Newcastle United co-owner challenges £36m bankruptcy petition in court
Newcastle United co-owner Amanda Staveley has made a bid to throw out a bankruptcy petition against her alleging she owes a shipping tycoon more than £36 million, the High Court heard.
Ms Staveley, who headed the Saudi-backed consortium that took over the football club in 2021, asked the Insolvency and Companies Court to set aside a demand served by Greek businessman Victor Restis in May last year.
The claimed figure comprises £3.4 million in principal, £2.1 million in “legal costs and expenses” and £31.3 million in interest, totalling £36.8 million, according to Ms Staveley’s lawyers.
The specialist court heard it is “common ground” that Mr Restis agreed in 2008 to arrange a £10 million investment in Ms Staveley’s business ventures, but that there was “some ambiguity” about whether this was a loan or some other form of investment.
In May 2016, the parties entered an agreement.
According to written submissions by Ms Staveley’s lawyer, Ted Loveday, his client was told to sign various other documents and instruments between 2017 and 2021, which ultimately said she was personally liable and which incrementally topped up that liability.
“The various post-2016 instruments… were procured by duress, undue influence and/or misrepresentation,” Mr Loveday said.
“The debt of £3.4 million had morphed into a debt in excess of £10 million, and which was said to exceed £36 million by May 2023,” he added.
Ms Staveley claimed she felt intimidated into signing the post-2016 documents, the court heard.
A specialist judge was told that Mr Restis’ lawyer, John Neocleous, allegedly told Ms Staveley that the shipping magnate “was not a man to be messed with, that he was dangerous and that (she) should not cross him”.
Mr Loveday said in written submissions that she “worried for the safety of herself and her family”.
“Ms Staveley felt understandably intimidated and felt she had no option but to sign,” he added.
Mr Loveday also said that Ms Staveley claimed her Huntington’s disease, which she allegedly made no secret of from Mr Restis or Mr Neocleous, affected her thinking and judgment.
But lawyers for Mr Restis said there is “no evidence” of “undue influence or duress”.
Raquel Agnello KC told the court that Ms Staveley was sent documents, given time to look over them and given opportunities to make revisions before she signed them.
In written submissions, Ms Agnello said: “There is a real lack of reality in relation to an assertion of duress as to the agreements.
“There is no evidence of any unlawful conduct by either Mr Restis or Mr Neocleous.”
She told the court there is no evidence “beyond (Ms Staveley’s) bare assertion” that Mr Restis is a dangerous man.
Referring to Ms Staveley’s medical condition in written arguments, Ms Agnello said: “There is no evidence that the debtor actually informed either Mr Restis or Mr Neocleous that she had Huntington’s.
“Importantly, the debtor does not assert that she informed either of them as to how that affected her in negotiations for the repayment of an outstanding loan.”
Ms Agnello also said an agreement signed on January 7 2021 “supersedes all previous agreements” and that under it, Ms Staveley is liable.
Mr Loveday asked the court to set aside the demand for over £36 million because it “raises a claim which ought to be determined by arbitration” and because Ms Staveley has “substantial ground for denying liability”.
He claimed that the 2016 agreement decided parties would submit their disputes to arbitration and that the same agreement said Ms Staveley is not personally liable and provided for her company PCP Capital Partners to pay.
Mr Loveday called the interest claims and claimed legal costs levelled against Ms Staveley “stratospheric”, and the imposition of personal liability as having come “out of the blue” in 2019.
The hearing before Judge Daniel Schaffer is due to continue on March 19, where Ms Agnello will continue her submissions and invite the court to dismiss Ms Staveley’s application to set aside the statutory demand.
NEWS
IN YOUR AREA
WHAT'S ON
NUFC
SAFC
BUSINESS
SPORT
ENVIRONMENT
PARTNER STORIES
VOUCHER CODES
PRIVACY
SPORTOPINION
Newcastle United have lost their identity and Eddie Howe must rediscover missing intensity
The Magpies scraped past Blackburn Rovers in their latest performance which was way below the levels of last season
SHARE
BY JOHN GIBSON
18:00, 28 FEB 2024
NEWCASTLE APPLAUD THE AWAY END AT BLACKBURN
Where there is life there is hope. But how much hope? The question has to be asked because this is a season so far removed from that just gone.
