Latest news with #breachofcontract
Free Malaysia Today
a day ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
AlphaCapital directors found guilty of contempt
(Form left) Lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Simran Kaur as well as Sachpreetraj Singh (fourth from right) with their clients outside court. (Rajesh Nagarajan pic) PETALING JAYA : Two directors of an investment firm have been found guilty by the High Court of contempt. AlphaCapital (M) Berhad's Syed Mahadzir Fadaak Syed Jamil Fadaak and Erna Elliyana Rosli were convicted for contempt of court after the duo failed to comply with a Mareva injunction. A Mareva injunction is a temporary order which restrains a defendant from disposing of assets pending the disposal of a civil suit. Lawyer Sachpreetraj Singh, Rajesh Nagarajan and Simran Kaur represented 64 investors who sued AlphaCapital for breach of contract involving a collective sum of RM19,831,440.50. Rajesh said Judicial Commissioner Yusrin Faidz Yusoff has set July 15 for sentencing. 'They will either be fined or imprisoned,' he told FMT. The 64 had sued the company for breach of contract after it failed to pay monthly dividend returns. According to Rajesh, following the suit, his clients discovered that the two directors had led a lavish lifestyle, and had within their possession luxury cars that were purchased despite the business purportedly having suffered losses. In September last year, the High Court froze nearly RM20 million of AlphaCapital Berhad's assets and funds after granting an ex parte injunction against the private investment company. MORE TO COME
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Radical terminates asset purchase agreement with AgriForce, files lawsuit
Radical Clean Solutions has formally notified AgriForce Growing Systems (AGRI) of the termination of the previously executed asset purchase agreement dated August 16, termination was based on what Radical alleges to be multiple material breaches of the agreement by AgriForce. These alleged breaches include:Failure to fund Radical's monthly operations budget as contractually required; Failure to use commercially reasonable efforts to advance Radical's business; Failure to support key certification efforts essential to the business. In connection with the termination, Radical and its founder, Roger Slotkin, have filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York against AgriForce Growing Systems Ltd. The suit alleges material breaches of various agreements, and Radical and Mr. Slotkin are seeking damages and other appropriate relief. Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter Published first on TheFly – the ultimate source for real-time, market-moving breaking financial news. Try Now>> See Insiders' Hot Stocks on TipRanks >> Read More on AGRI: Disclaimer & DisclosureReport an Issue AgriFORCE Growing Systems launches TerraHash Digital division AgriFORCE commences final installation of bitcoin miners at Ohio site AgriFORCE Growing announces completion of 500 miner delivery at Ohio facility AgriFORCE mines over five bitcoin from Alberta, Ohio operations AgriFORCE Growing Systems provides update on bitcoin mining operations Effettua l'accesso per consultare il tuo portafoglio
CTV News
30-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
B.C. court orders another 7-figure judgment against West Vancouver developer
A West Vancouver property developer has, for the third time, been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to pay more than $1 million to a former client. The latest judgment against Phillip Deane Garrow was handed down by Justice Jennifer Lynn Whately on Wednesday. Whately found Garrow liable for civil fraud and breach of contract, and ordered him to pay Leslie Louie Sallay $1,134,157 in damages, representing amounts the judge found Garrow overcharged Sallay for renovations on two properties in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. Previous cases The latest decision marks the second time a B.C. Supreme Court justice has ordered Garrow to pay Sallay more than $1 million. In October 2023, Justice Janet Winteringham ordered Garrow and companies he owned or co-owned to pay more than $1.8 million to Sallay's company, Jeanna Ventures Ltd. Winteringham found that Jeanna had proven, on the balance of probabilities, that Garrow and his companies had committed three instances of civil fraud during a pair of development projects they entered jointly with Jeanna in West Vancouver. Last year, a different company controlled by Garrow was also subject to a $1-million order from the B.C. Supreme Court. In that case, Justice Sandra M. Sukstorf found that Benbow Residences had breached its contract with homebuyer Zihao Yan by failing to complete construction of a $5-million home and secure an occupancy permit on time. The judge ordered Benbow to return Yan's $1-million deposit and pay special court costs. The latest decision The conduct that led to the latest decision occurred while Garrow and Sallay were still collaborating on the West Vancouver construction projects, and before their relationship soured, according to Whately's decision. In June 2019, Sallay was in the midst of renovating two properties on West 1st Avenue in Kitsilano. The properties are listed by BC Assessment as two halves of a duplex. Sallay was the registered owner of one and his wife was the registered owner of the other. Kitsilano duplex The Kitsilano duplex is seen in this BC Assessment photo from 2016, before the renovations began. (BC Assessment) A contractor Sallay had hired to do the renovations 'did not have the manpower' to complete the project in a reasonable amount of time, according to the decision, so Sallay asked Garrow if he could take it over. 