Former billionaire Nobu Su has been released from prison in London after serving half of the 24-month custodial sentence he was handed last year.
What now? That is the question for both Su and his long-time adversary, Cypriot shipowner Polys Haji-Ioannou.
TradeWinds understands Su left Belmarsh prison on 7 July but his current whereabouts and terms of his release remain unknown. The former boss of Today Makes Tomorrow (TMT) was not contactable for this story.
High Court Judge Sir Michael Burton committed Su to two years in custody last July. It is usual for prisoners in the UK to serve only half of their sentence before being released.
“I am satisfied that his conduct merits longer than the maximum sentence of 24 months,” Burton said when handing down his judgment last year. “And [Su] is fortunate the law only permits a 24-month sentence.”
Haji-Ioannou-led Lakatamia Shipping is trying to enforce payment of a court award made in its favour against Su in 2014 (see factbox). The judgment debt now totals more than $60m including interest.
Su has not yet repaid any of the award, and has failed to comply with court orders concerning disclosure of his assets. He has been committed to prison three times for contempt of court, spending two spells inside.
The court has found that Su and his mother, Toshiko Morimoto, acted together to circumvent the global freezing order on Su’s assets, which has been in force since 2011.
The proceeds of sale from assets such as Su’s private jet and two villas in Monaco were not declared to the court and were secretly funnelled into bank accounts controlled by Su and/or his mother.
For Su, a Taiwanese national, there are immediate questions about his health, where he will stay and the terms of his right to remain in the UK.
For Haji-Ioannou, the question is: what can be done to enforce payment of the debt that has not been tried already?
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 to 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 the English High Court against Su and the TMT Group.
August 2011
A worldwide freezing order of Su’s assets enters into force, following an application by the claimants.
November 2014
A judge delivers his judgment and finds in favour of Haji-Ioannou and Lakatamia, awarding them $37.9m.
January 2015
A further court judgment orders Su to pay an additional $9.9m in interest on top of the initial award.
November 2015
Two villas owned by Su are sold in Monaco.
February 2016
Su is ordered by the court to pay the claimants’ legal costs of £1.1m.
February 2017
The net proceeds of the villas’ sale is transferred to lawyers of Cresta Overseas Ltd, in 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 Toshiko Morimoto, Cresta and Portview.
March 2019
Su jailed for 21 months for contempt of court. He was released in 2020.
July 2021
Su jailed again for 24 months for contempt of court.
Lakatamia has once again widened its net to target individuals who assisted in transactions by which Su circumvented the freezing order on his assets.
Earlier this month, Lakatamia filed an application in London against Su, Tai-Chou (TC) Chang and Arnaud Zabaldano. No court documents have been filed publicly, so the nature and status of the claim cannot be known.
TC Chang is a director of several companies controlled or owned by Su and has been mentioned in court proceedings previously. These companies include Portview Holdings, which beneficially owned Cresta Overseas Ltd, the entity that received proceeds from the sale of two villas in Monaco.
Lakatamia’s application for a freezing order on assets belonging to Chang and Su’s two daughters was rejected in 2020.
Zabaldano is the founder of Monaco-based law firm Zabaldano Lawyers, which was retained on behalf of Cresta in the sale transaction. The law firm transferred $27m in proceeds to Cresta after the villas were sold, according to court documents.
Zabaldano was instructed by TC Chang, whom Judge Simon Bryan last year found acted under the orders of Su’s mother in transferring the proceeds into accounts she controlled.
A spokesperson told TradeWinds that Zabaldano is not aware of any claims against him.
Who helped?
In January, Lakatamia filed a claim in London against Su’s sister — Chiharu Morimoto — and Yu-Hsia Tseng.
No documents have become publicly available, which could mean the claim has not been served successfully, settled or set aside. Nevertheless, the filing signals Lakatamia’s strategy to put pressure on Su’s network and gain new information.
Tseng is a director of Sparkle World, an entity that received part of the proceeds from the sale of the villas and Su’s private jet in 2014.
At trial, Su’s mother represented to the court that Tseng was a “close family friend”, but cross-examination revealed that she knew little about her.
Judge Bryan found that Tseng was in fact a land administration agent who held assets on behalf of Morimoto, including the funds held by Sparkle World.
Tseng has been paying law firm Baker McKenzie for Morimoto’s legal costs since 2020.
Lakatamia has also filed a claim against Baker McKenzie to find out the source and circumstances of the funds. The law firm informed Lakatamia last year that its invoices had been paid from two accounts held by Tseng since 2020.
Lakatamia has argued that the bills are being paid using Morimoto’s undeclared funds or those of her daughter.
