Ironridge and Newlead signed a $25m funding deal in March that the Greek shipowner believes Ironridge has subsequently breached the terms of with its trading activity. Newlead went to the US courts in early June, seeking to prevent the issue of shares to Ironridge, but the Southern District of New York court ruled that it had no jurisdiction over the equity firm.
"We believe that the court should have accepted jurisdiction to prevent Ironridge from continuing to inflict harm on Newlead through its exercise of 'self-help', pending the outcome of the arbitration,” commented Michael Zolotas, chairman and ceo of Newlead.
Ironridge advised Newlead on 11 June that it would like to continue its funding activities, but Newlead responded stating that the fund’s failure to provide collateral, as well as other breaches of the equity agreement, had already led the shipowner to provide a default notice and terminate the relationship between the two companies.
“We intend to vigorously defend our interests and pursue our claims for significant damages caused by Ironridge's many bad acts, breaches and misrepresentations. We remain concerned that Ironridge has been and will continue manipulating the stock of NewLead based on irregularities in Ironridge's disclosed and undisclosed brokerage relationships and have informed the relevant authorities of these concerns,” added Zolotas.
Zolotas went on to accuse the fund of being unconcerned of the consequences of its actions, and urged others to carefully consider Ironridge’s history when contemplating doing business with it or its executives.
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