Member Info for Moleinahole

Sycric the arbitration report is what you have to read to understand why the the arbitrators decided to allow GOGC the right to block the transfer on technical and funding grounds as per section 27.1.

FRR have been pretty much in dispute with GOGC since 2015. I personally from everything I've seen and read just think they are as fed up with the FRR board of directors as we are. I suspect the reason the point was not rubustly defended at arbitration goes back to FRR bizarre decision to go into the hearing with pretty much no evidence, no case and no lawyers, did not appear in person either. Hence it was simply not challenged. Why was that - was it Zaza with his Green plan b or Steve? Of all the incompetence defaulting on a secured loan was number 1 - closely followed by the abitration defence. I suspect right up to the last moment the plan was once again to rely on US political pressure to close down the proceedings and sort out a solution by going around GOGC. As with the liquidation I don't think Steve ever thought it would happen.

Watching last night actually made me quite angry. The pair of them should not be running any sort of business. The US judge like Kawaly in Cayman before must be bemused at the case. If FRR have no more witnesses has anyone seen the killer evidence around Green Capital yet or is that going to be in the cross examination? From the other night it all looked circumstantial but clearly odd. The fact it occurred on 25th April 2018 to me is what is telling. There is no way such a "white knight" funding source from a doctor arrived on exactly that date unless Zaza was involved. The same time Hope was looking to wind up the company.

Steve seems to be in total denial that the asset has gone. The letter to Georgia again threatening more litigation if the transfer was not processed again seems to me to follow a pattern here where FRR try to brow beat people into conceding. What should have happened is that if they can demonstrate a viable field development plan and bring in funding and a partner like Baker Hughes that is what any conversation with Georgians should have been about during and after the arbitration. They have used litigation and political posturing too much at the expense of running the business prudently and with care.

The problem with the transfer has always been that it was correctly processed by FRR and in my opinion per the wording of 27.3 of PSA should have gone through. The Georgians however fed up of being messed around by FRR decided to make an issue of it. They were well aware of the financial issues FRR had at the time and were not in the mood for any goodwill.

Once the arbitration finished FRR fought to keep 1% of block 12. But still could not/would not pay the balances owed - so again the Georgians not surprisingly have not played ball. By the time we got the arbitration ruling the Frontera Georgia shares were owned by FTI. So the opportunity to transfer may have been lost - I think the Georgians probably consider FTI as the legitimate holder of the PSA shares. That is why the incomplete transfer has always been problematic. The real reason for the transfer is abundantly obvious - it was to sidestep FTI - a process FRR should never have started by defaulting unnecessarily in sept 2018.

Hence my real concern about exactly how Steve thinks he unwinds the actions of FTI.

Now this case is Zaza suing Steve on behalf of shareholders over the covid loans and breach of duty. It is abundantly clear ALL the directors have failed shareholders - Zaza, Steve, Luis and Hope. ALL OF THEM. Luis by a total lack of engagement as a director and Steve and Zaza through a catalogue of errors, half truths and misjudgements. Of the 4 Hope from what I have seen is the better of the 4 - but he has never had any intention other than to maximise his take at shareholders expense.

The counter suite was around non competition in the contract - on that if Zaza was dismissed and carried on doing work for Frontera entities controlled by FTI or Green. Alot will then depend on who his contract was with - if it was the main group company then to me he will breach that through doing any work after dismissal. How could he get around that? Maybe if FRR no longer have an operation in Georgia he can' t be competing.

The Green link is what I'm looking forward to hearing more about.

FRR US were blocked but Green waved through. I suspect Green will get chucked out by GOGC - Uniserve have more chance but no funding unless they find a backer. That being the case GOGC take the block.

So GOGC have no real incentive to do anything to help FRR. BY sitting back they can let FTI achieve what they wanted all along which was to be rid of FRR. If Zaza is associated with Green then their continued presence is puzzling given Zaza campaign against the ruling party.

Steve better have some better evidence of the asset being appropriated else I think he might get a result against Zaza over the contract but I struggle to see how he reverses the liquidation.

