The president of a North Sea oil and gas group fabricated bank declarations and created board files to take a minimum of EUR143.8 mn, according to a London suit submitted by his previous business and backer of an Iranian petrochemicals maker.
The High Court claim is among numerous legal fights all over the world that have knotted Francesco Mazzagatti, an Italian nationwide who is the president and bulk owner of Viaro Energy. The business, and Mazzagatti, ended up being considerable gamers in the UK energy market after it purchased RockRose, a listed group with possessions in the UK and Dutch North Sea, for ₤ 247mn in money in 2020.
Mazzagatti, and Viaro’s primary monetary officer, Francesco Dixit Dominus, are being taken legal action against in London by the Singaporean trading business that Mazzagatti as soon as owned, Alliance Petrochemical & & Financial Investment (API). It declares its previous employer might have “utilized a minimum of part of the misused funds to obtain a bulk share in RockRose Energy”.
Mazzagatti and Dixit Dominus reject the claims.
API– where Mazzagatti was president in between July 2018 and September 2020, according to the business– part-owns the Mehr Petrochemical Business (MHPC) in Iran and is a supplier of its items, such as polyethylene.
Simply months after ending up being president, Mazzagatti integrated a brand-new business, Alliance Petrochemicals Trading (APT), in the Gulf state of Sharjah “without the understanding of API’s other directors”, the business declares in the London suit.
He then fabricated a board resolution authorising him to open APT savings account with himself as the sole signatory. Clients of API then paid into a string of accounts throughout Singapore and the United Arab Emirates that were established and managed by Mazzagatti and Dixit Dominus, in exchange for items from the Iranian business, MHPC, according to the claim.
” The complete degree of the scams performed by the accuseds is not understood to the plaintiff,” API declares. However it determines that a minimum of EUR143,808,798.66 was misused, which the business states represents the overall quantity owed to MHPC by API by August 2023 in exchange for its petrochemicals.
API declares the set covered the misappropriation through “incorrect representations” to the board. In 2021, following a conference in Dubai, Mazzagatti “produced an incorrect bank declaration” to reveal that there was a balance of almost Dh100mn (EUR25.8 mn) being kept in an account in the UAE. He had actually formerly informed API’s other directors that the instability in the Middle East suggested it was “much better for the funds owed to MHPC to be held outside Iran”.
A court in Tehran currently ruled in Might 2023 that MHPC ought to not provide anymore items to API which API owed the Iranian business roughly $170mn, according to the London suit.
The High Court claim likewise declares that Mazzagatti might have “utilized a minimum of part of the misused funds to obtain a bulk share in RockRose Energy”. To assist protect the offer, Viaro counted on a ₤ 250mn loan assurance from Sheikh Zayed bin Surror bin Mohammed Al Nahyan, a member of the Abu Dhabi royal household, according to the claim.
This assisted relax objections from Taqa– Abu Dhabi’s state-owned electrical energy and public utility, which was associated with a joint endeavor with RockRose– that Viaro would utilize RockRose’s money balances to spend for the offer, leaving the North Sea business not able to fulfill its liabilities, consisting of the decommissioning expenses of the joint endeavors, the claim declares.
Consequently, RockRose went on to loan roughly ₤ 202mn to Viaro to money the offer, with the rest of the ₤ 247mn purchase cost being comprised from the misused funds, the claim declares. This is rejected by Mazzagatti.
Taqa has actually because brought a different claim in the High Court versus Viaro and Mazzagatti, in addition to other accuseds, declaring that RockRose stated an $84mn dividend quickly before offering an oilfield for $1 without the methods to fulfill its liabilities. The accuseds reject the claims in the Taqa suit. There is yet to be a judgment.
In reaction to API’s claim, Mazzagatti and Dixit Dominus reject any misappropriation of funds and state the suit is being managed by a 3rd party, Arshiya Jahanpour, a previous buddy of Mazzagatti, who advised him to purchase API on his behalf. Jahanpour then ended up being irritated by the Italian’s choice to consequently offer him just half of the trading business, offering the other 50 percent to another buddy, Nejla Baccouche, according to defence arguments.
The defence specifies that it was Jahanpour, not Mazzagatti who had “sole control” of API from around September 2018 onwards. Neither Mazzagatti nor Dixit Dominus “is accountable for any illegal payments”, according to the defence. Rather, it argues that API is looking for to “( incorrectly) blame or ascribe liability to the Accuseds for transfers that were either genuine, or additionally need to have been a procurement of funds by Mr Jahanpour”.
The defence declares that the different savings account opened by Mazzagatti were “opened by or at the demand of Mr Jahanpour, and Mr Jahanpour managed them at all material times [ . . .] Mr Jahanpour was stressed over having possessions in his own name, consisting of due to increased examination since of his United States citizenship.” It includes that Mazzagatti relied on Jahanpour enough to permit him to utilize his name “however was not associated with the operation of the accounts”.
Jahanpour might not be grabbed remark.
A trial date is yet to be set.