Exiled Thai wind power tycoon's $900m court victory after judge backs 'asset stripping' claims

A Thai businessman has won $900m in a London court after it was found that he was tricked into selling shares in the wind power business he founded at a massive discount after fleeing the country in the wake of a coup.

The Commercial Court in London this week awarded the money to holding companies owned by Nopporn Suppipat in a claim brought over the sale of his stake in Bangkok-based Wind Energy Holding.

Nopporn, who was granted political asylum in France where he has remained since, stepped down as CEO and agreed to sell his 49% stake in Wind Energy to fellow Thai businessman Nop Narongdej for $700m.

However, Nop failed to make agreed payments under the deal and Nopporn and his companies later won compensation in two arbitrations seated in Singapore.

Nopporn and his companies also brought a fraud claim against Nop in the London court, alleging that he and 16 other defendants had conspired to steal $1.5bn from him. He argued was only ever paid $176m for shares valued at around $1.6bn last year.

Nopporn accused the defendants of asset stripping and fraudulent misrepresentation during the sale process. This included allegations they had conspired to deliberately undervalue the shares and manipulate key documents.

Truth became an 'alien concept'

In a 31 July judgment, Mr Justice Calver of the Commercial Court upheld claims of asset stripping against all bar three of the defendants.

Those found liable included Nop and Pradej Kitti-Itsaranon, a director and chairman of the executive committee at Wind Energy who is one of Thailand’s wealthiest businessmen. Pradej was unrepresented in the trial and did not appear.

Others held liable included UK citizen Emma Collins, who Nopporn had instructed alongside two other defendants to manage his assets after he fled Thailand. Calver found that Collins and the other managers had received an “incentive” of a 1.25% stake in Wind Energy to help Nop in his “asset stripping scheme”.

In doing this, Calver said that Collins (who served for a period as Wind Energy CEO) and the other managers “did the very thing” that Nopporn had “trusted them not to do”.

Calver was scathing in his assessment of several witnesses for the defence, saying the “nature and extent of their lies was at times breathtaking, as was their relaxed attitude to the production of false documents”.

Calver said the truth had become an “alien concept” to many of the defendants, including Nop, who “seemed unable to give honest evidence about almost anything,” and his mother-in-law Khunying Korkaew Boonyachinda, who “saw her role as being to act as the stooge” on his behalf.

Calver dismissed the claim against defendants Siam Commercial Bank and its former CEO Arthid Nanthawithaya for their roles in facilitating the deal. He found the bank had been “negligent” for failure to perform certain checks but did not find it had been “dishonest”.

Calver said that he would have upheld one of the misrepresentation claims but that this was time-barred under Thai law.

Wind Energy and counsel to all the parties were contacted for comment.