a debt of approximately AUD 1 million by a District Court in China. This debt was for a loan repayable to our client. However, the defendants were in default because they refused to repay the loan and left China. Our client required our services to have the foreign judgment recognised in the Supreme Court of Victoria.
However, this case was difficult for two reasons. Firstly, service of process was difficult due to the defendants' evasion. Secondly, there were concerns over the recognition of the jurisdiction of the District Court of China. Despite these issues, we were successful in our application to the Supreme Court of Victoria to have the foreign judgment recognised.
Negotiating settlements for repaying high interest loans
Our client had entered into a loan agreement for approximately AUD $500,000 at a very high interest rate over a period of two months. Our client was unable to repay the loan and was in default, where the interest rate of the loan doubled. A court order was made against our client requiring our client to sell his Australian property to repay the loan. Our client then engaged our services to assist him in resolving his debt.
Despite the significant debt that our client had incurred, we successfully obtained an injunction preventing the sale of our client's property and successfully negotiated a settlement figure that our client was able to repay.
Enforcement of Arbitration Award
Our client received the benefit of an arbitration award of approximately USD $700,000 by an international commission against an Australian company and wanted to enforce the arbitral award within the Australian jurisdiction. Our services were sought to assist on this.
We successfully applied for and was granted leave to commence civil proceedings against the Australian company. We were also successful in obtaining recognition of the arbitral award in the Federal Court of Australia.
Liquidator claims & director duties
Our client were liquidators who had found evidence that the director of the company they were winding up had made several suspicious transactions, even though the company had a significant debt to another company from a commercial transaction. We were asked to provide assistances in commencing litigation against the director to recover the money.
After reviewing the evidence available we were able to establish a strong case that each of the transactions by the director were uncommercial and that these were a breach of the director's fiduciary duties. Consequently, the director made an offer of settlement that satisfied our client.
Urgently protecting our client's assets from fraud
Our client urgently requested our services after having paid over AUD 2 Million for goods that he never received in accordance with his contract. Our client was extremely concerned about what had happened to his money.
We urgently began investigating the company who had received our client's money and quickly determined that there was a history of fraudulent activity. We urgently went to the court requesting a freezing order over the assets of the company and its directors. With the evidence we had quickly obtained, we were able to have the assets of the company and its directors frozen and protected our client's interests.
Defending a security for costs application
Our client was a Chinese national who had brought a claim against an Australian company in the NSW Supreme Court. However, a security for costs application was brought against our client because he was a Chinese national. However, our client had become impecunious due to the defendant's conduct and could not afford to pay for security.
Through our diligent investigative work into the conduct of the Australian company and legal research we were able to make proper submissions before the court.
Allegations of fraud, breach of trust and misleading and deceptive conduct
Our client requested our services after having paid over AUD 2 Million for goods that he never received in accordance with his contract. Our client was extremely anxious about trying to reclaim his money as quickly as possible, since he had taken several loans to fund the business transaction.
Working closely with our client and lawyers in Vietnam and Pakistan, we uncovered that the Australian company had made statements to our client that were misleading and deceptive, and fraudulent. They also made claims to hold our client's money on trust for him. We quickly compiled a statement of claim against the Australian defendants with a strong amount of evidence in support of those claims that is now ongoing in the Supreme Court of NSW.
Non-litigation
Due Diligence
A state-owned enterprise holding company in Nantong acquired a wholly-owned subsidiary of a company in Australia with an investment of between AUD 30 million and 50 million . Our firm participated in the entire M&A project and conducted legal due diligence on the Australian company head office, its subsidiaries and branches. The contents included the investigation of the company structure of the surveyed company, the assignment and transfer of equity, the review of the transaction structure, the company's holding assets, etc. and issue the Due Diligence report.
A multinational technology company in Hangzhou is going to be listed on Hong Kong H-shares. To meet the requirements of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for review, our firm provided legal due diligence investigations of its Australian subsidiaries, including the review of company qualifications, assets, credit & debt, legal disputes, etc. and a legal opinion was issued in accordance with the requirements of the CSRC.
An asset management company in South Korea acquired commercial assets in Sydney, Australia with a purchase amount of AUD 16-20 million. Our firm participated in the entire M&A project and conducts legal due diligence on the original owner company of the commercial assets. The due diligence covered the acquisition of properties and business.
An investment company in Ningbo acquired Australian commercial real estate for an acquisition amount of AUD 7 million. Our firm conducted due diligence and the transfer of the title on the purchased commercial real estate according to the client's requirements, and conducted property right investigations on the land property rights to inquire whether the land was constrained and affected by debts and other transactions.
A listed company in Sichuan acquired a school in Sydney, Australia with an investment of AUD 10 million. We conducted the relevant legal due diligence on the school in accordance with customer requirements. It mainly investigated the school equity structure, inquired and determined the important statutory licenses required by the authorities, and inquired about any important assets in the acquisition and the assets attached, debts etc.
Migration
Obtaining visa for employee of start-up company
Our services were requested by a start-up financial services company who wished to sponsor an experienced financial services expert who had been employed by a major bank in China and who was bilingual. However, the company had no revenue and a limited financial history at the time the visa by the employee was being applied for.
However, through our diligent work we were able to construct an application that was successful in obtaining approval for the company to sponsor and nominate the employee for a work visa. We were subsequently able to get the employee's visa approved.
Assistance in establishing Australian branch of company
Our client was a state-owned company in China who was interested in establishing an Australian branch of their business and who wished to nominate a few senior members from their management team to work in Australia. They previously had no history of employing Australian citizens in their company.
Working directly with our client we were successful in getting their business sponsor application approved. Our client was able to successfully nominate members of their senior management team for temporary work visas.
Obtaining 188B Visa after two application refusals
Our client is the founder and manager of an experienced corporate management consulting company in China. Our clients' two applications for Business Visa (Significant Investment)-Subclass 188C have been refused, and requested our services to assist in a new application.
After our diligent work into researching the reasons of refusal, we found that the main reason was our client's insufficient evidence in the source of his deposit of 10 million Australian dollars in the Australian bank account.
Working closely with our client, we assisted in submitting documents and making a new application for Business Innovation and Investment (Provisional) Visa- 188B Investor Stream. We were subsequently able to get the visa approved in early 2018.
888C Visa Application
Our client is a well-known entrepreneur in China. After our client was granted with Subclass 188C Visa with our assistances, we were requested again to assist in the application for Business Innovation and Investment (Permanent) Visa- 888C Significant Investor Stream.
Working closely with our client, we assisted in submitting documents and applying for the visa in December 2017. During the assessment, Department of Home Affairs required further documents or information to be submitted. We assisted our client in providing the required documents or information timely. We were subsequently able to get our client's visa approved in May 2018.
