ING Wins Order in Fight Over Oil Tycoon’s Unpaid Debt
ING Wins Order Allowing Bank to Seize Oil Tycoon’s London Homes
(Bloomberg) -- ING Groep NV won a court order allowing it to make a claim against oil tycoon Igho Sanomi’s London homes over millions owed to the bank. The problem is the bank has competition.
ING’s Brussels and Geneva branch was granted a charging order for his apartments in Chelsea and Belgravia and his wife’s home in Kilburn, some of London’s most luxurious neighborhoods, by a judge in London Tuesday. The bank is owed 2.07 million pounds ($2.7 million) by Sanomi’s company Taleveras Energy, ING lawyer Rupert Cohen told the court.
The oil firm originally owed $2.5 million but repaid $300,000 and accumulated 199 days of interest on the debt. The oil trader now also owes 13,533 pounds in legal costs to the bank.
Credit Suisse was granted a similar order against his London homes in April over $3 million in unpaid debts. This charge takes priority over ING’s because the bank is owed more by Sanomi, Cohen said.
Sanomi, who didn’t attend the hearing, didn’t respond to a request for comment. He acknowledges the debt owed and doesn’t object to the order, his lawyer Edward Mills-Webb told the court. Mills-Webb, however, disputed the amount that was owed to ING.
ING didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
It’s been a tricky period for Sanomi and Taleveras, which traded more than 100 million barrels of crude oil per year and was seeking to supply biofuel to the U.S. military, Bloomberg reported in 2017.
Banque Cantonale de Geneve had also made a freezing order against the apartments, but dropped it after settling with Sanomi in May, according to court filings.
Credit Suisse also previously won an order related to Sanomi’s private jet, which is currently listed as sold. In February, a judge ordered the trader to pay private jet firm Aravco Ltd. about $160,000.
To contact the reporter on this story: Ellen Milligan in London at emilligan11@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Anthony Aarons at aaarons@bloomberg.net
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