The law’s nuclear weapon: Commercial Court awards highest ever damages under the cross-undertaking of a freezing order after dismissal of oil trading fraud claim

29/10/26

The Commercial Court has today made the largest ever award of damages under the cross-undertaking of a freezing order, following the dismissal of an oil trading fraud claim.

The claimant group of companies (the ‘Arcadia Group’) are part of the business empire of the Norwegian/Cypriot multi-billionaire John Fredriksen. The Arcadia Group was a highly successful oil trading business. In February 2015, the claimants obtained without notice a worldwide freezing and proprietary injunction against the Arcadia Group’s former CEO and CFO, Peter Bosworth and Colin Hurley. The claimants alleged that Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley were the ringleaders of a massive fraud to divert US$325m of profits from the Arcadia Group in respect of its West African oil trading activities.

After a lengthy jurisdiction battle, which went to the Court of Appeal (twice), the Supreme Court and the CJEU, a three-month trial took place in summer 2024. By this point, the sums sought from Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley amounted to US$500m. Mr Justice Henshaw dismissed the claim, finding that the claim was baseless and there had never been any fraud, there had been no diversion of profits, and Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley had acted honestly at all times.

As the ‘price’ of obtaining the freezing order, the claimants had provided a cross-undertaking in damages. After the dismissal of the fraud case, the Court discharged the freezing order and ordered an inquiry into whether, and if so in what amount, the freezing order had caused loss to Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley.

A five-week trial of the inquiry took place in April and May 2026. Mr Justice Henshaw held that, but for the freezing order, Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley would have set up their own oil trading business in 2015, and that there was a real and substantial chance that the business would have succeeded. The Judge assessed that there was a 50% chance of the business achieving the profits claimed.

The precise quantification of the oil trading losses remains to be determined, but the remuneration figures alone due to Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley amount to nearly US$100m and there will be further argument as to the value of the proposed oil trading business.

The Judge also awarded Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley many tens of millions of dollars for the losses that they suffered as a result of the freezing order preventing them from making investments in equities, real estate, and other business opportunities, as well as costs arising from compliance with the freezing order.

Finally, the Court awarded record general damages to Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley for the profound and severe effect that the freezing order had on their lives.

The calculation of the total sums due to Mr Bosworth and Mr Hurley will be subject of a separate hearing, but will run well into a nine-figure sum. It will be by far the largest award that the English Court has ever made under the cross-undertaking in damages.  

The 358-page judgment provides a comprehensive survey of the law concerning claims under a cross-undertaking. Among other matters, the Judge: (i) considered how to construct the relevant counterfactual; (ii) addressed the test for causation of loss, rejecting the claimants’ submission that only loss caused by the preventative or coercive effect of a freezing order can be recovered under the cross-undertaking; (iii) accepted that the freezing order need not be the sole cause of the loss; (iv) analysed the principles applicable to ‘loss of a chance’ cases; (v) examined the principles relating to the recovery of damages under a cross-undertaking; and (vi) addressed the serious risks and uncertainties faced by the respondent to a freezing order when running a business.   

The judgment, Alta Trading UK Limited (formerly known as Arcadia Petroleum Limited) v Bosworth [2026] EWHC 2767 (Comm), is available here.