A Syrian businessman placed on a US terrorism sanctions list has been ordered to pay $1m towards the legal costs of US-based investor Oaktree Capital Management in a dispute over terminated charters for two handysize bulkers.
OCM ended two 25-month bareboat charters with companies controlled by Greece-based Abdul Jalil Mallah after he was named in June 2021 as being part of a network that was smuggling Iranian crude oil to Syria.
OCM regained control in March of the 31,800-dwt Courage (built 2009) and 34,400-dwt Amethyst (built 2014) when a London high court judge ordered three of Mallah’s companies to pay an initial £1m ($1.1m) to cover costs.
But one of the companies went bust and the other two failed to pay - prompting OCM to go after Mallah, who is the subject of a £2m ($2.38m) worldwide freezing order.
An English court in July ordered Mallah to hand over details of his property portfolio as part of efforts to enforce any claim. The portfolio is believed to include properties in Sweden and six apartments in Piraeus, Greece.
But Mallah has not given any further details or offered any explanation or apology for failing to respond, said Judge Andrew Smith. He ordered Mallah to pay $1m on account after accusing him of evasiveness and deliberate delaying tactics.
Mallah had claimed that he had ended his involvement in the three companies involved in the chartering operations within a fortnight of being placed on the US sanctions list.
He was identified by the US as one of six individuals who were part of a network involved in illicitly trafficking Iranian goods abroad and redirecting the profits to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
But the judge this week concluded that Mallah remained the key player behind the companies despite claiming to have relinquished control. The judge said he had orchestrated and funded the companies’ defences of OCM’s legal claim through the English courts.
“Mr Mallah made all significant decisions about how the corporate defendants should conduct the litigation and how they should deal with the vessels,” said the judge.
The whereabouts of Mallah remain unclear and he has dropped his legal team.
OCM is still trying to get back one of the vessels that his companies chartered. It has recovered the Amethyst but the Courage — purchased by OCM for $9m in 2019 — remains in Latakia, Syria, under the control of the former charterer, according to court documents.
