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El Nino Ventures Inc (ELN-TSX.V)
announced today an update on the
company's affairs in the DRC.
In 2007, ELN entered into a joint
venture with GCP Group (GCP), a minority
shareholder, in Infinity Resources Sprl,
to explore and develop the copper/cobalt
Kasala Permits in the DRC. Since
December of 2009, GCP and its principals
George Kavvadias and Alexander
Voukavitch have launched a campaign of
fraudulent legal claims against the
Company and its officers in order to
illegally transfer the Kasala permits
into a company controlled by Mr.
Kavvadis and Mr. Voukavitch.
These claims are to numerous to state,
but they range from claims for
outstanding invoices, charges against
officers, to the illegal transfer of the
Kasala permits held by the joint venture
company. At great expense and time,
during the past 5 ñ years, ELN has been
successful in either defending against
every judgment initiated by GCP and its
principals or in those initiated by ELN.
However to date, winning is simply not
enough to prevent further spurious and
fraudulent challenges which render those
successful decisions meaningless in a
country where there is no rule of law as
we know it and a society that embraces
corruption. See the following link;
http://www.transparency.org/files/content/corruptionqas/Country_Profile_DRC_2014.pdf
To emphasize this point, ELN was
successful in four judgments in the DRC
and in Arbitration. On December 19th,
2009, GCP Group Ltd had initiated court
actions against El Nino Ventures Inc. (ELN)
before the courts of the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC). These actions
were based on the interpretation of
contracts signed between ELN, GCP Group
Ltd and Mr. Georges Kavvadias. Said
contracts were by their terms governed
by the laws of British Columbia.
Judgements on these court actions (RAC
306 and RAC 307) were rendered by the
Tribunal in Lubumbashi on May 5th, 2010,
and confirmed that the appropriate
jurisdiction to hear any matter relating
to the contracts signed between ELN, GCP
Group Ltd and Mr. Georges Kavvadias was
the courts of British Columbia, Canada.
Subsequently, both judgments RAC 306 and
RAC 307 were dismissed in the DRC.
ELN then introduced two judgments in the
DRC against Georges Kavvadias. The
judgments were to obtain an order of the
Court to hold a shareholders' meeting in
order to pass a series of resolutions to
dislodge Mr. Kavvadias as Manager of
Infinity Resources Sprl among other
things. Again, the decisions for both
judgments were rendered in El Nino's
favour. In making their decision, the
courts not only found Georges Kavadiaas
incompetent and removed him as manager,
but they also determined that he
fraudulently created the minutes that
appointed him as manager. Further, he
was found guilty of illegaly using a
power of attorney for his own personal
benefit and to the detriment of the
Company's joint venture company,
Infinity Resources Sprl. He has been
fined and ordered by the courts to pay
all costs. George Kavvadias and GCP
Group appealed these decisions, and
under DRC law they do not have to
proceed to have a date set to hear the
appeal and so they remain outstanding
and the decisions unenforceable.
Based on the results of the first two
decisions, the company fought for its
rights in an International Commercial
Arbitration hearing held in Vancouver,
BC. The decision in Canada was
overwhelmingly in favour of ELN. (NR -
January 6th, 2014) The Company then
submitted an application for the
Arbitration awards to be applied in the
DRC and was again successful in doing
so. A legal process was then initiated
to begin to effectively take control of
Infinity Resources Sprl by asking the
courts to approve holding a shareholders
meeting of Infinity Resources Sprl,
wherein the agenda would include; new
articles of incorporation, the
appointment of a new Gerant (Manager)
and reducing GCP to a 10% minority
shareholder among other things. (ELN
70%/Fonaco Sprl 20%/ GCP 10%)
With a total disregard for those
decisions awarded in the DRC and in
Arbitration, GCP, Mr. Voukavitch and Mr.
Kavvadias, who continued to act as
Manager of Infinity, used fraudulent
representations and documents to file
claims and seek further judgments to
prevent holding the shareholders meeting
and the transfer of the Kasala permits
into a company purportedly controlled by
Mr. Kavvadias and Mr. Voukavitch.
Despite every effort to defend against
these ongoing attacks, the Company's
management has now been advised that
through these questionable activities,
GCP Group, Mr. Kavvadias and Mr.
Voukavitch have been successful in
transferring the ownership of the Kasala
permits out of Infinity Resources Sprl
into a company they purportedly control,
this despite having both the Tribunal de
Lubumbashi (DRC) and the International
Commercial Arbitration (Canada) render
decisions in ELN's favour as well as
having Force Majeur on the permits in
place.
Therefore, after a great deal of
deliberation, the Company's Directors
and management recognizing the futility
in continuing to seek justice in the
DRC, have made the decision that the
Company will not continue to fund the
ongoing legal battle in the DRC and will
rely on enforcing the International
Commercial Arbitration decision to
counter any attempt by Mr. Kavvadias and
Mr. Voukavitch to profit from the
illegal transfer of the Kasala permits.
Without the support of the courts and
officials in the DRC to enforce the
Company's rights, the Company may now be
forced to suspend its efforts in the DRC
to retain and advance the assets of its
joint venture company; Infinity
Resources Sprl.
"Caveat Emptor" - The Company will
challenge any third party's
involvement/ownership regarding the
Kasala permits and rely and seek
enforcement of the International
Commercial Arbitration decisions awarded
to ELN through the Canadian courts. (See
ELN News Releases; December 31/13 and
April 2/14).
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
"Harry Barr"
Harry Barr
Chairman & CEO
El Nino Ventures Inc.
Further Information: Tel: +1 604 685
1870 Fax: +1 604 685 8045
Email: info@elninoventures.com or visit www.elninoventures.com
Neither the TSX Venture Exchange
nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the
policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the
adequacy or accuracy of this release.
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward Looking Statements. Note: This
release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties. These statements may differ materially from actual
future events or results and are based on current expectations or
beliefs. For this purpose, statements of historical fact may be
deemed to be forward-looking statements. In addition,
forward-looking statements include statements in which the Company
uses words such as "continue", "efforts", "expect", "believe",
"anticipate", "confident", "intend", "strategy", "plan", "will",
"estimate", "project", "goal", "target", "prospects", "optimistic"
or similar expressions. These statements by their nature involve
risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially
depending on a variety of important factors, including, among
others, the Company's ability and continuation of efforts to timely
and completely make available adequate current public information,
additional or different regulatory and legal requirements and
restrictions that may be imposed, and other factors as may be
discussed in the documents filed by the Company on SEDAR (www.sedar.com),
including the most recent reports that identify important risk
factors that could cause actual results to differ from those
contained in the forward-looking statements. The Company does not
undertake any obligation to review or confirm analysts' expectations
or estimates or to release publicly any revisions to any
forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after
the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated
events. Investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking
statements. |
