"Belize Natural Energy Sued In Nevis", Amandala, Adele Ramos
Belize City, Mon. Dec 13, 2010
A founding director of Belize Natural Energy is suing the company in the Eastern Caribbean, on allegations that two of its current directors and its parent company have been engineering an attempt to squeeze out the original founders of the company, which has earned hundreds of millions in crude receipts since its inception five years ago, thereby consolidating control of the highly prosperous venture.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court in Nevis is today hearing that lawsuit, filed in July 2010 by Maranco LLC, the company of former founding director of Belize Natural Energy (BNE), Paul Marriott.
His company, Maranco, is calling on the Caribbean court to order an investgation into the finances of BNE and its Nevis-based parent company, International Natural Energy Limited, in light of allegations made that two of its existing directors, Susan Morrice (based in the USA) and Tony Quinn (of Ireland), have caused him and other minority shareholders financial loss by the manner in which they are running the company.
Maranco names Susan Morrice, chairperson of BNE as the first respondent, and Tony Quinn, another BNE director, as the second defendant. INE is the third defendant and BNE the fourth defender.
Marriott, director of P.R. Marriot Drilling of the UK, has gone to the Nevis court with a long list of 19 petitions. He is seeking damaged and compensation against Morrice and Quinn, as well as an order from the court for an independent valuation of INE, the parent company of BNE.
He also wants the court to require that INE, Morrice, Quinn or any combination of them to buy over his shares in INE, held via Maranco.
Maranco LLC's claim against Morrice, Quinn, INE and BNE also asks for the court to appoint a receiver or manager of INE and a monitor to oversee the management of INE, pending final outcome of the hearing.
Additionally, Maranco is asking the court to issue an order restraining INE, BNE, Quinn and Morrice from entering into new contracts, hiring non-clerical employees and consultants, and making any extraordinary commitments or expenditure, as well as issuing any further funds on the Loan Release Program.
As Amandala has previously reported, the Loan Release Program was a scheme under which INE shareholders, who own BNE, were allowed to borrow from the company against future profits of BNE/INE. This was dubbed their dividend payment for 2009.
Despite significant revenues from the sale of oil by INE and BNE since mid-2005, no divident was ever paid to INE's shareholders, Marriot and Maranco have claimed. They also claim that they have been denied access to critical company financials.
Maranco also asks the court that the join venture contract betwee BNE and CHx, the company owned by Alex Cranberg, Susan Morrice's husband be dissolved, and if required that INE itself be wound up.
In the claim, Maranco said that in principal, Marriot was compelled to resign by Morrice and Quinn — the two directors accused in the lawsuit.
Maranco, the company through which Marriot owns minority interest in BNE, claims that he has been denied the right to participate in the management and operation of INE.
When Amandala contacted Myrna R. Walwyn & Associates, the law firm in Nevis that had filed the case for Marriot, they said that there was not yet any indication of the amount of damages Maranco is seeking via the Nevis lawsuit. They did confirm however, that the hearing was ongoing for the whole of today.
Maranco was the drilling company that explored the first wells at Spanish Lookout in Belize in 2005. However, it claims that is has not seen a penny in dividends from the proceeds, which it's claim indicated, has averaged about US$100M a year since 2005.
As Amandala has reported back in October, petroleum revenues have exceeded BZ$800 million to date.
In a previously published artiticle, our newspaper also revealed that BNE is a subsidiary of the Nevis-based INE. In 2002, Mike Usher, Belizean geologist (deceased), Susan Morrice, Jean Cornec, Paul Marriott and Sheila McCaffrey, formed the company. All five reportedly had equal stake in the form of Class A shares.
McCaffrey and Cornec have since parted ways with the company after relations soured. Maranco cites an "acrimonious litigation war with [Morrice and] Cornec."
Morrice is the only remaining BNE director from that group. Newcomers include Morrice's relative, Josh Stewart, and Patricia Usher, Mike Usher's widow.
The contention is that although Quinn is now a director of INE/BNE, he has no bone fide ownership interest in INE and BNE.
Article sourced from Dialogue Ireland.