Joseph Pacini & Anor v Dow Jones & Company Incorporated
| Judge | Hhj Richard Parkes |
| Neutral Citation | [2024] EWHC 1709 (KB) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Court | King's Bench Division |
| Counsel | Hugh Tomlinson Kc,Catrin Evans Kc,Ben Gallop |
| Date | 03 July 2024 |
Neutral Citation Number: [2024] EWHC 1709 (KB)
Case No: KB-2023-001311
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE
KING'S BENCH DIVISION
MEDIA AND COMMUNICATIONS LIST
Royal Courts of Justice
Strand, London, WC2A 2LL
Date: 03/07/2024
Before :
HHJ RICHARD PARKES KC
Sitting as a Judge of the High Court
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Between :
(1) JOSEPH PACINI
(2) CARSTEN GEYER
Claimants
- and -
DOW JONES &
COMPANY INCORPORATED
Defendant
Hugh Tomlinson KC (instructed by Withers LLP) for the Claimants
Catrin Evans KC and Ben Gallop (instructed by Pinsent Masons LLP) for the Defendant
Hearing date: 12 December 2023
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Approved Judgment
This judgment was handed down remotely at 10.00am on 3 July 2024 by circulation to the
parties or their representatives by e-mail and by release to the National Archives.
.............................
HIS HONOUR JUDGE RICHARD PARKES KC
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
THE CLAIMANTS AND THEIR BACKGROUND
1. The Claimants, Joseph Pacini and Carsten Geyer, are investment bankers.
2. According to the Amended Particulars of Claim (‘APOC’), the Claimants were
formerly senior executives of the XIO group of companies, which is said to have been
a global alternative investments business with offices in London, Hong Kong and
Shanghai. The Claimants were two of the four founding partners of XIO, and worked
in the XIO businesses between 2014 and 2020. Mr Pacini was Chief Executive
Officer and Mr Geyer was Head of Europe.
3. XIO’s European business was based in London, where its UK arm was XIO (UK)
LLP (‘XIO UK’). XIO UK is said to have employed most of XIO’s senior investment
executives.
4. According to Mr Pacini’s evidence (as opposed to the account in the APOC) Mr
Pacini seems not to have been an employee or director of XIO UK. He says that he
was a Partner (whatever that signifies in the context of a limited company) and the
CEO of XIO Partners HK Ltd (‘XIO HK’), and he was held out as a ‘Partner of the
XIO Group at large’ which, he says in his evidence, was ‘the name used to refer to the
various XIO related entities’. According to his evidence, XIO Group was a global
alternative investment firm headquartered in London, which had operations in various
jurisdictions including the UK, the Cayman Islands and Hong Kong. He was, it
appears, ‘publicly known’ as the CEO of XIO Group. He does not say whether he
actually held that post, or whether he was simply held out as holding it. He left XIO
Group in February 2020 and (with Mr Geyer and others) set up SGT Capital LLC
(‘SGT’)
5. Mr Geyer’s evidence is that he was initially a consultant to XIO Group, and went on
to be employed by XIO UK as Head of Europe, and to be ‘held out’ as a Partner of
XIO Group, although not a partner in a legal sense. He left the employment of XIO
Group in January 2019 but remained as a ‘senior adviser’ through a ‘separate advisory
entity’ until February 2020, when he and Mr Pacini and others set up SGT.
6. In short, it appears that the two Claimants were two of the four founding partners of
XIO Group and held very senior positions in XIO Group. XIO Group appears to have
been the entity that controlled the other XIO operations, in which they also held
positions (Mr Pacini in XIO HK and Mr Geyer in XIO UK).
7. According to Mr Pacini’s evidence, when XIO UK was set up as the UK arm of XIO
Group, the sole director and shareholder was Athene Li. His evidence is ambiguous as
to whether she was the sole director and shareholder of XIO Group or of XIO UK. He
says that he and Mr Geyer left XIO Group in February 2020 after they had been
involved in a dispute with Ms Li.
8. He also says that XIO UK entered a Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation in February
2021, and has since been wound up. The Claimants do not say what happened to XIO
Group, or what happened to its other operations. Mr Pacini says only that he has not
kept up with the corporate affairs of XIO UK or the XIO Group generally, and does
Judgment Approved by the court for handing down.
not know the status of each of the XIO Group entities, but assumes that they have
been wound down.
9. Both Claimants are now resident in Switzerland and work in the field of private
equity. Since 2020, they have been the joint managing directors of SGT.
THE CLAIM
10. By Claim Form issued on 16 March 2023, the Claimants complain of two articles
written by Simon Clark and published by the Defendant (‘Dow Jones’), which owns
and publishes the Wall Street Journal (‘WSJ’) worldwide on its website at WSJ.com.
One article was published on Dow Jones’ website on 16 March 2017 (‘the First
Article’) and the second on 31 January 2018 (‘the Second Article’). Both Articles
continue to be accessible online to WSJ.com subscribers.
(the UK General Data Protection Regulation, or “UK GDPR”) and of the Data
Protection Act (“DPA”) 2018, and claim compensation in accordance with UK GDPR
inaccurate, and a compliance order under DPA 2018 s167, requiring erasure of the
data and the taking of the steps prescribed by Arts 17(2) and 19 UK GDPR.
THE APPLICATION
12. Dow Jones apply by notice dated 22 August 2023 for an order striking out the claim
pursuant to CPR 3.4(2)(b).
13. Certain concessions have been made by the Claimants, as a result of which the scope
of the application is now narrowed. It is now advanced only on the basis set out at
ground 1 of the application, namely that the claim is purely tactical and an abuse of
process, (a) because it is in reality a statute-barred defamation complaint dressed up as
a claim in data protection, and brought in data protection to avoid the rules which
apply to defamation claims, and (b) in the sense identified by the Court of Appeal in
the case of Jameel v Dow Jones & Company Inc[2005] QB 946.
THE ARTICLES COMPLAINED OF
14. The First Article, first published on 16 March 2017, reads as follows:
DID XIE ZHIKUN’S NEARLY $1 BILLION GO MISSING? A PRIVATE-EQUITY
MYSTERY
Chinese investor says he backed XIO Group big-time; it says he didn’t, and now he
has filed suit
When Chinese billionaire Xie Zhikun toured Europe in the summer of 2015, his hosts
took him to the Aston Martin factory in the English Midlands, to the women’s tennis
final at Wimbledon and to dinner at London’s Connaught Hotel, where he was
presented with a portrait of himself painted in tea, according to people who helped
organize the visit.
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