Businessman Colm Wu has been warned by a judge that failure to comply with court orders can have “very serious repercussions” including the potential for imprisonment or fines.
Mr Wu was present on Wednesday when his case came before Mr Justice Mark Sanfey in the Commercial Court. The businessman’s hospitality and property group is in difficulty and Revenue has appointed receivers to some of his assets.
Mr Wu was seeking to have a freezing order restricting him from reducing his assets below a certain value varied to allow for the sale of property at the Village Centre and the River Centre in Ashtown, Dublin 15.
However, the hearing could not go ahead as Mr Wu had not replied to a list of detailed questions in relation to the proposed sales. Costs in the issue were awarded against him.
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John Carroll, of Crowley Millar solicitors, said he had asked Mr Wu to be in court so as to impress on him the importance of complying with the court’s directions and court orders.
He said there had been difficulties with the legal team’s funding but they had received money from Mr Wu on Tuesday, remained “on record” for the businessman, and would now be able to work on producing information sought by the plaintiffs.
A key accountant’s report on the affairs of Mr Wu’s companies was still “on track” to be produced for the court by June 13th, he said.
Mr Carroll said his side was trying to get information from the relevant department about €3 million Mr Wu was saying his companies were owed for housing people from Ukraine, but had not succeeded to date.
Mr Justice Sanfey said noncompliance involves potential contempt of court and could have “very serious repercussions” including imprisonment or fines.
He asked Mr Carroll to impress on Mr Wu that he must comply with court orders or else come into court and explain why he was failing to do so. Noncompliance “will not be tolerated and will eventually come to a head”, he said.
Insolvency practitioners Myles Kirby and Padraic O’Malley, liquidators of three Wu-controlled companies, claim Mr Wu engaged in fraudulent and/or reckless trading and transferred assets of the companies to related companies and in some cases to himself. Mr Wu is opposing the claims.
In court on Wednesday, David Whelan SC, instructed by William Fry solicitors, for the liquidators, said they did not believe Mr Wu had a defence and that if the matter went to trial they would be seeking their costs.
In their letter seeking information about the proposed sale of assets at Ashtown, William Fry noted that Mr Wu in February had said he hoped there would be a surplus arising from the proposed sales. However, in a recent affidavit, he had said no surplus was anticipated.
The full hearing is due to go ahead on October 7th. The liquidators have been appointed to Castor Ventures Ltd, Clifton Court Hotel Ltd, and NCR Property Ltd.
The three companies, along with 10 others named in the liquidators’ proceedings, are all controlled by Guoqing Wu, otherwise known as Colm Wu, Guo Qing Wu, Colm Guoqing Wu and Wu Guoqing.
