On 24 March 2026, Justice Segal handed down his long-awaited trial judgment in Laggner v Uphold, dismissing a petition to wind up a Cayman Islands digital money platform on just and equitable grounds. The Petition was filed on 14 June 2022. In the four years since, the matter has been before the Court on three interlocutory occasions, proceeded to a three-week trial, and culminated in a 349-page ruling. It is one of the most substantial contested winding-up petitions to have reached a full trial in the Cayman Islands. The trial judgment is, subject to any appeal, a conclusive determination of the dispute. Background Uphold Ltd is a Cayman Islands exempted company operating a digital money platform (formerly known as 'BitReserve'). The Company was founded in 2013 and has over 800 shareholders, including significant institutional and individual investors. The dispute at the heart of this case arose from a funding arrangement entered into in mid-2016 (the 2016 Transaction) involving Adrian Steckel, a director and (through his entities, Uphold Holdings LLC and ASP Capital Sub one Inc) a major shareholder. The Petitioners were six minority shareholders, led by William Laggner, a former director of the Company. They alleged that Mr Steckel had, through the 2016 Transaction and a series of subsequent actions, gained de facto control of the Company and caused a dilution of independent shareholders' interests without their knowledge, consent, or any opportunity to participate. The Petitioners' complaints fell into three broad categories. The first was that the 2016 Transaction itself was designed to hand control to Mr Steckel at the expense of other shareholders. The transaction took the form of a revolving credit facility accompanied by a warrant which, upon exercise, gave Mr Steckel's entity approximately 50 per cent of the Company's issued shares on a fully diluted basis. The second concerned subsequent amendments to the revolving credit agreement, in particular the Third Amendment dated May 2017, which permitted the Company to pay interest on the loan by issuing shares to Mr Steckel and Mr James Chen at a fixed (and allegedly artificially low) valuation of US$48 million. This resulted in vast numbers of shares being issued as "PIK interest" without independent shareholders being informed, consulted, or offered the opportunity to participate. The third was that a valuable corporate opportunity, namely the Company's UK banking licence application (which ultimately became TBOL plc), was improperly diverted to Mr Anthony Watson, then a director and the Company's former CEO, in September 2017. Discovery had revealed an undisclosed side agreement pursuant to which Mr Steckel, Mr Thieriot, and Mr Dennings were each to receive personal shareholdings in TBOL. This was the second winding-up petition brought against the Company. A first petition was filed in February 2021 and settled in June 2021, leading to the establishment of a Litigation Committee chaired by Mr Jim Hilton, an independent director appointed in January 2021. When the current Petition was filed on 14 June 2022, the Petitioners sought either a winding-up order under section 92(e) of the Companies Act (the Act) or, as their primary relief, a buy-out order under section 95(3) of the Act. Before the matter reached trial, Justice Segal delivered three interlocutory judgments addressing service, the Company's participation in the proceedings (discussed further in our recent post 'Defanged: Curtailing company participation in winding up proceedings'), and a strike-out application. On the strike-out, Justice Segal dismissed the Respondents' applications, holding that the Petitioners' case was not bound to fail and that the disputed factual and credibility issues required a full trial. The trial took place over three weeks in April and May 2025 and judgment was delivered on 24 March 2026. The issues By the time of closing submissions at trial, the Petitioners' case had narrowed si...