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A London high court judge has found German financier Lars Windhorst in contempt of court for failing to appear at an enforcement hearing for a case brought by an investment firm linked to a Monaco billionaire.
Windhorst, who in recent years has been at the centre of a high-profile investment scandal at France’s H2O Asset Management, appeared in court on Friday in a hearing relating to a claim from Bahamian investment firm Heritage Travel and Tourism.
The court heard that Windhorst had deliberately not attended a previous December hearing in the case, and had instructed his staff not to produce documents for Heritage, because he was “focusing on settlement discussions and raising funds” to pay creditors.
Heritage, which is linked to Monaco cruise magnate Manfredi Lefebvre d’Ovidio, in 2021 won a €172mn judgment against Windhorst and several of his companies, for failing to honour a complicated series of trades involving the shares of companies the financier owns.
Mr Justice David Foxton found that Windhorst had known about the December hearing and was aware that not attending would amount to a breach, with the court hearing that the financier’s legal advisers had warned that failing to appear would be “dangerous”.
At the time of the December hearing, Windhorst was in the United Arab Emirates attending a “significant meeting” with an undisclosed potential investor as part of an extensive travel schedule to raise money, the court heard.
Justice Foxton said Windhorst’s failure to attend did not stem from disrespect of the court and that correspondence between the opposing parties showed that he had been upfront about his intention not to appear ahead of time.
Windhorst through his lawyers offered a “full apology” to the court. The judge accepted that the apology was “sincere” and noted that the financier’s appearance at Friday’s hearing was a “comparative rarity” among defendants who have breached court orders.
Justice Foxton did not impose a sanction, pending a further hearing next month. Windhorst earlier this week provided documents outlining his assets which will be examined at the next hearing. Windhorst can appeal against Friday’s ruling. Lefebvre d’Ovidio declined to comment
Windhorst has so far made payments of €50mn to Heritage towards the 2021 judgment, the court heard.
Windhorst first shot to fame in Germany as a teenage entrepreneur in the mid-1990s, but endured a bruising downfall that culminated in a suspended jail sentence in 2010 for alleged “breach of trust”.
A representative for Heritage told the Financial Times in August last year that it was then in “very positive discussions” with Windhorst about settling the claim. However, relations between the two sides deteriorated, resulting in Heritage filing a bankruptcy petition against Windhorst’s investment company Tennor in the Netherlands later that year. The bankruptcy petition was withdrawn after Windhorst paid €10mn to the claimants.
Windhorst’s largest known creditor — H2O Asset Management — has not taken legal action against the financier, instead negotiating a series of repayment plans over debts in excess of €1bn.
French regulators imposed a record fine on H2O in January in relation to rule breaches around its Windhorst-linked investments, while banning the firm’s co-founder Bruno Crastes from managing investment funds for five years.