AM Trust v. UBS AG

78 F. Supp. 3d 977, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10628, 2015 WL 395465
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedJanuary 29, 2015
DocketNo. C 14-4125 PJH
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 78 F. Supp. 3d 977 (AM Trust v. UBS AG) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
AM Trust v. UBS AG, 78 F. Supp. 3d 977, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10628, 2015 WL 395465 (N.D. Cal. 2015).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO DISMISS

PHYLLIS J. HAMILTON, District Judge

Defendant’s motion for an order dismissing the above-entitled action for lack of personal jurisdiction came on for hearing before this court on January 21, 2015. Plaintiff appeared by its counsel Thomas Easton, and defendant appeared by its counsel Lauren Eber. Having read the parties’ papers and carefully considered their arguments and the relevant legal authority, the court hereby GRANTS the motion as follows and for the reasons stated at the hearing.

BACKGROUND

Plaintiff AM Trust, the sole named plaintiff in this proposed class action, alleges that it is a Bahamian trust created by or for the heirs of Adam Malik (“Malik”), an Indonesian politician who served as Vice President of Indonesia under Suharto, and who was also the 26th President.of the U.N. General Assembly. Malik died in September 1984. AM Trust’s “settlor, trustees and beneficiaries” are allegedly the “heirs, assignees, creditors, and executors of the Estate of Adam Malik,” none of whom are identified. See Cplt ¶¶ 17-18.

Defendant UBS AG has a 152-year history as a Swiss financial institution. See Declaration of Anne Wildhaber ¶ 3. The present-day UBS AG was formed in 1998, when Union Bank of Switzerland and Swiss Bank Corporation (“SBC”) merged to form the new company. Id. Today, UBS AG is Switzerland’s largest bank. Id. UBS AG is incorporated, domiciled, and has its principal place of business and global headquarters in Switzerland. Id. It operates under the Swiss Code of Obligations and Swiss Federal Banking Act as an “Aktiengesellschaft” — or an “AG” — a corporation that issues shares of common stock to investors. Id.

UBS AG and its subsidiaries have offices in more than 50 countries, including the United States. Id. ¶ 4. UBS AG maintains two branches in California — one in Los Angeles, and one in San Francisco — as well as branches in Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, and New York. Id. UBS AG also has several wholly owned direct and indirect subsidiaries that operate in and/or are incorporated in the United States. Id.

According to the complaint, Malik “obtained, came in possession or was assigned several bank and safekeeping accounts” with UBS AG’s predecessors. Cplt ¶ 26. The accounts were allegedly “for [Malik’s] personal use” and “contained well over five million dollars in currency and gold bullion.” Id. Other accounts were allegedly “assigned to Adam Malik by Jusuf Muda Dalam, the former Director of the Indonesian Central Bank,” under undisclosed circumstances. Cplt ¶ 27. AM Trust asserts that “the accounts and their contents are believed to be in compliance with Indonesian law of that time and were not the proceeds of unlawful activity.” Cplt ¶ 28.

AM Trust alleges that “[i]n 1985 representatives of the Estate of Adam Malik made a small, partial withdrawal” from “one or two” of the UBS accounts in Zurich, in the amount of $2.9 million Swiss Francs, while the Estate was being settled. Cplt ¶ 29. AM Trust also alleges that since 1985, “the Estate of Adam Malik has made continuous efforts to trace the ultimate disposition of other SBC or Union Bank of Switzerland accounts in Switzerland and Singapore” as well as to “access known accounts by hiring attorneys and investigators.” Cplt ¶ 31. This search has allegedly been complicated “by the corrup[980]*980tion endemic during the Suharto regime in Indonesia.” Cplt ¶ 31.

AM Trust asserts that in 1993, the Estate of Adam Malik entered into extensive correspondence with UBS AG’s predecessor SBC and its lawyers “regarding SBC accounts at the Basel, Breganzona, and Biningen branches that were tied to a Union Bank of Switzerland account in Zurich that was controlled by Adam Malik.” Cplt ¶ 32.1 According to the complaint, SBC’s Legal Department “eventually admitted” that while Malik had dealt directly with Ernest Siedel, Principal Director of Swiss Banking Corporation in Basel, no further record of “the accounts” could be located because 10 years had elapsed since the Basel account or accounts “were presumably closed.” Id.

