Frozen Funds, Sinking Deals: Navigating bank delays in ship sales – who should pay?

In the fast-paced world of ship sale and purchase (S&P), timing is everything. When millions of dollars are expected to change hands promptly between counterparties, even short delays can derail closing timelines, lead to contractual defaults, and trigger costly disputes.

With the decline of traditional payment letters and conditional SWIFT messages in maritime transactions, escrow arrangements and balance pre-positioning have become the standard mechanism for de-risking payment flows in ship sales. However, this shift has introduced new complexities. Increasingly, … Read the rest

Justices rule out “commingled funds” theory in Hungarian Holocaust survivors’ compensation suit

Justices rule out “commingled funds” theory in Hungarian Holocaust survivors’ compensation suit

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A unanimous Supreme Court on Friday threw out a ruling by a federal appeals court that allowed a lawsuit brought by survivors of the Hungarian Holocaust to go forward. The survivors contended that their claims fell within an exception to the general presumption that foreign governments cannot be sued in U.S. courts because Hungary and its national railway confiscated their property, sold it, and mixed it with their other funds to do business in and with the United States. … Read the rest

IFSCA Relaxes Rules for Family Investment Funds in GIFT City

Fund structures are gaining popularity among wealthy individuals in India as optimum structures to help with wealth planning, investments, and tax management. Family offices are viewing GIFT City, India’s first international financial services centre (“IFSC”), for the purpose of facilitating global investments in a structured manner. 

The IFSC funds regime envisages a ‘Family Investment Fund’ (“FIF”) as a self-managed fund set up in the IFSC for pooling money from a ‘single family’. FIFs can be set … Read the rest