Dentons Europe LLP is being sued for negligence by more than 200 individuals and companies attempting to recoup investment they made in a gold trading scheme, the owners of which were advised by legacy Salans.

The claim, which was filed in the Chancery Division of the High Court earlier this year, relates to advice given by former Salans partner Kevin Heath and then senior associate Katerina Palickova to Anabus Holdings in 2010. Salans merged with SNR Denton in 2013, to create the firm now known as Dentons.

The claim form, filed in May this year, states that the claimants are seeking damages relating to to "deceit and/or negligence arising from representations made and conduct undertaken over the course of 2010 by or on behalf of the defendant… in connection with a purported gold investment scheme promoted by Anabus Holdings".

It states that the claimants expect to recover more than €6.5m.

The particulars of the claim, filed on 14 October, allege that Palickova and Salans did not undertake appropriate due diligence on the gold trading scheme. It claims that "the Anabus Scheme was in fact a fraudulent scheme" and that "Anabus did not have in place any genuine or effective 'insurance mechanism', which would protect the funds of its investors".

The filing quotes a letter sent by Palickova, which states that the firm had examined copies of the sale and purchase agreement (SPA) and that "in the event that Anabus defaults on its agreements with you in respect of the deal, we are instructed by another of our client to confirm that it undertakes to pay us $100,000,000 if necessary".

The claim states: "Salans cannot have conducted any meaningful examination of the purported gold SPA and/or were not in a position to know or be reasonably confident that it was a genuine, substantial, bona fide and legally effective document," adding that "it is to be inferred that Ms Palickova and Salans were recklessly indifferent whether this was the case".

It continues: "[Palickova and Salans] had sight of features which would give any lawyer practising commercial or financial law in the City of London serious concerns as to the genuineness, bona fides and efficacy of the document, including… the fact that the purported contact details of the seller took the form of the informal and anonymous email address '[email protected]'."

Anabus told investors it had closed the scheme in early November 2010, and that accounts would be reconciled and client money returned by the end of that month. The claimants state that the majority of the investors remain unpaid.

Forsters is advising the claimants, led by dispute resolution partner Andrew Head, while Dentons has turned to Clyde & Co, with Richard Harrison in the lead role. A stay in proceedings was ordered earlier this month, stating that Dentons must file its defence by 17 March next year.

Heath left Salans in 2012 as part of a team that moved to Locke Lord to launch a London office for the US firm. Palickova left in November 2011 to join Knight Capital Europe, now known as KCG Europe.

Dentons and Forsters declined to comment.