A petition to wind up a troubled Isle of Man-based financial services group has been put on hold pending a court ruling on the jurisdiction of a $64m judgment in the United States.

The Wilton Group has been the focus of litigation in the UK, US and the Isle of Man relating to the collapse of its Hartley Pensions subsidiary, which has left 17,000 British pensioners in limbo.

All of the company’s Isle of Man subsidiaries are either in default, struck off or have a receiver and/or liquidator appointed over them.

Wilton Group’s founder, managing partner and sole director is Irishman Michael Tony Flanagan, who has a home on Belmont Hill in Douglas.

In September 2024 Judge Rowland sitting in the United States District Court in Illinois entered judgment against the company and its UK subsidiary Wilton UK (Group) Limited in the amount of $64,685,877.57.

The claimant in that case Vikram Grover, chartered financial analyst, investment banker and entrepreneur, is seeking the winding up of Wilton Group after receiving no payment of the amount due under the US judgment plus interest.

Wilton opposes the winding up, arguing that a creditor is not entitled to present a winding up petition in the Isle of Man on the basis of a foreign judgment.

It also submits there is a genuine and substantial dispute as to the existence of the debt claimed, claiming that the Illinois Court did not have competent jurisdiction over it.

In a judgment, the Acting Deemster said the Manx court will not determine the merits or otherwise of the underlying dispute, but the issue over jurisdiction was a ‘genuine and substantial’ one that cannot be described as ‘fanciful or intrinsically unrealistic’.

‘If the Illinois Court had jurisdiction, winding-up should surely follow. If it did not this claim must fail,’ he said.

He ordered that the application for a winding-up order be stayed - put on hold - pending the determination of the issue of jurisdiction.

Deemster Cope noted it would be ‘entirely fair’ to criticise Wilton’s approach especially its failure to raise the jurisdiction point until very late in the proceedings.

In 2015 the claimant was engaged to raise capital for a Colorado-based cryptocurrency trading company Net Savings Link Inc (NSAV), having been introduced to an agent for Wilton.

He was to be compensated by means of a ‘Strategic Expanse Bonus’ and claimed Mr Flanagan and others linked to Wilton assured him he would receive his bonus on completion of the deal.

Under a ‘binding change of control agreement’ dated January 27 2016, it was recorded that Wilton Group affiliate CHIF intended to facilitate the purchase of Hartley SAS Ltd by NSAV.

But Mr Grover claims that the Wilton parties concealed the transaction from him and refused to issue the shares and debenture he was contractually entitled to.

In August 2021 NSAV’s shares peaked at $0.1493 a share, valuing the claimant’s entitlement to 387,500,000 shares at $57,853,750.

The $64,685,627.57 sum from the Illinois proceedings includes accrued pre-judgment interest.