GHF Fund Wins Dismissal of $300 Million Fraud Appeal Arising From Abraaj Collapse in Cayman Islands

Cleary Gottlieb has secured a further victory for GHF General Partner Limited, in its capacity as general partner of the GHF Funds, and the GHF Group Limited (GHF Fund), after the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal (CICA) dismissed in its entirety an appeal brought by Abdulhameed Jafar against the first instance judgment of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands.

Following an eight-week trial that commenced in November 2023 and concluded in January 2024, the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands published a 938-page judgment dismissing all of Mr. Jafar’s claims against the GHF Fund in September 2025, which arose out of the collapse of the Abraaj group in 2018. The GHF Fund is a $1 billion fund originally established to invest in healthcare projects in the developing world. Its investors include the Gates Foundation, IFC (a member of the World Bank group), DFC, and BII (the U.S. and UK national development finance institutions).

Mr. Jafar advanced 12 grounds of appeal, challenging a wide range of the trial judge’s findings and overall approach. On June 23, 2026, the second of five scheduled hearing days, the CICA decided that all the grounds of appeal had failed.

The Cleary team was led by partner James Norris-Jones and included partner Naomi Tarawali and associates Georgina Rawson and Katherine Trafford.

The team worked closely with the claims manager for the GHF Fund, JTC Trust Company (Cayman) Limited, led by Nicola Cowan and Kieran Clarke, Cayman Island attorneys, Walkers (Cayman) LLP, and Mark Simpson KC of Fountain Court and Patrick Dunn-Walsh of Twenty Essex.