UK court awards $900m damages to Thai political refugee over Wind Energy share sale
A UK court has awarded a Thai political refugee US$900 million as compensation after being lured to sell his shares in a renewable energy firm but denied full payment as he had fled to London to escape prosecution in a lese majeste case.
The UK Commercial Court on Monday (July 31) awarded the damages to Nopporn Suppipat in a case he had filed against Nop Narongdej, the current chairman of Wind Energy Holdings (WEH), and 16 other defendants, BBC Thai reported.
The court found Nop and 13 other defendants guilty of collaborating to lure Nopporn to sell his shares in Wind Energy Holdings, the company he had formed and was initially CEO of, after Nopporn fled to England in late 2014 to escape lese majeste charges.
The court ruled that Nop and 13 other defendants had conspired to forge documents so that Nopporn could not receive the full payment for his shares.
The court said when Nopporn was lured to sell his shares, the value of his shareholdings was $872 million but the shares were now valued at $1.6 billion, while Nopporn was paid only $176 million after being given a call option to buy back the shares.
The court ordered Nop and the 13 defendants to pay $900 million (over 30 billion baht), which includes interest accrued.
In his lawsuit filed in the UK court last year, Nopporn had demanded a compensation of $1.5 billion. The lawsuit accused Nop and 16 other defendants of collaborating to lure him with false information to sell the shares at undervalued prices.
The court took 17 weeks since mid-October last year to hear testimonies. After hearing all testimonies in March, the court sent its draft of the verdict to the two sides to review before the court formally read the verdict on Monday.
Nopporn and his three firms — Symphony Partners Co Ltd, Next Global Investments Co Ltd and Dynamic Link Ventures Co Ltd — were co-plaintiffs.
1. Nopporn Suppipat
2. Emma Louise Collins, former CEO of WEH
3. Thun Reansuwan, former executive of WEH and Renewable Energy Corporation (REC)
4. Aman Lakhaney, former executive of WEH
5. Lakhany’s wife, Khadija Billal Siddique
6. Column Investments Co Ltd, registered in British Virgin Islands with second defendant as beneficiary
7. Keleston Holdings Co Ltd, registered in British Virgin Islands with third defendant as beneficiary
8. ALKBS LLC, registered in the US with fourth defendant as beneficiary
9. Golden Music Ltd
10. Siam Commercial Bank
11. Arthid Nanthawithaya
12. Cornwallis Limited
13 Weerawong Chittmittrapap
14 Dr Kasem Narongdej
15 Khunying Korkaew Boonyachinda
16. Pradej Kitti-Itsaranon
17 Nuttawut Phowborom
The UK court reasoned that it had the authority to rule in the case because the second defendant, Collins, is a UK citizen. The court reasoned that UK law empowers its court to try its citizens for crimes outside the country and that other defendants had not objected to the trial by the UK court.
The court said it had based its ruling on Thai law, Hong Kong law, British Virgin Islands law and UK’s Insolvency Act 1986.
In the 419-page verdict, Neil Calver, the chairing judge, ruled that the 14 defendants had violated Article 432 of the Wrongful Act in the Civil and Commercial Law of Thailand.
Article 432 states: “If several persons by a joint wrongful act cause damage to another person, they are jointly bound to make compensation for the damage. The same applies if, among several joint doers of an act, the one who caused the damage cannot be ascertained.
“Persons who instigate or assist in a wrongful act are deemed to be joint actors.
“As between themselves the persons jointly bound to make compensation are liable in equal share unless, under the circumstances, the Court otherwise decides.”
The UK court also found Nop, Nuttawut and Weerawong as well as former executives of WEH guilty of violating Article 350 of the Criminal Code.
Article 350 of the Criminal Code states: “Whoever, in order to prevent his creditor or the creditor of the other person from receiving payment in whole or in part which has been or will be claimed through the Court, removes, conceals or transfers any property to another person, or maliciously contracts a debt for any sum which is not true, shall be punished with imprisonment not exceeding two years or fined not exceeding 4,000 baht, or both.”
The dispute over the share sale dragged on for nine years, preventing WEH from being traded in the stock market.
After Nopporn was pressured by the SCB to sell his shares in WEH following the lese majeste case, Nopporn said he had never been paid for the shares in full, prompting him to file the lawsuit in the UK court.
Nopporn’s lawyer told the court that the defendants had collaborated in abusing their authority in document handling between 2014 to 2018 to lure Nopporn to sell shares at prices lower than the real value.
From 2009 to 2014, Nopporn held 59.46% of WEH shares through REC. REC’s major shareholders are Symphony Partners, Next Global Investments and Dynamic Link Ventures. The three firms of Nopporn held 97.94% of REC shares.
Nopporn said in the suit that he was lured to sell REC shares to Nop with call options to buy back WEH shares. But after Nopporn transferred his REC shares to Nop, his WEH shares were transferred out of REC to several defendants to conceal them from Nopporn.
