Bermuda court rejects ex-Brilliance tycoon's claims

Tuesday, January 20, 2004

SHANGHAI, China (AFP): A Bermuda court has thrown out a suit filed by exiled Chinese businessman Yang Rong that sought to prevent the transfer of assets from state-owned China Brilliance Automotive Group, a report said Monday.

Yang, one of China's wealthiest men, last January filed the lawsuit seeking to stop Brilliance China from executing the transfer of a 39.45 percent stake from controlling shareholder, Chinese Financial Education Development Foundation, Xinhua news agency said.

The civil case brought to court by Yang's Broadsino Finance Company comes after Yang was ousted in early 2002 as chairman of Brilliance, China's largest minivan maker that also recently began joint-venture production of BMWs.

Yang, reportedly wanted by Chinese police for economic crimes, vanished in 2002 and resurfaced in the United States.

His suit claims that Broadsino is the holder of the Brilliance Automotive stake and its shares had been unlawfully expropriated by the northeastern provincial government of Liaoning.

Liaoning says that Yang was not a private entrepreneur but an agent entrusted by the government to run the state-owned assets of the group.

The court's decision will allow Huachen Automotive, a company wholly-owned by the Liaoning government, to receive the transfer of 1.446 billion Brilliance China shares from Chinese Financial Education Development Foundation, which Yang also chaired.

The Supreme Court of Bermuda further ruled that "the plaintiff never owned any shares" in Brilliance.

"I fear that I do not find that the account of the plaintiff's case to be credible or to accurately find the basis of a claim against the first defendant," Xinhua quoted Justice Philip Storr as saying.

Yang, who can appeal the court ruling, has also filed a second lawsuit against the Liaoning government in the US Federal District Court in Washington.

In 2001, he was ranked by Forbes magazine as China's third richest man with personal wealth of 840 million US dollars. Much of that however is in Brilliance stock. 

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