A Dubai court has ordered Matthew William Brittain to disclose the ultimate source of money used to pay legal and advisory bills in a dispute involving $456m linked to TrueUSD reserves.
Brittain has until 16:00 Gulf Standard Time on 7 September to swear and serve an affidavit. The order, issued on 1 September, applies to proceedings at the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts (DIFC Courts).
Techteryx, the claimant seeking the information, has already secured a proprietary injunction and a worldwide freezing order against Aria Commodities DMCC. The orders concern $456m transferred from Legacy Trust and First Digital Trust, as well as proceeds that can be traced to those funds.
Earlier DIFC court reasons for the freezing order identified the money as part of the reserves supporting TrueUSD, also known as TUSD. The Dubai proceedings support separate litigation in Hong Kong concerning the movement of the funds, but the injunction does not determine their ultimate ownership.
Under the latest order, Brittain must provide information about payments made to Quinn Emanuel, Horizons, Gall, Campbells and FTI Consulting. He is required to set out the amounts involved, the dates of payment and the bank accounts used.
He must also identify the original sources of the money and the ultimate beneficial owners, explain how the relevant accounts were funded and produce documents supporting his account. The affidavit must be prepared “to the best of his ability.”
The court has separately demanded an explanation for $1,083,912.49 paid by Aria Bio Industries FZE on 31 October 2025 towards Aria Commodities’ legal costs. The same information is required for that payment and for any additional legal advice or representation costs incurred since a 13 May remedy application.
Failure to comply could allow Techteryx to apply for sanctions. Such a penalty would not be imposed automatically, as the court would first need to consider a further application.
The DIFC court has also rescheduled the committal hearing for 26 October. The hearing is expected to last four days and will be held in person at the DIFC Courts, although Techteryx’s lead counsel may attend remotely.
It is the third time the hearing has been adjourned. In his reasons, Justice Michael Black said any further delay would require “the most extreme circumstances” supported by compelling evidence.
The September disclosure deadline is separate from the October committal hearing, which will consider Techteryx’s outstanding application for committal.
The Dubai case is distinct from the underlying proceedings in Hong Kong. Techteryx alleges that the transfers were part of a fraud and that Aria holds the money, or its proceeds, on constructive trust. Those allegations are disputed.
At the interim stage, the DIFC court said important questions remained unresolved, including whether Techteryx had a proprietary interest in the reserves and other issues concerning the merits of the claim and ownership of the funds.
TrueUSD was up 0.05% over the previous 24 hours and was ranked 85th by market capitalisation at the time of publication.
The report was written by Liam Wright, also known as “Akiba”, a reporter, podcast producer and Editor-in-Chief at CryptoSlate. He believes decentralised technology has the potential to make…
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