Grant Thornton to be appointed Receiver of Axiom Legal Financing Fund

Faced with a storm of criticism from shareholders, the directors of the embattled Axiom Legal Financing Fund have reluctantly agreed to the appointment of Grant Thornton as receiver, rather than KPMG which had been the directors’ choice.

In a letter to shareholders on Tuesday, the directors confirmed that they will support the application to have a receiver appointed for the fund at a February court hearing.

KPMG had been appointed in October to conduct an audit of the fund’s assets following fraud allegations which had been made, principally by OffshoreAlert, and for this reason the directors thought that they would be best placed to act as receivers.  However, it became clear that a significant majority of investors opposed this view because of concerns over independence and fee levels, and so the directors have reluctantly bowed to investor pressure to support the appointment of Grant Thornton instead.