In late March of this year, The Family co-founders Alice Zagury and Nicolas Colin filed a criminal complaint against former co-founder Oussama Ammar and his Hong Kong-based holding companies, Fabuleo Limited and Aletheis, The First Limited, alleging breach of trust, forgery, and the use of forgeries in an embezzlement scheme of nearly €3 million.
Today, a second criminal complaint was filed with the Public Prosecutor in Paris with The Family citing newly obtained evidence that provides a clearer picture of where the cash in question has jetted off to.
According to a statement released by The Family (Holdings) Ltd board members Alice Zagury, Nicolas Colin, Younès Rharbaoui, and Jean-Jacques Augier, they, “... suspect that, in all likelihood, the sums in question were not invested in accordance with The Family's objectives in the targets announced to investors, nor even in accordance with the transactions mentioned on the bank statements.
On the contrary, suspicions are growing, given the information available, that these sums may in fact have been used for other purposes, in particular, financing of a high-end real estate project in Normandy, the construction of which was carried out at the same time as the transfers under consideration in the various pieces of litigation set out below, as well as various unjustified costs and expenses.”
The Family has since initiated procedures to recover proceeds of the liquidation of the known assets of Ammar in order to compensate defrauded LPs.
Offshored
On the 22nd of February of this year, The Family (Global Godfathers) SPC, a Cayman Islands-based company filed a Writ of Summons on behalf of The Family (Freya) SP and The Family (Odin) SP against Oussama Ammar et al.
The 16th of March saw an order by the Financial Services Division of the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands to freeze Ammar’s assets globally and those of certain alter ago companies up to €3,052,864.
According to The Family, Ammar has yet to respond to this injunction to document his assets and/or their value and provide them to the authorities.
Proceedings have been initiated to hold Ammar in contempt of court, a criminal offense punishable by up to four years of jail time.
But wait, there’s more …
Ammar’s troubles don’t end in the Caymans, as The Family is also taking the battle to the courts in England and Wales, providing a list of actions they’re seeking compensation for:
- Having abused his prerogatives as director/manager of various entities to orchestrate the illicit transfer to him of sums belonging to The Family or to investors.
- Having abused the trust of investors for whom he was the main interlocutor, in particular by communicating falsely about investment operations.
- Having abused the trust of his associates and collaborators by making false statements about exchanges that supposedly took place between him and certain shareholders, investors, and others.
- Along with his personal holding company Fabuleo Limited, having taken stakes in or received payments from certain companies in The Family's portfolio, in violation of the contracts that bind Oussama Ammar and Fabuleo Limited to The Family and its other stakeholders.
- Finally, having abused his position as a director/manager of certain entities to arrange secondary transactions to his advantage while confronted with a conflict of interest—a situation he did not see fit to disclose to the investors whose trust he was seeking on behalf of The Family.
"I am sad we end up in a very public fuss but as we cannot reach an agreement to who owes what to who, it is not a bad idea to go in front of a judge. It will take time but I am sure that the legal system will help close this in the best fairness and let everyone do what they want with their life after." - Oussama Ammar in response to the 23 March 2022 allegations.
We'll keep you updated as the drama unfolds. I'd suggest bringing some popcorn, as the script for this Netflix production is already writing itself.
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