Russian investor Pavel Lisitsin has launched a second £1m-plus claim against Wharf Land Investments.
Last month, Lisitsin’s company, Ludsin Overseas, won £1.4m in damages in a fraud claim against parties including Wharf Land and one of its directors, Douglas Maggs, over a development site near Reading, Berkshire.
That case centred on losses his firm incurred after investing £2m to help fund the £12.3m purchase of Sandford Farm.
The site was bought for £9.3m, but immediately sold to Sandford Farm Properties, an SPV part-owned by Ludsin, to achieve the higher price.
Ludsin is now suing Wharf Land for repayment of a circa £500,000 loan plus damages of more than £700,000 for breach of contract in relation to the running of the SPV.
It is also suing for the return of £125,000 it claims was transferred from its £2m investment to one of Maggs’ trading companies, L&H Estate Management.
Wharf Land and Maggs are vigorously defending the claims.
Ludsin claims that between July and December 2008, Sandford Farm Properties advanced loans totalling £495,237 to Wharf Land, which have not been repaid. It also claims that Wharf Land acted as adviser to the SPV but breached its agreement by arranging a £532,000 payment to Ultramarine, a firm Ludsin alleges was run by Maggs/Wharf Land.
It claims that further payments totalling £211,000 were paid to Robert Hook & Co and Riminey Properties, despite no agreement between the companies and Sandford Farm Properties.
Ludsin is suing Wharf Land for breaching “its obligations to act in good faith towards Sandford Farm Properties”.
