Payne Velasco

Gregory Payne, founder and principal of the firm, has been practising law in Hong Kong since 1993, and has established himself as a market-leading, highly successful litigator who regularly represents clients in high-profile cases.

We have established ourselves as leading advocates for victims of large-scale frauds and successfully made recoveries for them. We also have considerable experience identifying, freezing and recovering monies that have been stolen through email fraud, internet fraud, sham investment schemes, ponzi schemes and fake stockbrokers, and employee fraud.

Our lawyers are equally experienced in acting for both major corporations and high-profile individuals in complex civil litigation and criminal defence in the District and High Courts and Court of Appeal. Our ever-growing success and profile in the Hong Kong litigation arena has been recognised by an expanding number of accolades and awards in the past few years. We are an experienced, creative and tenacious litigation force in Hong Kong.

• Administrative and regulatory
• Appellate
• Civil litigation
• Commercial and transactions
• Commercial arbitration
• Corporate governance
• Criminal
• Financial services regulatory
• Insolvency
• Intellectual property
• International arbitration
• Labour and employment
• Litigation
• Personal injury
• Privacy and data protection
• Professional liability
• Professional malpractice
• Trade and customs
• Trade mark contentious
• Trusts and estates
• White-collar crime
• Fraud
• Internet Fraud
• Cybercrime
• Contentious Probate
• Family
• Matrimonial
• Divorce

• Our client was deceived into transferring substantial funds to the defendants, believing he was acquiring shares pursuant to an investment opportunity.
  
  We obtained a Mareva Injunction from the High Court, restraining the defendants from dealing with their assets to amounts equivalent to his transferred funds. Subsequently, judgment was obtained and we recovered a significant portion of his lost monies.
  
  
• Our client, a Dutch Museum, was deceived into paying US$3.1 million into a Hong Kong bank account by hackers posing as veteran London art dealer buying a painting. We obtained a Norwich Pharmacal Order in just over a week after first instructions, obtaining bank documents to trace the money and identify the wrongdoers. The Court was satisfied there was cogent and compelling evidence demonstrating that a serious fraud was committed.