Summary:

Three former directors of a Vietnamese corporation sought to avoid payment of a large judgment against them in their native Vietnam by moving to the United States and setting up a similar business here. After their judgment was domiciled in the US, we were hired to locate them, serve them and locate their assets. We discovered that they had started 12 LLCs and two corporations to shelter the income they were generating in the US. We also found bank accounts in the UK and Singapore where they were holding funds obtained from their businesses. So far, the court has ordered one of the defendants to repay our client $11 million.

The Story:

We were retained to locate three individuals, who were the members and directors of a corporation against which a very large arbitration award had been made in Vietnam. These directors, a husband, wife and daughter, left Vietnam and moved assets in violation of a court order and came to the United States.

 

Unbeknownst to the Vietnamese corporation that secured the award, the defendant had set up a parallel business in Southern California. Although they had agreements to only sell only the products of the Vietnamese corporation, they had been diverting clients of the company to their own businesses in the United States. The scheme to do this had unfolded over several years.There was also an issue of patent infringement by the defendants.

 

The arbitration award was domiciled in United States District Court and our two-fold task was to 1) locate them and serve them and 2) perform asset searches on all three defendants with the focus on being able to secure enough evidence to support a freezing order on any financial accounts that were discovered during our investigation.

 

We located and served all the defendants. They attempted to have the service quashed based on the grounds that they, being Vietnamese speakers, did not understand the investigator who served them. The investigator we sent, however, had informed them in both English and Vietnamese of the nature of the legal papers they were served with.

In researching the private property the defendants purchased in the US, we discovered that none of the properties had any equity. As equity would accrue, the defendants would refinance, keeping no equity that was attachable.

 

We also discovered that the defendants used a total of 12 LLCs and two corporations to shelter the businesses they were conducting. Although from the outside these entities had the appearance of being separate and independent, we were able to establish that they were a single enterprise operated under the direction of the husband.

 

We also established that two of the defendants maintained personal bank accounts in the UK and Singapore, which were the primary recipients of the funds generated from the US businesses.

 

In 2023 the court ordered one of the defendants to repay $11,000,000. As of 1/2024, the court has not yet ruled on the other two defendants.