Friday, March 20, 2009

Industrial Carriers Bankruptcy in question

Industrial Carriers Inc. filed for bankruptcy in October 2008.

This from Bloomberg
Industrial Carriers, based in the Marshall Islands and operating from Odessa in Ukraine, has sought protection from creditors, Michael Ivanov, a senior chartering officer in Odessa.

The shipper's operating office is in Odessa, with a financial office in Athens and representative offices in Shanghai, Moscow and Rio de Janeiro, the Web site showed. The bankruptcy filing was made in Piraeus, Greece, according to TradeWinds.

Since Sept. 26, Industrial Carriers has been sued or is suing other parties in 13 lawsuits in New York and London, according to legal filings data compiled by Bloomberg.


Oh - but not so fast.

Now, 5 months later, the Greek Courts say no,
The Piraeus court threw out the petition on jurisdictional grounds, finding that on the balance of probabilities ICI — which had offices in Ukraine, Greece and elsewhere — had its seat in Odessa rather than Athens, it has emerged.

The appeal filing includes “new evidence”, including greater detail of the Greek residency and background of two of ICI’s three directors, said its lawyer, Andreas Nassikas.

An appeal hearing has been scheduled for May 28 this year.


There's a lot more to this, which you can read in Lloyd's List, but this is my personal favorite.

Staff at the defunct chartering entity have claimed that moves by a handful of owners and charterers to freeze its assets cut short its efforts to settle with more creditors.


Surprise, surprise.

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