Africa-Press – Namibia. A LAWYER representing British businessman and farm owner Harvey Boulter says a multimillion-dollar lawsuit in which six Saudi Arabian investors are suing Boulter is “hopelessly flawed”.
Boulter is denying allegations that he made misrepresentations to investors who later sued him in a court in Dubai and are now trying to have that court’s judgement enforced in Namibia, lawyer Sisa Namandje said yesterday.
The Dubai court’s order against Boulter “was obtained by fraud” and in Boulter’s absence, after he had not been given notice of the case, Namandje said.
He made the comments in connection with a case in which a Saudi Arabian company, Tabarak Trading and Contracting, and five residents of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are asking Namibia’s High Court to declare that a judgement which a Dubai court granted in their favour against Boulter and his company Porton Managers in July 2020 is enforceable in Namibia.
In terms of the judgement, Boulter and Porton Managers were ordered to pay a total amount of about 2,44 million British pounds – the equivalent of about N$54 million at the current exchange rate – to Tabarak Trading and Contracting and five other claimants who sued Boulter and his company.
Tabarak Trading and Contracting and the five other claimants alleged that Boulter misrepresented to them in 2010 that two companies in his Porton group of companies were highly profitable, and that as a result of the alleged misrepresentations they invested money in his companies by buying shares in them. It was further alleged that Boulter took advantage of the money invested in his companies by transferring it to a bank account through a British law firm, and that he issued share certificates to the investors which turned out to be fictitious.
The Dubai court granted a default judgement against Boulter and Porton Managers in their absence.
In the court’s judgement, it noted that two criminal complaints had also been registered against Boulter in connection with the transactions.
In both criminal cases Boulter was convicted in his absence and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment in February 2018, and a one-year jail term in February 2019, respectively.
The Dubai court that gave the judgement for payment of about 2,44 million British pounds against Boulter and Porton Managers “is a religious kangaroo court”, Namandje commented.
“There is no way a Namibian court would accept an order from a religious court,” he said. “It is not a court contemplated in a democratic society.”
Namandje also said the current lawsuit against Boulter and Porton Managers in the Windhoek High Court is the second attempt made by the Saudi Arabian company and its five co-applicants to have the Dubai court’s order enforced in Namibia.
The first attempt ended in March last year, when an application filed by the six applicants in December 2021 was withdrawn.
In an affidavit filed at the court after the current application was filed in October last year, Namandje says after the withdrawal of their previous case the six applicants did not have a right to file a new application on the same facts without getting permission from the court first.
He also says Boulter intends to “vigorously oppose” the application against him and his company, which he says is “hopelessly flawed”.
Boulter (53), who owns a farm in the Outjo district, is currently facing four criminal charges – including a count of murder – in the Windhoek High Court in connection with a shooting incident in which a farm manager employed by him was fatally wounded near the end of February 2021.
Boulter has said the shooting at his farm, during which he was also shot in his left hand, happened accidentally.
He was granted bail in an amount of N$500 000 in that case in July 2021.
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