New | Sun Tiangang sues over ‘unlawful sale’ of Sino Oil stake while he was in prison
A mainland-born businessman is suing several companies and individuals in Hong Kong's High Court for allegedly stealing his firm while he was imprisoned.
A mainland-born businessman, Sun Tiangang, is suing several companies and individuals in Hong Kong's High Court for allegedly stealing his firm, Sino Oil and Gas, while he was imprisoned on the mainland.
In an earlier lawsuit in the United States, Sun alleged his imprisonment was brought about by former security tsar Zhou Yongkang and the former chairman of state-owned oil giant Sinopec, Chen Tonghai , both of whom have since fallen from grace.
In a writ filed at the High Court on Tuesday, Sun alleged his 54.85 per cent stake in Sino Oil, then called GeoMaxima Energy Holdings, was fraudulently sold without his consent to a woman named Xing Xiaojing in September 2005 while he was detained on the mainland. Xing became the chairman from September 29, 2005, to March 3, 2009.
The stake was subsequently acquired by a state-owned company, Changchun High & New Technology Industries Development Parent Company, the writ said.
"All the defendants had unlawfully and fraudulently conspired to steal and deprive the plaintiff of his control of GeoMaxima," it alleged.
There are 11 defendants in the lawsuit, including Changchun High & New Technology, Xing, Kingston Securities (a Hong Kong financial firm that facilitated the sale of Sun's stake) and former Sino Oil directors.
On August 11, 2005, Sun was detained by mainland police in Shenzhen and then imprisoned in Jilin province for more than five years, according to his writ.
In 2008 and 2009, he was tried twice in the Changchun People's Intermediate Court in Jilin on various charges including bribery and embezzlement, but was cleared of all charges and freed in 2012, it added.
Sun is reportedly living in Los Angeles.
Sun's detention occurred shortly before his lawsuit against Sinopec was to be heard in a court in Beijing, according to the writ.
In February 2004, Sun sued Sinopec for 38.33 million yuan (HK$48.4 million) in a Hong Kong court for breach of contract related to an oil pipeline in Xinjiang, but in February 2005 the High Court dismissed his lawsuit, saying the case should be heard in Beijing.
In 2013, he filed a US$5.17 billion lawsuit against Sinopec in a court in Los Angeles, alleging the company was involved in imprisoning him on trumped-up charges. In October that year, Sinopec filed a motion to dismiss the case, and a US judge dismissed the case in April last year, according to Sinopec's website.
In a court document in the US lawsuit, Sun alleged that in 2005, Chen, who was then Sinopec's chairman, enlisted the help of Zhou, then the public security minister, who sent police officers to have Sun imprisoned and convicted of false charges.
Chen was given a suspended death sentence for corruption in 2009. Zhou is awaiting trial on the mainland.
