George Soros was sued on Monday by TradeWinds Airlines as the cargo carrier seeks to recover a USD$54.9 million judgment against an aviation company controlled by the billionaire hedge fund manager and his business partner, Pernendu Chatterjee.
TradeWinds filed the suit in US District Court in Manhattan after it was unable to collect the judgment it won against C-S Aviation Services in a North Carolina state court. Soros and Chatterjee, both New York residents, were named as defendants.
The suit claims that C-S, which was operated at various times by Chatterjee and Soros, was grossly undercapitalized for the purpose of defrauding potential judgment creditors.
It alleges that the defendants operated C-S as their alter-ego, freely co-mingling the funds of C-S with the funds of other companies they controlled and with their own funds and that C-S was run in such a way as to ensure that it "always hovered on the verge of insolvency in order to defraud creditors."
TradeWinds said in court papers that it filed the suit "to pierce the corporate veil of said shell corporation and recover the judgment from is principals" Soros and Chatterjee.
A spokesman for Soros said, "We have no comment."
The original litigation involved aircraft leased to TradeWinds by C-S. In August 2004 TradeWinds asked the North Carolina court to enter a default of Third-Party defendant C-S.
In February 2007, following settlement of the balance of the litigation, the North Carolina court entered the default of C-S. The North Carolina court last Friday entered a judgment in favor of TradeWinds against C-S for USD$54.9 million.
"TradeWinds is unable to collect its judgment from C-S because defendants have abused the corporate form and rendered C-S insolvent and judgment proof," the suit said.
"This court should accordingly issue a judgment piercing the corporate veil of C-S, and holding Soros and Chatterjee personally liable for the full amount of the North Carolina judgment plus post judgment interest," the suit said.
In addition to the USD$54.9 million, TradeWinds has asked the court for attorneys' fees and costs and any further relief the court may deem proper.
