David Marchant

Government-owned Export Development Canada has accused Zhong Li, the Chinese boss of insolvent Montreal-based aluminum supplier Sinobec Group, of perpetrating "a sophisticated international fraud" involving entities in several jurisdictions, including the British Virgin Islands, Canada, Hong Kong, Seychelles, Türkiye, and United States. EDC claimed that Li, who also goes by John Lee, and his family received "over $124 million in cash and goods" from the insolvent group.

‘Insolvent’ Bank of Asia jeopardized BVI’s credit ratings & reputation, claims liquidation applicant NYSE-listed Cayman Islands SPAC Soulpower Acquisition Company, which is involved in the proposed acquisition of insolvent Bank of Asia’s license and assets in the British Virgin Islands, has emerged as a non-party in U.S. investor and SEC litigation alleging a $1 billion securities fraud against U.S.-based private equity group Broadstreet and its principals. Neither Soulpower nor its principals have been accused of wrongdoing.

Eight months after three directors of a Cayman Islands mutual fund, Prestige Alternative Finance Fund Limited, that was owed more than £239 million by three United Kingdom entities under a £1 billion credit facility swore under oath it was solvent, the Fund's liquidators have deemed it insolvent.

KL Capital Ltd. v. HSBC Bank USA N.A.: Discovery Application (England) Records from HSBC Bank in New York are being sought for a £57 million lawsuit in England alleging English corporate lawyer Kevin Philbin and his client, recently-deceased English businessman Kenneth Townsley, perpetrated a fraud involving a Gibraltar trust.

Chinese professional poker player Zhewen Hu, who is also a citizen of Saint Kitts and Nevis, is suing Rutgers University Associate Professor Yongfeng Zhang and token issuer AIOS Foundation after allegedly losing $1 million in a “pump and dump” crypto investment based around Artificial Intelligence.

Scandal-plagued, debt-ridden U. S. securities broker moves business to Cayman Sixteen years after the company was exposed by OffshoreAlert, a petition to wind up Cedrus Investments has been filed in the Cayman Islands by a Hong Kong-based client who claims to be owed US$8.2 million. the investors – Gordon Timmins Watson – opened accounts at Cedrus AFTER OffshoreAlert had exposed the company and its founder, Rani Jarkas, the latter of whom was banned from the U.S. securities industry in 2014.

Symtomax SPV Ltd.: Loan Note Memorandum (August 2019) Six years after OffshoreAlert exposed Symtomax’s €12 million bond offering as a fraud, the cannabis group’s Portuguese operating entity has been petitioned into liquidation without ever producing any product. Separately, one of its shareholders and officers, Carla Maia, was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison last month for participating in the kidnapping and robbery of a financial intermediary.

Holdun Family Office (Cayman) Ltd.: Directors (Cayman Islands) Citing evidence of fraud, the Bahamas Securities Commission has applied to wind up investment manager Holdun Family Office “in the public interest”. The regulator claimed the company’s directors and managers, Canadian Brendan Holt Dunn and Germaine Bullard, “are no longer fit and proper to carry on regulated activities or to manage client assets prudently”.

Yulia Guryeva-Motlokhov v. Northrop & Johnson Yachts-Ships LLC: Discovery Application (Antigua and Barbuda, Russia & United Arab Emirates) A U.S. judge has authorized subpoenas seeking testimony and records from the son of Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne, the head of a luxury yacht broker, and several others in connection with allegations of corruption surrounding the sale of the seized superyacht Alfa Nero.

EQITech SEZC Ltd.: Directors (Cayman Islands) Dominica-licensed digital bank EQIBank, founded by U.K. citizen Jason Blick and dual U.K.-Canadian citizen Christopher Burke, has warned that it may face liquidation after U.S. authorities seized more than $89 million in assets—roughly 80% of the bank’s monetary holdings.