George Soros Faces $39.4 Million Judgment in TradeWinds Case

Billionaire George Soros and Dr. Purnendu Chatterjee, the corporate titan from India, were sued recently in a civil suit entered in the US District Court in New York. The case – Nos. 08 Civ. 5901 (JFK), 10 Civ. 8175 (JFK) – is dated March 22, 2012.

It is a consolidated action filed by TradeWinds Airlines, Coreolis Holdings and TradeWinds Holdings.

According to court documents, “Plaintiffs allege as an independent wrong that Defendants siphoned funds from C-S Aviation and thus improperly left it undercapitalized. In doing so, Defendants deprived Plaintiffs of the ability to recover damages on its fraudulent inducement claim.” The Plaintiffs claim that the “Defendants disregarded corporate formalities, failed to keep proper records, and comingled C-S Aviation’s funds with those of other companies.”

Further, “Plaintiffs allege the corporate structure of the aircraft leasing business in which Defendants engaged was intended to defraud.” They claim that Soros and Chatterjee “put in place a complex, multi-tiered corporate structure designed to conceal Soros’ 50 percent ownership in C-S Aviation and ensure that the aircraft management company owned no aircraft and was otherwise judgment proof.” The complaint calls the entire business structure “an elaborate shell game intended to defraud and perpetrate injustices.”

The issues between the Plaintiffs and Defendants are long standing, extending back several years, but that may finally be drawing to a close. On Tuesday, March 27, in the Courthouse News Service, it was announced that “Billionaire George Soros and Indian corporate titan Purnendu Chatterjee have lost their bid to have the combined cases underlying a $39.4 million judgment against them tossed on the grounds that their claims were implausible and speculative.”

“In their motion to dismiss, Soros and Chatterjee said the plaintiffs simply failed to prove that fraud or an injustice had taken place,” reported Courthouse News Service. “But U.S. District Judge John F. Keenan disagreed, holding that the plaintiff’s allegations that the defendants disregarded corporate formalities, failed to keep proper records, and comingled C-S Aviation’s funds with those of other companies were neither implausible nor speculative.”