AM Trust asserts, however, that SBC “conducted only a partial search confined to its Basel branch even though the Estate had also identified Adam Malik accounts at Zurich, Breganzona, and Binningen connected to SBC.” Id. AM Trust claims that “the Estate relying on SBC’s false assurance did not realize at the time that SBC itself had converted the proceeds of the accounts and taht the records still existed and that the alleged search had not been conducted in good faith.” Id.

AM Trust alleges that in 1997, a night bank guard at Union Bank of Switzerland, discovered that bank officials were destroying documents about dormant assets, believed to be the balances of deceased Jewish clients whose heirs’ whereabouts were unknown, as well as books from the German Reichsbank, which listed stock accounts for companies in business during the Holocaust, and real-estate records for Berlin property that had been seized by the Nazis, placed in Swiss accounts, and then claimed to be owned by Union Bank of Switzerland. Cplt ¶ 33. The guard’s whistleblowing allegedly led to the filing of class actions in federal court in New York, “a $1.25 [sic] settlement,” several official reports, the release of records, and “the necessity for the promulgation of the 62 year statute of limitations law on dormant accounts in Switzerland.” Cplt ¶ 33.

AM Trust alleges that in 2006, “with newly discovered documentation in hand” (not specified), “representatives of the Estate” traveled to Zurich to meet with representatives of UBS AG. A “quantity of information” was allegedly “handed over to UBS officers including information on the “merged Malik accounts.” Cplt ¶ 35. However, in November 2006, UBS AG advised that there was no UBS AG account under the name Adam Malik, although Union Bank of Switzerland had had an “account relationship that was closed in 1985.” According to AM Trust, UBS AG “falsely stated that no records existed because 10 years had elapsed since the date of closure.” Id.

AM Trust alleges that in 2007, the Estate made further inquiries about the accounts in Singapore and Hong Kong, but “did not receive a definitive answer from UBS AG,” and that between 2007 and 2013, the Estate made additional attempts “through intermediaries and representatives,” with no result. Cplt ¶¶ 36-37. In July 2013, the Swiss Banking Ombudsman Central Claims Office undertook a search of its centralized database, and in November 2013, the Office reported that no assets connected with Adam Malik had been reported to it as dormant, an opinion it reaffirmed in March 2014. Cplt ¶¶ 41-45.

AM Trust filed the present action on September 12, 2014, as a purported class action (on behalf of a “worldwide class”), and alleging diversity jurisdiction under the Class Action Fairness Act, 28 U.S.C. [981]*981§ 1332(d). AM Trust asserts seven causes of action — (1) quasi-contract (unjust enrichment); (2) accounting; (3) restitution; (4) breach of fiduciary duty; (5) conversion; (6) constructive trust; and (7) trespass to chattel.

The complaint defines the proposed class as follows:

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Massaro v. Beyond Meat, Inc.
S.D. California, 2021
Maeda v. Pinnacle Foods Inc.
390 F. Supp. 3d 1231 (D. Hawaii, 2019)
Sanchez v. Launch Technical Workforce Solutions, LLC
297 F. Supp. 3d 1360 (N.D. Georgia, 2018)
Greene v. Mizuho Bank, Ltd.
169 F. Supp. 3d 855 (N.D. Illinois, 2016)
Giordano v. UBS, AG
134 F. Supp. 3d 697 (S.D. New York, 2015)
Spy Osus Ltd. v. UBS AG
114 F. Supp. 3d 161 (S.D. New York, 2015)
Senne v. Kansas City Royals Baseball Corp.
105 F. Supp. 3d 981 (N.D. California, 2015)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
78 F. Supp. 3d 977, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10628, 2015 WL 395465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/am-trust-v-ubs-ag-cand-2015.