A US judge has ordered the seizure of more than $31.2m of cash belonging to Dubai-based OQ Trading as part of a chartering dispute with a unit of Delta Corp Holdings.
District judge Naomi Reice Buchwald approved the seizure four days after Delta Corp Shipping filed a federal lawsuit accusing OQ Trading of breaching a contract of affreightment.
The company sought to freeze cash in a JP Morgan Chase bank account to secure its claims in the dispute’s main battleground: a London arbitration tribunal.
Buchwald, who serves in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, took no position on the merits of the case and opened the door for OQ to challenge the seizure.
According to legal papers, Delta Corp has accused OQ of failing to deliver cargoes under a 2022 contract to haul 600,000 tonnes of urea from the Baltic Sea to India in 50,000-tonne, monthly increments.
The company’s lawyers, Noe Hamra and Thomas Belknap of Blank Rome, said that no shipments took place between November 2022 and May 2023 because of the ice season in the Baltic, and that the shipments did not resume, although 450,000 tonnes were left on the contract.
“Defendant failed to nominate any more fixtures in 2023, thereby defaulting on the remaining nine fixtures,” they wrote.
OQ Trading, which is controlled by Oman’s government, declined to comment on the dispute.
London-headquartered Delta Corp Holdings, a bulk logistics conglomerate, is seeking a US listing.
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