'Mr. Sallay believed his existing working arrangement with Mr. Garrow in West Vancouver would mean an efficient and easy flow of trades between the two projects, and as of the spring of 2019, he had yet to discover anything amiss with their business dealings in West Vancouver,' Whately's decision reads. Garrow and his company ADC Projects Ltd. took on the work, which was supposed to be completed by March 2020, according to the decision. Instead, the decision indicates the project dragged on until September 2020, when Sallay informed Garrow and ADC that they were in breach of their contractual obligations and terminated his agreement with them. A new contractor was brought in and assessed the project as only 50 per cent complete, though Garrow disputed this assessment in court. Ultimately, Sallay paid more than $3 million to the three contractors who worked on the project, which was initially expected to cost just over $1 million. Sallay told the court he was 'trying to retire' at the time the renovations were being completed. He spent most of the time Garrow was on the project at his home in California, approving invoices by email but not scrutinizing them as closely as he would have earlier in his career. 'However, in the spring of 2020 Mr. Sallay became concerned about the mounting costs of the project,' the decision reads. 'When he investigated, he discovered what he thought was 'double billing' and 'fraudulent invoices' submitted to him by Mr. Garrow and ADC.' Credibility During the trial, Sallay presented evidence of 'at least $155,000' that he paid to Garrow in response to invoices for contractors who never did work on the project. The decision notes 'one rather stark example of such a false charge,' in which Garrow submitted an invoice to Sally for $25,000 from Jorgensen Custom Metal and Roofing. The company's principal testified at the trial, telling the court that the invoice in question was not on a form he used, was not created by anyone at his company and misspelled his company's name as 'Jorgenson,' rather than 'Jorgensen.' In another instance, Garrow submitted a total of $90,000 of bills to Sallay on behalf of a contractor called Alexa Woodwork. That company confirmed it had received a $30,000 deposit from ADC or Garrow, but said it returned the amount when it determined it would not have time to take on work at the Kitsilano property. The company had no record of an additional $60,000 payment. 'I found Mr. Garrow's explanations for these anomalies to be confusing, nonsensical, and ultimately not believable,' Whately's decision reads. 'And, in fact, When Mr. Sallay confronted Mr. Garrow with the $155,000 in questionable or false billing, Mr. Garrow credited him for the amounts.' The falsified bills and Garrow's explanations for them factored into the judge's assessment of his credibility, which she described as 'a key issue' in the case. 'Mr. Garrow was argumentative, and often doubled down on small pedantic details, or unrelated facts in support of outlandish explanations for clear dishonesty,' the decision reads. Whately provided one more example of Garrow's 'willingness to obfuscate the truth,' describing his 'tortured, obviously false explanation' for statutory declarations he made in connection to the project that were not signed or witnessed by his lawyer. The documents included an 'unreadable' signature in the block labeled 'Commissioner of Oaths, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, etc.' According to Whately's decision, Garrow identified the signer as 'Natalia Avici,' an executive assistant at Executive Suite Management Inc. No such person has ever worked for that company, the decision notes. 'Putting aside, for a moment, the likelihood that Ms. Avici was certainly not a lawyer, notary or commissioner, and was entirely made up by Mr. Garrow, of additional concern to me was Mr. Garrow's disingenuous argument under oath about who could witness and sign a statutory declaration,' the decision reads. 'Mr. Garrow persisted in arguing that, in his view, the word 'etc.' in the signature block indicated to him that anyone who was not a notary or commissioner or justice of the peace could legally witness and sign a statutory declaration as a valid 'etc.' person … Mr. Garrow's willingness to testify under oath on something so patently ridiculous, combined with his testimony with respect to the false Jorgensen invoice, among other discrepancies, made it almost impossible for me to consider the balance of his testimony as credible or reliable.' Counterclaims and damages While it was Sallay and Jeanna who filed suit against Garrow and his companies in the October 2023 case, in the latest court decision, it was actually Garrow who brought the case to court. He sought judgments against Sallay for liens he had filed against the West 1st Avenue properties, as well as two condos on nearby York Avenue owned by members of Sallay's family. Whately dismissed Garrow's claims, finding them poorly supported by evidence and outweighed by the strength of the evidence Sallay presented in support of his counterclaims for fraud and breach of contract. The judge found that both civil fraud and breach of contract had been proven on the balance of probabilities, and concluded that the damages to which Sallay should be entitled would be the same regardless of which tort was the basis for the judgment. Sallay claimed that Garrow should pay him $1,675,145 in damages, which would restore him to the financial position he would have been in but for the contract breaches and the fraud. Whately disagreed, finding that this calculation placed 100 per cent of the blame for the cost overruns on the West 1st Avenue project on Garrow's conduct, a conclusion that was not proven by the available evidence. The judge arrived at the total award of $1,134,157 by adding the $473,501 in unsupported charges and payments identified by Sallay's forensic accountant to 50 per cent of the total charged by ADC for the work it did on the project. Whately also awarded court costs to Sallay.
