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PR Newswire
28-02-2014, 01:04 AM
Jornal Independente
21 January
Timor-Leste coffee king in $5.7m scandal
SINGAPORE- The directors of leading Timor-Leste coffee company Timor Global have been ordered by the Singaporean High Court to pay some US$5.7 million in bank defaults.
The Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) sought to recover the sums from Jannie Chan and his business partners, Tan Tjo Tek and Dili-based Bobby Lay Ni Sing, all of whom were directors of Timor Global, a coffee plantation and trading company in Timor-Leste. Mr Tan ceased to be director in June last year.
Ms Chan is co-founder and executive vice-chairman of The Hour Glass, a luxury watch retailer with 24 boutiques in eight cities in the Asia-Pacific.
All three had underwritten the credit facilities extended by ANZ's Timor-Leste branch to the company in October 2012.
But in May last year, the company defaulted twice on paying a total of US$2.3 million back to the bank.
This triggered a move by ANZ to recover all outstanding sums, which amounted to US$5.75 million.
The bank gave the company a July deadline in response to its request for more time.
The woes of the coffee bean trading firm are understood to be rooted in its loss of 38 containers of beans worth some US$2.26 million in 2012.
They are believed to have been misappropriated.
The company said then it meant to raise US$10 million by June last year to clear the bank debts.
But they were not cleared and WongPartnership lawyer Chou Sean Yu, representing ANZ, moved to seek recovery from the Singaporean directors.
Known as the "coffee king", Mr Tan, 70, used to run Timor Global, one of the three largest coffee plantations in Timor-Leste, comprising about 3,000ha.
He was the former managing director of Teck Hock Coffee.
Assistant Registrar Eunice Chua issued summary judgment for the sums against the two parties on Friday.
Ms Chan said through her lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam yesterday that she had been "let down" as a guarantor for bank facilities extended to Timor Global and is taking legal action to pursue her rights against the appropriate party.
Recognised for her entrepreneurial skills, she also founded holding company Hypha Holdings under Save Our Planet Investments and the non-profit Save Our Planet Foundation, which promotes reforestation to mitigate climate
21 January
Timor-Leste coffee king in $5.7m scandal
SINGAPORE- The directors of leading Timor-Leste coffee company Timor Global have been ordered by the Singaporean High Court to pay some US$5.7 million in bank defaults.
The Australia & New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) sought to recover the sums from Jannie Chan and his business partners, Tan Tjo Tek and Dili-based Bobby Lay Ni Sing, all of whom were directors of Timor Global, a coffee plantation and trading company in Timor-Leste. Mr Tan ceased to be director in June last year.
Ms Chan is co-founder and executive vice-chairman of The Hour Glass, a luxury watch retailer with 24 boutiques in eight cities in the Asia-Pacific.
All three had underwritten the credit facilities extended by ANZ's Timor-Leste branch to the company in October 2012.
But in May last year, the company defaulted twice on paying a total of US$2.3 million back to the bank.
This triggered a move by ANZ to recover all outstanding sums, which amounted to US$5.75 million.
The bank gave the company a July deadline in response to its request for more time.
The woes of the coffee bean trading firm are understood to be rooted in its loss of 38 containers of beans worth some US$2.26 million in 2012.
They are believed to have been misappropriated.
The company said then it meant to raise US$10 million by June last year to clear the bank debts.
But they were not cleared and WongPartnership lawyer Chou Sean Yu, representing ANZ, moved to seek recovery from the Singaporean directors.
Known as the "coffee king", Mr Tan, 70, used to run Timor Global, one of the three largest coffee plantations in Timor-Leste, comprising about 3,000ha.
He was the former managing director of Teck Hock Coffee.
Assistant Registrar Eunice Chua issued summary judgment for the sums against the two parties on Friday.
Ms Chan said through her lawyer Eugene Thuraisingam yesterday that she had been "let down" as a guarantor for bank facilities extended to Timor Global and is taking legal action to pursue her rights against the appropriate party.
Recognised for her entrepreneurial skills, she also founded holding company Hypha Holdings under Save Our Planet Investments and the non-profit Save Our Planet Foundation, which promotes reforestation to mitigate climate