Hong Kong court upholds arbitral award where arbitration agreement said to be a sham (X v Jemmy Chien)

Arbitration analysis: An application was made to the Hong Kong Court of First Instance by the unsuccessful party (X) to a Hong Kong arbitration to set aside the resulting awards on the bases that—(i) there was no arbitration agreement between the parties, as the named party (JC) was in reality the agent of another party (PC) who had engineered this arrangement to circumvent his fiduciary duties under Taiwanese law, and (ii) enforcement of the award would be contrary to public policy as the agreement was a sham and to do so would facilitate breaches of Taiwanese law. The court dismissed the set-aside application and awarded JC indemnity costs.