Yes, Newcastle may have over-achieved last campaign but, my, they are under-achieving now. Reality is a sobering drink. This has become a rescue act and Eddie Howe needs divine intervention because football is cruel.
United failed to blow away a Blackburn team residing in a lowly 16th position of the Championship only four points from the relegation zone and, having huffed and puffed over two hours of FA Cup fear at Ewood Park, they scraped through on a penalty shoot out.
READ MORE: Newcastle shootout hero's health struggle 'we didn't talk about' as club owe 'huge debt'
READ MORE: Newcastle's huge unseen ref win before shootout and the bold bench move that paid off - 5 things
A quarter-final looms to keep the dreams alive of not only starved fans but Howe and his battered players. They are clinging on to what-might-be by the skin of their fingernails. What we witnessed at Ewood Park coming straight after a showing up at Arsenal provides not a drop of extra confidence to take into resumed Premier League action where the chase for European football seems but a pipe dream.
United have plummeted to 10th position on the back of some hugely underwhelming results and with a resurgent Wolves paying a visit on Saturday the evidence of our eyes provides little optimism for that and the rest of a relentless campaign.
The best that can be said in our favour is that having been cruelly robbed by a spot kick shoot-out in the Carabao Cup at Chelsea when we were within minutes and a mistake of victory this time Lady Luck hitched a lift on the Geordie bandwagon. She needs to become a permanent resident.
An initial campaign of so much promise eventually boiled down to a lottery to keep it alive against Championship opposition who are fighting to avoid relegation to League One. Only Martin Dubravka, United's reserve keeper who has taken his share of flak as goals have flown past him recently, saved Geordies from ultimate humiliation.
Not only did his two penalty saves win the tie but it was his heroics during normal and extra time that got United to that stage. Right now Howe needs to reinvent himself as Sherlock Holmes to find the answers to a baffling puzzle.
What must terrify him is his moments of reflection deep in the night is where United's intensity has gone. He has always said that was our byword. That pressurising opposition is in our DNA. Not any longer it isn't.
What has happened to the way he got United to play last season? The relentless high press, the undying enthusiasm, the togetherness, the unshakeable belief. The quick starts which set the pattern of play. United were passive right from the kick off. The ball was moved slowly, play was pedantic. Once you start on the back foot it is far from easy to become proactive.
Maybe a host of big names are back on the team sheet - Alexander Isak, Joe Willock, Harvey Barnes and Elliot Anderson from the bench but at this moment they are little more than decoration camouflaging problems which still exist. After serious injuries they are as yet nowhere near the players we knew. You can throw the missing Sven Botman into that equation.
Anthony Gordon is carrying this team at the moment. He and the keepers. That Loris Karius at Arsenal and Dubravka at Blackburn were star men tells so much.
United have failed to blow away Blackburn, Bournemouth, Luton, and Nottingham Forest of late. Hardly football aristocrats. They have shipped goals by the bucketload. Whatever happened to the clean sheets which were once their trademark?
Injuries have bitten, yes, but all teams have them and a lot of the players who excelled last season are under-performing this . . . Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn, Longstaff, Almiron, Murphy.
There was a capacity of 7,450 Mags in the Darwen End at Blackburn and while they were not sitting as a jury after recent poor results because United's away support is blindly loyal that commendable trait was put to the severest of tests after capitulation at Arsenal. Luckily the lottery of penalties rescued all.
Somehow Sherlock Howe must come up with a host of answers. As quick as he can.
Loading
Follow Chronicle Live
Facebook
Twitter
Comment
MORE ON
Newcastle United FC
NEWS
WHAT'S ON
SPORT
BUSINESS
FOLLOW US
© 2024 Trinity Mirror North East
