Entrepreneur in contempt over £200,000 dispute with Farrer & Co

A high-profile American venture capitalist has been held in contempt for a ‘deliberate, cynical and continuing’ breach of a court order in a £200,000 dispute with London firm Farrer & Co.

Julie Meyer, the founder of Ariadne Capital, was given a suspended six-month sentence last month for failing to provide financial documents and refusing to attend court for debtor questioning in person.

Last week, Mr Justice Kerr issued a warrant for Meyer – who is believed to be in Zurich, Switzerland – to be brought to the court after she again failed to attend. He refused an application for permission to appeal against the contempt finding.

The judge said that some of the evidence filed on Meyer’s behalf was ‘to the effect that the defendant is a very important person, too important for the courts of England and Wales to take precedence over her other interests,’ adding: ‘That does not impress me … I regard it as an aggravating feature of the contempt.’

Kerr also awarded Farrer & Co £14,500 for its costs of the contempt hearing in January plus another £9,000 for last week’s hearing.

Farrer & Co brought a claim against Meyer in late 2019 for around £187,000. The sum which swelled to more than £200,000 including costs as the firm pursues Meyer for its unpaid fees.

Meyer, 55, did not attend a hearing in London as ordered last month, saying she was unable to travel because she had conjunctivitis and was unvaccinated against coronavirus.

However, Kerr said the medical evidence was ‘inadequate and unconvincing’, adding that Meyer’s health ‘does not prevent the defendant litigating when she wants to make an application herself’.

The judge found Meyer in contempt and sentenced her to six months’ imprisonment, saying Meyer’s belated suggestion that she could be breaking Swiss criminal law by providing the documents sought was ‘far fetched in the extreme’.

Meyer ‘has shown herself in these proceedings to be a selfish and untrustworthy person [and] her word counts for nothing if it suits her to break it’, Kerr said in his ruling last month.

At last week’s hearing, the judge rejected a ‘request for leniency’ made by lawyers on behalf of the absent Meyer, certified her failure to attend and issued a warrant for her to be brought to court.