Westchester Court Refuses To Let Defendant Off The Hook On Fraud Claims December 9, 2009

In a case with salacious – and all-too-common facts – that was reported in this week’s New York Law Journal, a Westchester County court declined to dismiss the plaintiff’s claim that the defendants were diverting their assets in a desperate attempt to avoid a judgment that had been rendered against them in a breach of contract case. In other words, the plaintiff requested the Court to set aside these transactions as fraudulent conveyances and to pierce the defendants’ corporate veil.

In this case, Oltchin SA v. Zebulon Industries, et al., the defendant manufacturers failed to pay for the materials that were furnished to them by the plaintiff, a Romanian corporation. At the binding arbitration that was held before an international tribunal of the ICC, plaintiff was awarded damages of over $1.5 million. Thereafter, the plaintiff corporation had the award confirmed by a New York State court, and the award became a collectible judgment. Or so the plaintiff thought.

When the plaintiff went to enforce the judgment, it learned that the defendants had divested their corporation of all its assets. Consequently, they brought this case seeking to set aside those transactions as fraudulent and to pierce the defendants’ corporate veil(s).

Although the Court’s opinion was rendered in a very matter-of-fact manner, you can’t help but sense that the following sentiment underlies the Court’s opinion: there is absolutely no way I’m going to let these defendants get away with this charade on some procedural technicality.

Jonathan Cooper is a New York Business Litigation and New York Commercial Litigation Lawyer with a focus on New York breach of contract and New York business fraud claims before the Nassau, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx, Westchester and Suffolk County courts of New York State. For more information, feel free to contact his Long Island office at 516-791-5700.

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