A British court has ruled in favour of Thai businessman Nopporn Suppipat, who fled the country after facing a lese-majeste charge in 2014, in a case in which he said he was cheated out of billions of baht in the sale of shares in his company.
The judgement calls on Nop Narongdej, a member of one of Thailand’s most prominent business families, and 13 co-defendants to pay $900 million in compensation in connection with the sale of shares in Wind Energy Holding Plc (WEH).
The ruling was issued on Monday in London by the Commercial Court, a branch of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales, BBC Thai reported. The full text of the 406-page ruling can be read here.
The case was brought in the UK, where the court said it had the authority to rule because one of the defendants, former WEH chief executive Emma Collins, is a UK citizen. The court said its ruling was made based on Thai law, specifically Article 432 of the Civil and Commercial Code.
Mr Nopporn, 52, was seeking $1.5 billion at the fraud trial, in which he said he was pressured to sell a large holding in the firm just as he faced serious criminal charges.
The founder of the country’s biggest wind power operator fled the country in late 2014 after a lese-majeste charge was brought against him in a dispute not related to the one with Mr Nop and his associates. He maintains that the charge under Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the royal defamation law, was fabricated, and he was granted political asylum in France.
In the case filed with the British court, Mr Nopporn said he was “fraudulently induced” into selling about 60% of his shares in WEH and was never paid their true value.
Mr Nop and Siam Commercial Bank deliberately undervalued the shares and manipulated key documents between 2014 to 2018, according to court filings by Mr Nopporn’s lawyers.
Siam Commercial Bank and two other defendants in the case were found not liable by the court.
The shares were worth $872 million at the time of sale and are now worth $1.6 billion, Mr Nopporn’s lawyers said in court documents. He sold them to Mr Nop for 6.9 billion baht ($190 million) and “received only $76 million in return”.
Mr Nopporn filed a series of lawsuits against Mr Nop in numerous countries, including Hong Kong and Singapore, over the share ownership dispute.
Mr Nop last year won a case in which the Singapore Appeals court ruled in his favour while overruling an earlier decision of an international arbitration tribunal.
WEH was preparing for a highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on the Stock Exchange of Thailand in 2015 when the dispute involving Mr Nopporn, Mr Nop and others erupted. The offering has since been postponed several times.
Mr Nopporn’s other legal troubles date back to a complaint of extortion made by former business partner Bundit Chotwitthayakul. He eventually agreed to pay Mr Bundit 120 million baht to settle the issue and the complaint was withdrawn on Aug 26, 2014.
Mr Nopporn fled the country on Nov 30, 2014, after being tipped off that a lese-majeste complaint was to be laid against him the following day, allegedly linked to the activities of the disgraced former Central Investigation Bureau chief Pongpat Chayapan. Mr Nopporn has said the case appeared to be linked to his dispute with Mr Bundit.
On Dec 2, 2014, the day after the lese-majeste complaint was laid against Mr Nopporn, the executive committee of Siam Commercial Bank, the major financial backer of WEH, met to discuss the implications.
Energy Regulatory Commission regulations state that energy business operators are required to never have been sentenced to prison by a final judgement.
Mr Nopporn acknowledged on cross-examination in the UK court that because of the Section 112 case hanging over his head, he had to sell his shares in order to ensure that the licence of WEH would not be at risk of being revoked. That set in motion the dealings with Mr Nop and others that have led to years of legal disputes.