CTV News
30-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
West Vancouver developer ordered to pay more than $1 million for civil fraud, again
A West Vancouver property developer has, for the third time, been ordered by the B.C. Supreme Court to pay more than $1 million to a former client. The latest judgment against Phillip Deane Garrow was handed down by Justice Jennifer Lynn Whately on Wednesday. Whatley found Garrow liable for civil fraud and breach of contract, and ordered him to pay Leslie Louie Sallay $1,134,157 in damages, representing amounts the judge found Garrow overcharged Sallay for renovations on two properties in Vancouver's Kitsilano neighbourhood. Previous cases The latest decision marks the second time a B.C. Supreme Court justice has ordered Garrow to pay Sallay more than $1 million. In October 2023, Justice Janet Winteringham ordered Garrow and companies he owned or co-owned to pay more than $1.8 million to Sallay's company, Jeanna Ventures Ltd. Winteringham found that Jeanna had proven, on the balance of probabilities, that Garrow and his companies had committed three instances of civil fraud during a pair of development projects they entered jointly with Jeanna in West Vancouver. Last year, a different company controlled by Garrow was also subject to a $1-million order from the B.C. Supreme Court. In that case, Justice Sandra M. Sukstorf found that Benbow Residences had breached its contract with homebuyer Zihao Yan by failing to complete construction of a $5-million home and secure an occupancy permit on time. The judge ordered Benbow to return Yan's $1-million deposit and pay special court costs. The latest decision The conduct that led to the latest decision occurred while Garrow and Sallay were still collaborating on the West Vancouver construction projects, and before their relationship soured, according to Whatley's decision. In June 2019, Sallay was in the midst of renovating two properties on West 1st Avenue in Kitsilano. The properties are listed by BC Assessment as two halves of a duplex. Sallay was the registered owner of one and his wife was the registered owner of the other. Kitsilano duplex The Kitsilano duplex is seen in this BC Assessment photo from 2016, before the renovations began. (BC Assessment) A contractor Sallay had hired to do the renovations 'did not have the manpower' to complete the project in a reasonable amount of time, according to the decision, so Sallay asked Garrow if he could take it over. 'Mr. Sallay believed his existing working arrangement with Mr. Garrow in West Vancouver would mean an efficient and easy flow of trades between the two projects, and as of the spring of 2019, he had yet to discover anything amiss with their business dealings in West Vancouver,' Whatley's decision reads. Garrow and his company ADC Projects Ltd. took on the work, which was supposed to be completed by March 2020, according to the decision. Instead, the decision indicates the project dragged on until September 2020, when Sallay informed Garrow and ADC that they were in breach of their contractual obligations and terminated his agreement with them. A new contractor was brought in and assessed the project as only 50 per cent complete, though Garrow disputed this assessment in court. Ultimately, Sallay paid more than $3 million to the three contractors who worked on the project, which was initially expected to cost just over $1 million. Sallay told the court he was 'trying to retire' at the time the renovations were being completed. He spent most of the time Garrow was on the project at his home in California, approving invoices by email but not scrutinizing them as closely as he would have earlier in his career. 'However, in the spring of 2020 Mr. Sallay became concerned about the mounting costs of the project,' the decision reads. 'When he investigated, he discovered what he thought was 'double billing' and 'fraudulent invoices' submitted to him by Mr. Garrow and ADC.' Credibility During the trial, Sallay presented evidence of 'at least $155,000' that he paid to Garrow in response to invoices for contractors who never did work on the project. The decision notes 'one rather stark example of such a false charge,' in which Garrow submitted an invoice to Sally for $25,000 from Jorgensen Custom Metal and Roofing. The company's principal testified at the trial, telling the court that the invoice in question was not on a form he used, was not created by anyone at his company and misspelled his company's name as 'Jorgenson,' rather than 'Jorgensen.' In another instance, Garrow submitted a total of $90,000 of bills to Sallay on behalf of a contractor called Alexa Woodwork. That company confirmed it had received a $30,000 deposit from ADC or Garrow, but said it returned the amount when it determined it would not have time to take on work at the Kitsilano property. The company had no record of an additional $60,000 payment. 'I found Mr. Garrow's explanations for these anomalies to be confusing, nonsensical, and ultimately not believable,' Whatley's decision reads. 'And, in fact, When Mr. Sallay confronted Mr. Garrow with the $155,000 in questionable or false billing, Mr. Garrow credited him for the amounts.' The falsified bills and Garrow's explanations for them factored into the judge's assessment of his credibility, which she described as 'a key issue' in the case. 