COURT officials acting on the instruction of the New York Supreme Court twice visited a house linked to a Jersey-based billionaire to serve him with deposition papers over a long- running Formula One legal dispute, a report published in the Financial Times has stated.
Peter de Putron, a hedge fund specialist and financier with close ties to the Channel Islands, could be made to give evidence in a case relating to the alleged wrongful termination and defamation of Claudia Schwarz, former head of marketing at the Williams F1 racing team.
Ms Schwarz, who was dismissed from the Williams F1 team in 2022, claims that Jersey resident Mr de Putron – who she alleges is the “indirect owner” of the motor racing team – played a part in her unfair dismissal.
She accused Mr de Putron – who is the brother-in-law of Andrea Leadsom, the former Conservative Minister for Financial Services – of interfering in contractual relationships and insisting that the team not be marketed to African Americans and the LGBTQ community.
In a motion to dismiss Schwarz’s lawsuit, the financier called the allegations “fabricated” and “incendiary”. Dorilton, the parent company of Williams F1, also argued that Mr de Putron was “merely” a third-party investor in the racing team.
But in October 2025, a New York Supreme Court judge found “substantial evidence” to say that Mr de Putron was “intimately” involved in the management of Dorilton and granted a request to seek the billionaire’s deposition in Jersey.
The judgement confirmed that both a “jurisdictional” and “merits based discovery” was appropriate “in the foreign jurisdiction” of Jersey “pursuant to the Hague Convention”.
According to an article published in the FT yesterday, court officials in Jersey twice visited Mr de Putron’s registered home address this summer to serve the deposition papers.
However, the report further stated that both visits were unsuccessful, with officials in the Island being “rebuffed”, and the 1 September deposition date passing with “no sign” of Mr de Putron.
A spokesperson for the Law Officers’ Department told the JEP that it would not be able to comment on individual matters, but confirmed that deposition requests made under the Hague Convention are made “from time to time”.
It was stated: “The Attorney General is the central authority for Jersey under the 1965 Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters.
“From time to time we receive requests for the service of foreign process on persons in Jersey, which is effected with the assistance of the Viscount.
“This is a neutral act and the Law Officers’ Department does not comment on individual cases.”
The FT article stated that Mr de Putron’s roots in the Channel Islands “run deep”. The billionaire, it was reported, falls into the “resident but not ordinarily resident” tax status – “which allows him to keep worldwide income that is not transferred into Jersey out of the Island’s tax net”.
The largest annual inter-island school quiz in the Channel Islands, the de Putron Challenge, was founded by and is named after Mr de Putron’s wife Hayley.
The JEP’s sister publication, Bailiwick Express, reported in 2017 that Mr de Putron was present as a “private individual” at a meeting held two days before the withdrawal of plans to fund a £466 million hospital.
Then-Chief Minister Ian Gorst told Express at the time that he was “not prepared to say” whether the billionaire was present at the meeting.
In June 2014, a leaked table plan showed Mr de Putron seated with Jersey’s former Minister for External Relations Philip Ozouf and UK Health Minister Jeremy Hunt at the Conservative Black and White Ball.