Zaza attorney has Steve on very uncomfortable ground around the non registration of the transfer. And that ever since it was attempted has been the problem. But the Green deal still looks wrong.

Sounds like she is going down the connundrum of the non registration. Steve will have issues with that as we know they continue to not allow that to be confirmed.

Hi Dulwich been working late tonight and then a little bit of family time just playing some jigs and reels with my daughter as its been a long week. Coggy its whiskey night every night - but tonight I've started on some rum.

I would guess Steve is getting a hard time - its hard to explain the default and transfer thingy and keep a straight face. How long are they planning on running tonight?

The other observation is that even if they somehow reverse the PSA transfer the GOGC are still restricting exploration by area and depth. A $100m facility would be good but it's hard to work out why anyone would invest $100m in block 12 when fRR have lost the PSA and time is running out to generate any return. The Georgians have heard it all before. If there was possibility of raising $100m now then raising even $10m in 2018 would have been sensible.

It just doesn't add up. I have often wondered if it's incompetence or a clever CIA linked operation we have invested in. After over a decade invested I still don't know the answer.

The fact that the Georgians so quickly executed the Green transfer but blocked FRR US still does not sit well with me. But we shall see.

Tags sadly it is not looed helpful as he has been it's a court cases which require you to deposit evidence. Everything we have last few years has been from court documents be it 2016 or 2021. We know more about this company from court disclosure and press than the company.
That is a sad indictment. Lets see if they can get some traction in Georgia and eventually the FTI response will come as the liquidation process much as Steve is skipping around it is a reality.

There are at least 2 things wrong with the accounts. The incomplete information about Outrider and the interest but the 2017 full year and 2018 half year says nothing about the deal with green or any sign of any money from the deal.
That money should have enabled FRR to pay at least the first lot of interest even if they had to come back and ask shareholders for more support. That should have bought the time needed to get a campaign for 2019 away with Baker Hughes.
That could also have carried some favour with the Georgians.
The Green deal and the defaults are the two bits that don't make sense. With headroom shares it just should never have happened.

Dulwich I think we broadly agree on this. But Frontera is slightly different in few regards. First the board holding not just the executive reins but also large controlling holdings of shares. Second the Cayman registration and shareholder unfriendly environment that seems to foster when combined with very restrictive articles deliberately written to muzzle shareholders and finally a weak or non Existent independent directors. FRR have for very many years and still do run the company as if shareholders and other stakeholders do not matter. That arrogance and complete lack of accountability when combined with risk taking is a very dangerous combination. One wonders if the same dynamics have also applied to the drilling and exploration activities.
The board are 100% responsible for the mess here. Short of turning to law and suing the directors this company had no effective checks and balances to stop the CEO running the company as an autocracy.
A greater focus on shareholder rights is what is needed.articles like FRR should be ripped up and rights to call meetings, produce accounts and elect the board and in particular non execs who are not friends of the board or just there to draw a fee would be a good start.

szeilla resigned if the email trails are correct when he thought the company was insolvent. He was clearly also well out of the loop.
The tragedy of FRR is that it started with every political advantage and potential political and industry support and over time has squandered the advantage.
My conclusion of last night was confirmation that the company board was dysfunctional, operations became anarchic and chaotic. Production from 2018 campaign was at the low end of expectations the company needs to be doing over 500 bopd to operate at breakdown not 200. The board continued to draw large amounts of cash out of the business even when staff were unpaid. We now know of at least 2 funders of scale who looked but walked away in the 2018 to 2019 period.

I would reserve overall judgement on everyone here until the hearing is complete and we have seen all the evidence and heard both sides of the case. Cross examination I suspect may be pretty tough on Steve and he has already shown a capacity with his legal team to misread documents, exaggerate numbers and forget key dates.

The fact they are fighting each other is absolutely shocking. It should never have got to this situation.

Dulwich the nomad can only work with what they are given. It's not their job to actively scrutinise the business. They review communications and advise. The auditors should have been more active but the buck stops with the board in how a company is run and operated. When even members of the board don't know what is going on the nomad and shareholders have no chance.