'Mr. Garrow was argumentative, and often doubled down on small pedantic details, or unrelated facts in support of outlandish explanations for clear dishonesty,' the decision reads. Whatley provided one more example of Garrow's 'willingness to obfuscate the truth,' describing his 'tortured, obviously false explanation' for statutory declarations he made in connection to the project that were not signed or witnessed by his lawyer. The documents included an 'unreadable' signature in the block labeled 'Commissioner of Oaths, Notary Public, Justice of the Peace, etc.' According to Whatley's decision, Garrow identified the signer as 'Natalia Avici,' an executive assistant at Executive Suite Management Inc. No such person has ever worked for that company, the decision notes. 'Putting aside, for a moment, the likelihood that Ms. Avici was certainly not a lawyer, notary or commissioner, and was entirely made up by Mr. Garrow, of additional concern to me was Mr. Garrow's disingenuous argument under oath about who could witness and sign a statutory declaration,' the decision reads. 'Mr. Garrow persisted in arguing that, in his view, the word 'etc.' in the signature block indicated to him that anyone who was not a notary or commissioner or justice of the peace could legally witness and sign a statutory declaration as a valid 'etc.' person … Mr. Garrow's willingness to testify under oath on something so patently ridiculous, combined with his testimony with respect to the false Jorgensen invoice, among other discrepancies, made it almost impossible for me to consider the balance of his testimony as credible or reliable.' Counterclaims and damages While it was Sallay and Jeanna who filed suit against Garrow and his companies in the October 2023 case, in the latest court decision, it was actually Garrow who brought the case to court. He sought judgments against Sallay for liens he had filed against the West 1st Avenue properties, as well as two condos on nearby York Avenue owned by members of Sallay's family. Whatley dismissed Garrow's claims, finding them poorly supported by evidence and outweighed by the strength of the evidence Sallay presented in support of his counterclaims for fraud and breach of contract. The judge found that both civil fraud and breach of contract had been proven on the balance of probabilities, and concluded that the damages to which Sallay should be entitled would be the same regardless of which tort was the basis for the judgment. Sallay claimed that Garrow should pay him $1,675,145 in damages, which would restore him to the financial position he would have been in but for the contract breaches and the fraud. Whatley disagreed, finding that this calculation placed 100 per cent of the blame for the cost overruns on the West 1st Avenue project on Garrow's conduct, a conclusion that was not proven by the available evidence. The judge arrived at the total award of $1,134,157 by adding the $473,501 in unsupported charges and payments identified by Sallay's forensic accountant to 50 per cent of the total charged by ADC for the work it did on the project. Whatley also awarded court costs to Sallay.
The Independent
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Who art thou owners? The Texas Renaissance Festival has to pay $22 million in damages in dispute over purchase
King George's reign has come to an end. In Texas. At a Renaissance Festival. A Grimes County judge ruled this week that the Texas Renaissance Festival — the largest in the country in terms of attendance numbers — must be sold after its owner, George Coulam — known to his workers and visitors as King George — backed out of a sale. In addition to selling the festival, Coulam will have to pay $22 million in damages to plaintiffs RW Lands, Inc., Texas Stargate, Inc., and Royal Campground, Inc, Houston Public Media reports. He reportedly originally agreed to sell the festival property, an adjacent property, and the festival's assets to the group for $60 million in 2013. The parties agreed to an August 8, 2023 closing date, but learned the day before that Coulam was apparently preparing to back out of the deal, according to the lawsuit. Coulam reportedly ignored the closing date and the sale. 'Indeed, the Aug. 8, 2023 closing date came and went without the defendants complying with their closing obligations,' the lawsuit says. The plaintiffs sued him for breach of contract, arguing that an initial payment they had made required Coulam to uphold his end of the agreement. Coulam was the subject of a 2024 Max docuseries titled "Ren Faire" that followed the 86-year-old Coulam's search for love on dating apps while also toying with underlings vying to take over the festival at his retirement. Even though King George will abdicate his throne, his kingdom will live on — just under new ownership. According to the Texas Renaissance Festival's representatives, the event will continue for its 2025 season "and beyond." "The commitment will remain unchanged: to deliver a safe, vibrant, and memorable experience for the hundreds of thousands of guests who visit each year. Festival operations are moving forward as planned for the 2025 season and beyond," a post on its social media said. The festival just celebrated its 50th season at the end of 2024, drawing more than half a million visitors during its Golden Birthday.
