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As you know FRC is a privately held Cayman Exempted Company (CEC). I am also a director of a P-CEC. Our company is slightly different to FRC, but we are bound by the same rules and reporting structures that cover all Cayman listed entities.
It won’t come as a surprise to know that Cayman always favors the company. But I will ask our agent if they have any advice to share given the current situation.
I don’t know if FRC have already done so, but we occasionally move assets etc. between our various entities and sometimes between jurisdictions as the situation demands and as Cayman law allows. We cannot see any hard evidence to say FRC did the same pre-WUP, but it is a possibility.
ODR1 – Your idea has a ring of logic to it, but you must remember that for a long time now, FRC Cayman has been nothing but a shell company. It has no assets or anything of value for you to bid for.
We know this to be the case because the GOGC already confirmed that FRC was obsolete –
“…SOAG & GOGC assigned all interest, rights, and obligations of Frontera…to FRUS LLC” and “SOAG & GOGC on behalf of the Govt of Georgia…signed an MoU…from Frontera to FRUS LLC”. The full version of this was posted by ODR1 a while back.
FRUS LLC is a US registered company that, to date, remains removed from any and all court cases. This is why Hope etc. fought so hard and the court cases run and run. Try as they might, no one can get their hands on the asset.
To answer a question posed by Montiburns – the company was aware of the WUP and took no action. However, they did continue to take action in some of the other cases.
So we wait for confirmation if the share registry also sits under FRUS or another entity. Any such move would have to have taken place pre-WUP and thus planned in advance.
We did speak overnight and negotiations continue to try and get them to say something. The fact they still talk I hope means something positive.
From the start of the ZM trial to today, the company have shown scant regard to events in Cayman. Let’s hope they can soon assure us that we can also feel the same way.
The Final Judgement (FJ) in the ZM case was delivered back in August 2022. There were a number of appeals that challenged specific parts of the FJ though these have long been disposed of and did not affect the FJ.
In February 2023 ZM launched yet another appeal, this time claiming that his conviction for contempt interfered with his human rights and, specifically, prevented him from travelling to the USA where he feared arrest and up to 10 months incarceration.
The Appeal Court Denied the Appeal stating that ZM’s “testimony” was flawed and contained inaccuracies. ZM re-appealed claiming that the inaccuracies (outright lies) were simple mistakes due to human error, skating over the fact he had repeated these mistakes more than once. He asked the court to ignore what he said in the original appeal but to go ahead and protect his human rights anyway.
The appeal court received ZM’s “appeal of the appeal” on 3rd January and on 4th January the Court both Denied and Disposed of the appeal process, seeing it for what it was – a waste of the courts time.
In just this one appeal, ZM submitted many hundreds of pages of “supporting evidence”, mostly in Georgian, all of which had to be translated and cross-checked. His only success, if you can call it that, was to frustrate and waste the time and money of the company, impede the legal team, and disrespect the court.
ZM continues to try and obstruct the company with ever-more desperate actions despite ever-dwindling chances of success. However, due process must be served to protect the integrity of the FJ and uphold the convictions against ZM. The FJ, aside from the soon-to-expire T.I., remains in full force.
It must be frustrating for this wannabe O&G businessman, who was forever flouting his American connections, to find he cannot travel freely to the USA and that the US appeals courts continue to uphold the rulings against him.
This is one example of the behind-the-scenes fighting that continues to this day on multiple fronts. As others have pointed out today following events in Cayman, the easiest thing to do would be to throw in the towel, but still they fight.
Please understand that anything involving ZM that is “in play” cannot be shared in case it alerts those working against us. ZM updates will be shared once an event concludes.
Thanks ODR1. I hope people understand that I am not going to reply to every question, Instead I am going to keep on at them for updates.
The ZM story I referenced will be posted shortly.
Hi Bezzy – There is nothing “needy” about your question and wanting to know if you / we might still be on the bus. I am sorry that I could not provide a more definitive answer.
That small shareable was the result of a lot of back and forth where I pled that the company cannot allow shareholders, at least UK based ones, to end their day without any form of feedback. The comms solely focused on trying to get a commitment from them that shareholders are still, as you put it, on the bus. I just checked the time stamps and I first messaged them around 8:30pm, I finally got the shareable at 10:33pm and I posted it at 10:47pm, all UK time.
I didn’t ask about the grand plan, didn’t ask what they had for dinner, I focused on one thing and asked in as nice a way as possible – “are shareholders shafted or not?”. They said what they could.
I can tell you that the WUP was not the only company related development that happened yesterday. The other events could of course be coincidence, but the timing would seem to indicate otherwise. I am discussing this with them and how, if my thinking is correct, it might positively impact us. But I need to dig more to verify and get their OK to share (that is if I am right). I will keep at them on this point.
You mention dark arts / smoke & mirrors etc. – this is very true, and much continues behind the scenes that shareholders are not aware of but that still needs managing in accordance with the law. I might share a recent event regarding ZM as an example of this in a separate post.
