Probulk Carriers is accusing shipowner Levent Karacelik of diverting funds from Turkish bulker operator Marvel International Management & Transportation to other companies in his control because of claims facing the company.
But Eregli Shipping, which is among the targets of a new lawsuit by Probulk, is denying that it received any of those funds from Karacelik’s Marvel.
Probulk detailed the allegations as part of the legal manoeuvres in a chartering dispute that dates back to the 2008 bulker market collapse that has played out in London arbitration and a US court.
A new lawsuit, filed on behalf of the New York bulker operator by maritime lawyer Owen Duffy, alleges that Marvel received a $10m refund in 2010 from Greek shipowner Metrostar Management Corp.
The refund came after a deal to purchase two newbuildings at Jinse Shipyard in South Korea fell apart when Jinse sought protection from creditors and failed to build the ships.
But Duffy alleges in court papers that the cash was never credited to Marvel and instead was diverted to other Karacelik-controlled entities because the Istanbul company was facing claims from Probulk, Samsun Logix and others.
The $12.8m breach-of-contract lawsuit alleges that Eregli Shipping, where Karacelik is a key executive, used much of the refund to pay for the 176,000-dwt Cape Istanbul (built 2011) as the shipowner took delivery from shipyard Hyundai Heavy Industries & Construction Philippines.
But Eregli operations manager Yalcin Kalkavan staunchly denies the claim.
“There has never been such an event as that Mr Karacelık had paid $10m to ‘Ereglı Shıppıng Company Limited’,” he wrote in an email.
As TradeWinds reported on its website this week, Probulk has filed papers in a federal court in New York aiming to make Karacelik, shipowner Eregli Shipping and technical management company Eregli Denizcilik pay an arbitration award and millions of dollars in interest that Marvel has allegedly failed to pay.
Duffy alleges that all three Istanbul companies are ultimately controlled by Karacelik.
The lawsuit alleges that the Turkish businessman is the main shareholder and chief executive of Marvel, and is vice chairman, main shareholder and day-to-day manager at the two Eregli companies.
“All the operations of the various Marvel companies were run out of the defendant Levent Karacelik’s office, and there was nothing going on without the defendant saying yes or no,” the lawyer said, adding that funds were intermingled among the Marvel group companies.
But Yalcin says this also is not true, explaining that Eregli is controlled by 200 individual shareholders. He said the company has checked its shareholder rolls, and Marvel has never been a shareholder.
“Eregli Shıppıng Company Limited is a multi-partner company where almost all shipowners in Turkey are partners and the company is not owned by any group or person,” he said.
Probulk won an arbitration award in London in 2013 ordering Marvel to pay $9.5m plus interest for backing out of a subcharter in 2008 of the 42,000-dwt bulker Ioanthi (renamed Andhika Kalyani, built 1992), which Probulk had on time charter.
Then in a February default judgment, US District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered Marvel to pay $12.8m, plus interest and costs, to satisfy the award. However, Duffy alleges that went unpaid.
