Summary

Introduction and background

The Additional Appellant, Mr Seamus Andrew, is a barrister and solicitor who acted for the Defendant, Process & Industrial Developments Limited ("P&ID") in an arbitration against the Respondent ("FRN") arising from FRN's breach of a Gas Supply and Processing Agreement ("GSPA") dated 11 January 2010. By an Award dated 31 January 2017, the arbitral tribunal (Sir Anthony Evans, Chief Bayo Ojo SAN and Lord Hoffmann) found that P&ID's claim against FRN succeeded and awarded it U.S.$6.6 billion damages. In October 2017, after the arbitration had concluded, Mr Andrew became a director of P&ID when his company, Lismore Capital Limited ("Lismore"), acquired a stake in P&ID.

By an application made on 5 December 2019, FRN challenged the Award and other Awards made in the arbitration proceedings before the Commercial Court under section 68(2)(g) of the Arbitration Act 1996 on the grounds that the Awards had been procured by fraud and that the GSPA and the arbitral process were tainted by bribery, corruption and perjury. Following an eight week trial between January and March 2023, the judge, Robin Knowles J, handed down a detailed judgment on 23 October 2023, running to 595 paragraphs, in which he found that three separate irregularities brought the case within section 68(2)(g): (i) Mr Michael Quinn, co-founder with a Mr Cahill of P&ID had knowingly given false evidence in the arbitration, concealing bribes paid by P&ID to Mrs Grace Taiga, Director of Legal at the Ministry of Petroleum Resources when the GSPA was entered, in connection with its entry; (ii) P&ID continued to pay bribes to Mrs Taiga during the period of the arbitration in order to conceal from the tribunal the fact that she had been bribed; and (iii) P&ID had improperly retained and utilised internal legal documents of FRN that it had received during the arbitration.

So far as that third irregularity is concerned, the judge found that P&ID had received a number of FRN's internal legal documents, various examples of which he set out in the judgment, including many documents which were plainly subject to legal professional privilege, were confidential to FRN and were documents which P&ID was not entitled to see. As he found at [211] of the judgment, the documents were transmitted to P&ID deliberately by the individuals in Nigeria who procured them. Their release to and retention by P&ID was not authorised by FRN. Among those acting for P&ID who received the FRN internal legal documents were Mr Cahill, Mr Andrew and Mr Trevor Burke. Mr Andrew had the conduct of the arbitration, initially assisted by Harcus Sinclair LLP, as solicitors of record for P&ID in the arbitration. The representation moved to his own firm, SC Andrew LLP, in September 2014, when he became a partner there. In December 2012, Mr Burke, a criminal law QC (now KC) who was a nephew of Mr Michael Quinn, was sent a file of documents to read into P&ID's claim.

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