Former shipowner Nobu Su is scheduled for release from prison in around a week’s time, but this could be complicated by the fresh discovery of assets he allegedly should have disclosed.

Lawyers for Cypriot shipowner Polys Haji-Ioannou have unearthed properties in New York that they claim are owned but ­undisclosed by Su, whose assets worldwide have been subject to a freezing injunction since 2011.

Haji-Ioannou and his company Lakatamia Shipping are seeking to enforce payment of a court award made in their favour in 2014, which now ­totals nearly $60m, ­including interest.

Su was imprisoned for 21 months last March for contempt of court, but under English law will serve only half of this sentence, which means he should be released between 12 and 15 February.

This means Haji-Ioannou’s team has limited time to compel Su to disclose further information about the three New York properties and his financial connection to them.

The London court last year found Su had breached the asset injunction by selling two villas in Monaco, which resulted in him being jailed for contempt.

A tale of two shipowners at war

July 2008
Polys Haji-Ioannou agrees to buy Nobu Su’s position in the forward freight market via his company Lakatamia Shipping. Su agrees to repurchase the position after one month.

October 2008-October 2009
Su repays some but not all of his outstanding liability against Lakatamia, refusing to pay the balance of $37.9m.

March 2011
Lakatamia issues a claim for breach of contract in London against Su and the TMT Group.

August 2011
A court-ordered freezing injunction is effected on Su’s assets worldwide.

November 2014
A judge finds in favour of Haji-Ioannou and Lakatamia, awarding them $37.9m.

January 2015
A further judgment orders Su to pay an additional $9.9m in interest.

November 2015
Two villas owned by Su are sold in Monaco.

February 2016
Su is ordered to pay the claimants’ legal costs of £1.1m, bringing the total judgment debt to $57m.

February 2017
The net proceeds from the villas’ sale is transferred to lawyers of Cresta Overseas, of which Su was beneficial owner via his company Portview Holdings.

March 2017
Sale proceeds transferred from Cresta to the Taipei bank account of Up Shipping.

February 2019
Freezing order effected against Su's mother, Toshiko Morimoto, Cresta and Portview.

March 2019
Su is jailed for 21 months for contempt of court.

September 2019
London's Court of Appeal refuses to grant Su permission to challenge his prison sentence. Su offers to purge one count of contempt with partial repayment of the court award.

February 2020
On 11 February, Su is found guilty of two further counts of contempt and receives an extra four months in prison. He had been due for release on 12 February.

April 2020
Su released from prison on 9 April.

July 2020
Su files for bankruptcy in London.

July 2021
Su's bankruptcy is annulled by a London court. A week later, a judge sends him back to prison.

Photo: John Allan/Creative Commons

At a hearing in London last Thursday, attended by TradeWinds, Judge David Waksman granted the claimants’ application to cross-­examine Su further to gain more information on if and where he has enforceable assets.

Su appeared in court in a grey prison-issue sweater, looking tired and drawn, his hair long and unkempt. He remained uncharacteristically quiet during the session.

During a previous hearing, he told the court he has money in the British Virgin Islands that could be made available, but he has not complied with disclosure orders.

The cross-examination will take place before his release from ­Pentonville Prison in north London, where he has been held for the past 10 months.

Having no instructed counsel, Su represented himself in court last Thursday, but the judge permitted former solicitor Michael Colman to assist him as a so-called McKenzie friend, a person who helps a litigant in an English court.

Addressing the court, Colman said he suspected that Su would say the three properties are family assets bought 40 years ago and are rented to third-party tenants.

Company connections

In his oral judgment, handed down at the hearing, Waksman said Su’s cross-examination should focus on his connection to two companies that appear to have received the proceeds of the sale of the two Monaco villas.

The claimants allege that the two entities — British Virgin ­Islands-registered UP Shipping and United Arab Emirates-based Blue Diamond Sea Transport — are ultimately owned and controlled by Su.

Waksman ordered that Su should disclose relevant financial documentation for both companies ahead of the cross-examination.

The judge quoted Su’s words from a previous hearing, in which the 61-year-old told the court there was money in the British Virgin Islands that could be made avail­able to partly repay the outstanding debt.

Su has claimed that UP Shipping is owned by his elderly mother, ­Toshiko Morimoto, against whom Haji-Ioannou has taken action to enforce payment of her son’s judgment debt.

“It is clear to me that Su has lied to the court previously and has made manifest attempts to avoid full disclosure,” Waksman said in handing down his judgment.

Before Su is cross-examined again, Waksman said he would ­order another hearing, which will weigh up whether Su will be ­released or stay behind bars.

Any further time in custody would be subject to further committal applications, which have not yet been heard.

‘Serious flight risk’

If Su is to be released before being cross-examined, the judge said he would issue a protective order, which would prevent him from leaving the UK, withhold his passport and oblige him to make regular check-ins with local police.

“Mr Su is a serious flight risk,” Waksman commented.

The hearing also revealed that, despite being incarcerated, Su has managed to cultivate connections in high places.

Colman told the judge he had been introduced to Su through a friend and with the assistance of ex-politician Jonathan Aitken, the chaplain of Pentonville. The former Cabinet minister is well known in the UK, having been sentenced to 18 months’ jail for perjury in 1999.

Colman told the court he was acting as a McKenzie friend because Su has “no funds available” to employ a lawyer.

However, in handing down his oral judgment, Waksman noted that Su obviously had the “financial wherewithal” to engage law firm Ashfords and junior counsel to represent him at a hearing on Monday last week.

Waksman made reference to Su’s former “lavish lifestyle” and noted he had been due to stay at luxury hotel The Dorchester in London when he entered the UK last January.

Haji-Ioannou was represented in court last week by Stephen Phillips QC and Noel Casey from 7KBW, instructed by Hill Dickinson.