SINGAPORE: Broadcaster ESPN Star Sports is suing landbanking firm Profitable Plots, which is under police investigation following complaints of cheating, for failing to pay close to US$4 million (S$4.9 million).
While a default judgment was issued in December against Profitable Plots, after it did not appear in court, the money has not been paid to date.
ESPN is also
claiming damages for misrepresentation, conspiracy and fraudulent
trading in the lawsuit against Profitable Plots' directors John Andrew
Nordmann and Mr Timothy Nicholas Goldring, which they have denied in
their defence filed in April.
Court documents state that the two
companies had entered into an agreement in November 2007, which entitles
Profitable Plots to air its advertisements and sponsor some of ESPN's
television programmes for three years.
ESPN's lawyer See Chern
Yang of Premier Law said the landbanking firm has defaulted on payment
since April 2009, and after several meetings between December 2009 and
June last year, the directors only kept giving verbal assurances.
In
its court papers, the broadcaster alleged that Profitable Plots and its
related companies had suffered losses of S$25.8 million in 2009 and
that the two directors had not only failed to ensure sufficient finances
to fulfil agreements, they gave a false impression the business was
profitable, with the intention to deceive creditors.
In response,
Profitable Plots' lawyer Roy Yeo of Sterling Law Corporation said his
clients did not proffer any oral assurances to make payment but were
given a time extension by ESPN after they had explained the firm's
difficulties.
In their court papers, the two directors claimed
that ESPN was, on its own accord, "happy to continue" with the
agreement, as it would have otherwise lost a considerable amount of
content from their channel without Profitable Plots' advertising.
The men claimed that ESPN withheld suspending the agreement due to its "own commercial reasons".
ESPN
has since filed a reply refuting that there was any agreement to allow
delay of payment and said the defendants had admitted the debt by giving
two post-dated cheques that were not encashable eventually.
The
broadcaster added that it terminated the agreement after the defendants
did not respond to several warnings and notices for payment.
Meanwhile,
investigations by the Commercial Affairs Department into Profitable
Plots are ongoing after 229 complaints were made by investors who
claimed they were cheated of S$23.5 million.
No criminal charges have been pressed on the company's directors and the matter is due in court on July 8.
- TODAY
thought that profitable plots wants to buy over newcastle when they were relegated in 2009 when Steve Mahon was their director?