Felix Chen
The commercial court of the BVI today ordered a rectification of the share register of Shangri-La International Holdings Limited (a remnant of the failed Layou River economic citizenship program) to make the Government of Dominica the rightful owner of the majority shares.
The claim by Sino Union of Felix Chen – the 40% shareholder of the Shangri-La – against Rich Victory Investment Limited of former Dominica Ambassador to Beijing David Hsiu was upheld by Justice Edward Bannister in a 43-page decision disclosed to lawyers prior to its formal presentation in open court at 2:00 pm EST on Wednesday November 11, 2009.
The action by Sino Union in favour of Government asked the court to find that based on Rich Victory’s February 2006 transfer of 51% of its shares in the Shangri-La to the government of Dominica, the government is the rightful owner of the shares even though the transfer was never registered.
Rich Victory argued that the transfer of its 69 million EC dollar share of the Shangri-La was not registered because certain unwritten conditions were never met. The judge dismissed those arguments.
“In my judgment this case is a simple one. The unconditional nature of the transfer itself and its execution by both parties shows that the parties had agreed to ignore the first phase condition and instead had agreed… to make the transfer effective forthwith.
“I accept the Prime Minister’s clear evidence on this point… which is amply corroborated by the references in the contemporaneous documents… and I reject Mr. Pinard-Byrne’s evidence that sometime in February 2006 the Prime Minister accepted the conditions for which Rich Victory Contends…”
Justice Bannister presented favourable reviews of the witnesses for the claimants. He referred to Prime Minister Skerrit as a truthful witness and to Felix Chen of Sino Union as an impressive witness.
In terms of the defense witnesses, while he believes that David Hsiu “did his best to answer truthfully” when specific questions were posed to him, the BVI Commercial Court Judge was severely critical of Kieron Pinard-Byrne, the man who claimed he tried to save the government from accepting majority ownership of a “poisoned chalice”:
“I did not find him a satisfactory witness. I had to remind myself more than once that he was not, in fact, a party to the proceedings. His oral, like his written evidence was partisan and argumentative. He appeared, if I may so put it, to be promulgating a version of events rather than to assist by giving purely factual evidence. When faced with evidence which contradicted his thesis, he became agitated and emotional. He appeared immune to appeals to recognize plain and obvious fact when it appeared to him that it was against Rich Victory’s interest to do so. I have to treat his evidence with the greatest caution”.
Justice Bannister turned down an application by counsel for Rich Victory Richard Evans that the order should take effect in 7 days to allow time for client instructions in terms of seeking a stay and filing an appeal.
He also rejected a request from Evans to have Rich Victory pay only one set of cost to the claimant Sino Union on the grounds that the government’s action as a respondent in the matter was merely supportive of the claimant’s case and did not justify a duplicate award of cost.
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
what does that say for Felix Chen? Will he get his $20 million USD back?
bobol master; how on earth do you expect Chen to get back his money? are you saying that the 40% shares he purchased in Shangri-La is non-existent? His case was to avoid Rich Victory from liquidating the Shangri-La Hotel project which would mean that he would have lost his investment.
I just cannot understand why so many ppl is talking about Chen getting back his USD$20M!!! If you puchase a shoe and it was damaged do you expect your money back plus a new shoe? Come on ppl this is not rocket science!!!!
Am so dissappointed in these comments!!!
what do you have to say now mr. independent?
The question is what happens next? is this project actually going to be finished and if so now that the rectification matter is resolved and as the government are the majority shareholders and the other sharehokder wanting his investment back it would appear that the only way forward is to complete the original programme but at waht cost will it be now?
more to point who provides the money? and finally is it all worth it at the end of thre day for as I see it the entire affir has been riddled with disaster from start to finish the entire project now needs proper "honest management" and top class supervision that is of course if there is any forward planning
Jeremy I just don't get you!!! Now that the Government owns 51% of the company who incidentally owns the property in layou, i guess the way foward is for the share holders to decide how they develope the property in a joint venture.
When they decide what they doing they will arrange management, who knows maybe you might get a management position there you never know!!!
If Dominica owns 51% of the company since 2006 we should have been adequately represented on the Board of Directors. We should then have access to the company accounts which should show a payment of US20 million from Chen's company. If the books show no such payment then how come Chen owns 40%. If the books show a payment or he has a receipt from the company then what did the Board do with the money? The audit report will have to show what happened. Ofcourse this is talk for the sake of it and we all know that this is a massive fraud conspiracy that went wrong and the players are trying to cover their tails. Now if the money never was in the company account and Chu cannot account for the money what then is Chu guilty of and what will the majority shareholders do about him?
Well the answer naturally follows the course of conduct adopted by the government in all area´s, absolutely nothing!!! and never will there be a satisfacory or honest answer ever for it is beyond the very doubtfull credibillty of the merry bunch and as the song says the dance will go on.
Mr. Skeritt, please help me answer these questions. Did the Government of Dominica own the 51% share, which is a controling interest, of Shaqi la before or after the US$20 million investment by Mr. Chen for the 40% share? What is the net worth of this company?