We might look back and thank Mourant for forcing the company hand and finally letting us see what is really going on be it good or bad.
If people want to say “it’s all over” that is up to them, it isn’t the first time we have heard that sentiment. But don’t just give up, understand your rights and what is and isn’t possible regarding Cayman registered entities before chucking in the towel.
Zeps – yes it does looks grim, but it’s not over just yet. We are in the eye of he storm now and just need a bit more time to see how the dust settles.
Phil_2018 - The Outrider liquidations are voluntary which typically signifies an orderly winding down as opposed to liquidations forced by creditors (as Mourant did to FRC).
The settlement between the company and Hope should have neutralized any threat SH posed to the company though we may never know how generous / punishing SH found the terms to be. He might now be very thankful he was offered 10% royalty.
As for FRR - let's see how the next few days unfold, the WUP was known about for quite some time.
As recently shared by ZiggyZag, two Outrider entities were liquidated on 29th Dec 2023. The entities were –
1- Outrider Offshore Ltd
2- Outrider Master Fund L.P. (OMF-LP)
I don’t recall the first entity, but OMF-LP was the holder of the 2016 note that ballooned in value to around $42m. OMF-LP was also the Plaintiff in the OMF-LP v SN et al federal case. As we know this case, along with FRC v Hope et al was settled in April 2023 dispensing of all claims and disputes between the parties.
Tsbs1 - I got the message in the last hour or so, same time as I posted it.
"We are advancing and eliminating this in a controlled manner. Will advise further"
Well I didn't expect to wake up to that.
I am doing what I can to get a comment or update.
Let me do some digging to see what, if anything, turns up.
For context, the short message is the result of discussions mostly related to matters and events involving Mourant and Cayman Islands.
Of course, the message also covers all ongoing litigation which, as we can see, the company continues to fight / defend.
"Our legal clean up continues to be handled"
I find they are always very careful with their choice of words.
The entity on the Cayman docket is FRC, the parent company. No further update at this time.
Ziggy –
01/11/23 – FRC advise the court they intend to appeal the judgement.
02/01/24 – FRC lodge formally their appeal.
03/01/24 – Appeal court accepts the case.
09/01/24 – FRC pay the court costs to initiate the appeal process.
Master of my own domain (Seinfeld reference!)
The FRC appeal is now recorded in the Appeal Court system. There are some procedural matters that need to be handled between now and mid-February (agree or not agree to mediation etc.) so the court can determine its next steps. At some point YA will need to file their response.
FRC state the reason for this appeal is that the Summary Judgement in the original case was based on flawed evidence and witness hearsay.
Green Capital, as a corrupt enterprise, is probably under scrutiny for a number of reasons. This hearing could be FRC-related, i.e. investigating taxes and revenue related to illegal oil sales, but it could also be in relation to other GC activity.
WHamBoy - no update on this so I think the situation is as my last post regarding the hearing on 16th Jan. I do keep checking.
The right to appeal is just part of the process open to FRC / YA (had the court found for FRC). It will be for the court to decide if this appeal / motion for new trial has merits.
It could also be gamble for YA who might have to decide to wait it out or try to settle if their counsel think FRC might have a chance to have their motion granted and relitigate.
Last October, the court issued its Final Summary Judgement in favor of YA II. Last Nov FRC motioned for a New Trial in response to the Judgement. One reason for filing this motion was to extend the deadline for FRC to lodge an appeal.
FRC have now filed their appeal stating that they object to the courts acceptance of YA II's evidence regarding the default judgment in the UK. FRC again ask the court to grant their motion for a new trial.
I believe the court has up to 45 days to respond.
WHamBoy – your post regarding the 16th Jan deadline in the Mourant issue is basically right, but technically speaking, 16th Jan is the date the court has set to hear the Winding Up Petition. That means the company can settle before that date (as you point out), make another deal or come to the court to plead their side. That said, the company had said they would “extinguish” this issue before it gets to court.
Regarding the 15th Jan -
The Final Judgement in the ZM case decided a range of issues, orders and judgements. One of which was the granting of a Temporary Injunction against ZM in line with the non-compete clause in his employment contract. As the non-compete will soon run out, so the T.I. part of the Final Judgement will expire on Jan 15th. The rest of the Final Judgement remains in force.
The company have not sought to extend the T.I. We can see that to date, ZM remains unsuccessful in his / GC attempts to overturn the numerous violations and limitations imposed by the courts in Georgia. Earlier, we saw that ZM / GC had approached and had been clearly rebuffed by the GG when the parties attempted to appeal directly to the GG and state agencies. The MoU that ODR1 recently shared did not make settlement of cases involving ZM etc. a pre-condition to the proposed agreement.
Quite ironic that had ZM simply resigned, waited out his non-compete, maintained good relations in the US and Georgia and then started up his own operation he could have been both competition to FRR and a legitimate success in his own right.
The focus remains on if / when the company can fulfill the terms of the MoU.