Phil there are only 4 taribani wells doing any volume. The rest of the wells do next to nothing.
Dino, Niko, T39 and T45. T39 was the hope that it had been run at higher volume. But looks like it either dropped back or was choked back. We don't know - I would guess T39 was still producing over 100 to 120 bopd. If that had continued into 2019 and 2020 that would have been a reasonable sign that the deeper zones were indeed better and the way to look at improving further the flows. T45 dropped back to low volumes, Dino we don't know and Niko was still the 2016 workover in the higher zones. So I'd assume they were all in the 15 to 30 bopd range. A shame events mean we have been years since discussing the geology.

FRR were operating from 2019 with pretty much no staff - not paid ones at any rate. Looks like they produced into 2019 but stopped at some point probably around the time they laid everyone off by which time if we are to be believed the senior management sold some of the oil themselves then started again in Q4 2020.

Yes Oopsi - i can see a possible win here for Steve based on tonight. But they have then got to find a way to use this to unwind the rest of the mess and this being litigation you can't be too confident we will have a better view post cross examination - Steve would worry me when in cross examination. At least he seemed to be in same room as his legal team.

On the farmout to Green they already have the email trail around that in Steve's 2018 submission to Cayman if they need to show no one was informed and he mislead Hope on it describing it as oil sales.

There looks to be sums of money gone walkabouts and the Georgian letter where they were miffed the oil sales proceeds had not gone to pay staff for oct and nov was interesting. The payments in and out of the operational bank accounts also looked unusual - Zaza can't say he got no pay at all - if you looked at the bank statement apart from exec pay and a few car items it was legal costs! The "theft of oil" by named unpaid staff is just ridiculous.

We now know Steve was also willing to do a deal with SOCAR to sell oil in 2016/19 when Zaza said he could not. The volume however was about what I expected - indicating the 2018 campaign wells were running at a much reduced rate.

Above all this as with most litigation the close relationship between Steve and Zaza really has gone badly wrong.

NJames - the Green contract documents now really interest me if you have isolated them as exhibits.

If they look at the accounts to find the farmouts in the 2017 full or 2018 interim its not there....or the money either....

Oopsi I think on the pure employment contract stuff - Zaza looks like he could be in some difficulty depending on how the judge sees it of course.

The problem I see here is that by this time arguably FRR were not in control of Frontera Georgia as the shares had been transferred to FTI to liquidate. FTI left Zaza in position - so he was reporting to FTI not Steve I think in this case.
Now that seems to prove he has competed and breached employment contract to me. He either did not report or competed with FRR. The shell companies and links look dodgy but the judge seems to have noted but not given much weight.

Where this all goes with the asset is the question we all want to know. The Green transaction just looks wrong and all along the way here things don't add up - the company seems to have been sabotaged.

The cross examination will be interesting - but they are both mad to be in open court washing this in public.

The problem Steve will have is if by that date the company was controlled by FTI who had 100% of the shares which goes back to the failed transfer to FRR US......

The big question is who owned FRGC at that time was it FRR or FTI.....

Agree on the farmout Zaza did that on 25th April and was not in the board meeting that week so the Green deal was not shared with board.

Ziggy you bad boy.
Interesting line here now showing they were indeed still drawing execuive pay and expenses in the General expenses. No doubt to counter the I have not been paid argument.

Ricardo that should be Bryce L effectively our corporate secretary and attorney. Prior to that they worked for us on the lobbying side. So they have political connections.

Kipper I suspect if we had not delisted the share price might have very rapidly approached zero anyway on 24th dec 2018. The problem is the decision to default on the interest. That combined with low flow rates has killed us. I would be interested though in whose idea it was to default.......

ODR after 2 and a bit years of silence it is indeed a shock to see our investments being subject to the vagaries of the law and finally see and hear the 2 main culprits. Its a shame Hope isn't on as well as I would have liked to seen him. But as with GOIT lets see how this continues to unfold as the arguments are developed. Its easy to see now why we got no traction with the board over last two years - they were dysfunctional and too busy fighting each other. Its a major breakdown here - ZM and Steve have known each other for years.

Steady Goit wait till the other side have had a go cross examining........then we can get a balanced view of what they want to dispute.