I am a Certified Internal Auditor with membership with the Institute of Certified Internal Auditors and also a Certified Fraud Examiner with membership with the Association of certified Fraud Examiners. The question of the US$20 million by Mr. Chen for 40% stake, the 51 % share of the Government, including David Shu are obvious red flags to indicate that fraudulent activities are present for a full-fledge investigation of the absent of the US$20 million.
In a european country perhaps there would be an investigation into these nefarious affairs but in Dominica definately not nor will there ever be until there is a change of government
RonJoe what on earth are you talking about? you say you are a member of what? and certified what? well i don't want to go to those schools you went to they too expensive papa.
Well as a certified Internal Auditor and Certified Fraud Examiner tell us since when owning 51% shares in a ligit company and a person purchasing 40% stake in that company raises a red flag thats worth investigating? In fact tell us what is the red flag that is raised!!!!
so what was done with that money? $20 MILL and in US dollars again eh…. u know people dont just magically come up with that money so u know. So i checking it is only fair and RIGHTEOUS!! that seeing that we own that company now that we get an answer. And i know MR. FELIX CHEN all u think doh worry with his money but I AM CERTAINLY sure that if u invest that figure in a company u would want to know was done with your money? SO SKERRO WHAT WAS DONE WITH THE MAN'S MONEY? SHOW US THE WORKS? ITS DOMINICA OWN SHOW US THE MONEY!!!
Wendell did he (Chen) invest it or did he purtchase shares worth USD$20M? Educate yourself before commenting, remember its better to be thought of as a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt. In that case write and remove all doubt.
Mr Daid Shiu 's outraged relationship with Skerrit now , can eventually end up in a situation where skerrit sould fear for his life .
I think the recent disclosues by David Shiu's letter of blackmail to the PM is a signal that he is not going to walk away politely after losing Layou River majority share holding .
Evenin the PM's response ….as read by Tony Assstaphan ….portays the image of a broken man begging for mercy from a mafia godfather …Let's pray for him .
so u dont think that when u buy shares in a company it is invested into the company to make it work more efficient to bring in more profits right?
Wendell, it means that you misunderstood what happened.
Mr Chen purchased the shares from Mr.shoo, that means the money was paid to shoo and not the company, it's like buying a car from a person you pay the person direct and ownership is transfered to you so the person can do whatever they want with the money cause its theirs.
Its different if the company had issued shares and you purchase it the money would have gone to the company capital maybe to purchase assets or payoff some bills etc.
Its like in this case buying a vehicle from a company, the money goes to the company and not the actuasl person (Eg. the Manager) who sold it on the company behalf
I hope u get it right this time!!
so in a situation like this where the man was trying to liquidate the company after giving it to the goverment well HON SKERRIT dont u suspect anything JOE? and that is after taking the money eh nothing strange about that?
well wendell the only thing i can say is david shoo is a con artiste
very interesting stuff!! hmmm david shoo is a con artiste nice company to have representing dominica on an international level
You must know that this man David Shui has been representing Dominica's interest to China since the days of the Dame (DFP), he continued with Eddo (UWP), so he was not new on the seen.
Skerrit did well in getting him to sign over 51% interest of Shangri-La to us Dominicans. It takes time to know ppl after you discover their con ways you must let go, just wait if Workers win this election you will hear names calling into positions that you've never heard before trust me on that one.
There might all be a Taiwan Ambassador as ties with China might be severed!!!
no problem i definately dont want us dealing with communist ppl like this PPL JUST MAKING DECISIONS THEN AFTER A LONG LONG TIME U KNOWING. U DONT THINK THE ELECTED LEADERS OF COUNTRIES OWE EXPLAINATIONS TO US TOO?? I MEAN HE WAS ELECTED BY PPL. BUT I GUESS THAT WAS COMMUNIST BASED PARTIES DO. dont get me wrong u know but i find HON SKERRIT chosing a funny set of countries to deal with all are lead by commnunist countries where ur point of views can put u in trouble would u really want that for u? I rather deal with democratic countries
WAT I AM TRYING TO SAY JOE WE ARE FED UP WITH THIS LEADER WHO THINKS THAT HE CAN JUST DO WHAT HE WANT OH AND BELIEVE ME HON SKERRIT WAS IN ON THIS ONE HE JUST HAD TO DO WHAT WAS RIGHT OR ELSE HE WOULD LOOK BAD. I MEAN WHY DOESNT DAVID SHOO COME CLEAR THE AIR ON THIS ONE NAH? THAT WOULD BE REALLY INTERESTING EH
OH OH AND I THINK THE ONLY REASON THE MAN GIVE THE GOVERNMENT OF DOMINICA THE SHARES WAS TO GET THE MAN TO INVEST THAT 20 mill US MOLLAH! u know to make the man feel he was paying for part of something worth wild that really isnt worth anything.
Are you a professional journalist? You write very well.