Executive Alleging Dechert Hack Gets Fraud Judgment Tossed

An aviation executive who claims Dechert assisted in a hacking scheme against him scored a win in a UK court this week that could carry implications for his civil racketeering lawsuit against the firm.

A judge on March 25 set aside a fraud judgment against Farhad Azima that Azima said stemmed from a hack-and-dump of his email communications by Ras Al Khaimah, one of the United Arab Emirates. Azima has alleged that Dechert, a former legal adviser for the emirate, aided the scheme.

This is an “egregious case and it has had the somewhat extraordinary consequence that they obtained judgments by fraud,” said Justice Michael Green, according to a transcript of a March 25 hearing produced in Azima’s lawsuit against Dechert in New York federal court.

Green in his order also entered a judgment against the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority in Azima’s hacking claim. He ordered the emirate to pay roughly £6 million ($7.5 milion) in legal costs. The ruling also included an order to pay £14.2 million ($17.9 million) for Azima’s “pecuniary loss.”

The judgment caps a near decade-long fraud dispute in the UK between Azima and the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority, and it comes as Azima still pursues two lawsuits in the US against parties including Dechert and its former partner Neil Gerrard for aiding the alleged hack.

“My fight does not stop here,” Azima said in a statement, adding that he “remains committed to compelling” advisers such as Dechert and Gerrard “to account for the part they played in orchestrating RAKIA’s ploys against me.”

The emirate, which stopped participating in proceedings in the UK dispute in 2022, could not be immediately reached for comment. It has previously denied any involvement in the hack.

“The Dechert parties resolved their part in Mr. Azima’s claim earlier this year without any admission of liability,” the firm said in a statement. Prior to Monday’s order, the firm had agreed to pay $3.8 million (£3 million) plus “reasonable costs” to resolve Azima’s claims in the UK.

Azima, a US-based executive who once had a business relationship with Ras Al Khaimah and its investment fund, has claimed in US court filings that he became a target of the emirate over his work to publicize human rights abuses in the country.

His hacking claims came in response to a successful lawsuit Ras Al Khaimah brought against him in the UK for allegedly making fraudulent misrepresentations to its investment fund in a previous commercial agreement.

Azima claimed that the investment fund, with help from its legal counsel Dechert, orchestrated a scheme to steal and publish his emails online and that the judgment was therefore fraudulent.

The emirate hired Dechert’s Gerrard, a London-based partner who retired in 2020, in 2013 to assist an investigation into the former CEO of its investment fund. Gerrard and other lawyers at the firm later aided a hack and assisted in its cover-up, according to a civil racketeering suit Azima filed in the Southern District of New York in 2022.

Dechert has denied any wrongdoing and has moved to dismiss the US lawsuit.

Azima’s US lawyers argued in a Tuesday filing that the UK court decision “adds significant credibility” to his case against Dechert.

Azima is also preparing for a trial set for September against a private investigator who allegedly helped spearhead the hacking operation after being hired by Dechert. Dechert’s general counsel, Benjamin Rosenberg, was deposed Feb. 29 by Azima’s lawyers in that matter.