Clingerman & Krys appointed over Saab Financial, affiliated with FBME

Originally posted on Cyprus Business Mail

By Stelios Orphanides

A court in Bermuda on Friday ordered the liquidation of Saab Financial (Bermuda) Ltd, a company associated with the owners of the Tanzanian lender FBME Bank Ltd, the brothers Ayoub Farid Saab and Fadi Michel Saab.

The court issued the order after Asedor Finance Ltd, a creditor of the company, filed an application on March 15, according to a court document obtained by the Cyprus Business Mail.

Two persons with knowledge of the situation said that the owners of Saab Financial filed no objection to the petition for liquidation.

The court appointed Mathew Clingerman and Kenneth Krys of KRyS Global as “joint provisional liquidators” with authority “to appoint agents and attorneys” and ordered Saab Financial to pay the cost for the liquidation.

It also ordered that “the period for convening the first meetings of creditors and contributories as set out in the rules be and is hereby extended for six months from the date of this order”.

The Saab brothers are engaged in a legal battle against the Republic of Cyprus demanding €500m in compensation for losses suffered after the Central Bank of Cyprus placed the Cyprus branch of FBME under administration and -later- resolution in 2014. The move was in response to a report published by US authorities describing the Tanzanian lender as of primary money laundering concern which effectively prevented US banks from opening and maintaining correspondent accounts with FBME. The owners of FBME decline the allegations.