Stark Investments, the multibillion-dollar US hedge fund, has scored a partial victory in its long-running cat-and-mouse fight to seize assets from Sun Jiangrong, a Fujian tycoon it is pursuing over a S$120 million (HK$660 million) unpaid loan.
Stark, which lent Sun's private company Thumb Holdings the cash in 2007, has been battling the businessman in Hong Kong and mainland courts for almost a year in an attempt to win shares in his 10 billion yuan (HK$11.35 billion) property developer, Chongqing Dading, as compensation for the unpaid debt.
Yet Sun has now twice succeeded in transferring ownership of the real estate company to an outside entity allegedly controlled by his brother-in-law, using slightly different tactics each time.
The Chongqing court has published an asset freezing order effectively barring Sun from moving ownership of Chongqing Dading anywhere and earmarking the shares for Stark's ownership, should the hedge fund win its court case.
In a separate case, Sun has run into trouble over Sino-Environment Technologies, a Fujian-based waste management company he founded which is listed on the Singapore stock exchange.
Sino-Environment has defaulted on its US$109 million of corporate bonds. Its auditors, PricewaterhouseCoopers, said in November last year it could not verify the whereabouts of US$85 million of the company's cash. Sun resigned as chairman of Sino-Environment in January, along with the firm's entire executive board.