The Croatian businessman Tomislav Debeljak was greeted with great cheers when he took over the Kleven shipyard in Sunnmøre in 2020. But the cheers died down quickly. Now he is being sued, and there were spectacular allegations on the first day of the trial. The court case about Kleven shipyard This is the case: Croatian Tomislav Debeljak and his DIV Group bought the 80-year-old Kleven shipyard in Ulsteinvik on Sunnmøre in March 2020. The shipyard was declared bankrupt three months later, and 441 employees were laid off. Now the bankruptcy estate of Kleven Verft is suing the Croatian owner and their insurance company for up to NOK 166 million. The court case is in Bergen and will last for two weeks, starting on 8 November 2023. Around half past twelve at night, the phone is said to have rang to the finance manager in Ulsteinvik: – Immediately transfer all the money Kleven Verft has to an account in Croatia. According to a written notice, he was “notified that this was confidential and that he should not speak to anyone. He must have been told that “If you do this, you are protected, but if you don’t you are not protected.”” NOTICE: A written notice about the incident was presented in court. It is sent at 01.02 on the same night as the telephone conversation is supposed to have taken place. Facsimile: Court document – Pay immediately A few days before Kleven Verft was declared bankrupt, the cash manager at Sunnmøre rang the phone. A few minutes later, the financial manager should have received an e-mail from owner Debeljak, with the same message: “Pay 61.75 million immediately”. it said. IMMEDIATELY: E-mail which is supposed to be from owner Tomislav Debeljak was presented in court. Facsimile: Court document – There are probably not many financial managers in Norwegian companies who receive such messages at night, said the bankruptcy estate’s lawyer Jan Vablum. The finance manager did not follow orders, but reported to others in Kleven shipyard. The defendant Debaljek’s lawyers have not responded to news’s questions about the allegations. – No written evidence During the first day of the trial, Tomislav Debaljek’s lawyers asked whether the bankruptcy filing meant that the Croat had deliberately driven the shipyard into bankruptcy. – We have no written evidence that Debeljak deliberately drove Kleven shipyard to the district court, in order to avoid paying the 55 million kroner that DIV Group was obliged to inject into the shipyard, answered the bankruptcy estate’s lawyer Jan Vablum. – The most special and extraordinary meeting Up in the court case was also the meeting Debaljek had had with the banks that financed the operations at Kleven Verft. The bankruptcy estate’s lawyer Jan Vablum claimed that several of his witnesses referred to this bank meeting as “one of the most special and extraordinary things they have experienced”. – Chairman Debeljak single-handedly torpedoed the loan agreements with the banks, he claimed. LAWYER AND DEFENDANT: Lawyer Jan Vablum on the left, with defendant Tomislav Debaljek directly behind him. Photo: Therese Pisani / news – He slandered the economy and gave incorrect information about both the construction project and the shipyard, which cast Kleven in an excessively bad light, according to the strong claims from the lawyer for the bankruptcy estate. After the meeting, the banks withdrew all financing, and Kleven filed for bankruptcy. According to the contract between the Croatian buyer and the shipyard, the new owner was obliged to add NOK 55 million to the shipyard. Already a month and a half after the takeover, the first payment of this failed, said the lawyer. Today and tomorrow the version will come to the defendant Tomislav Debeljak and DIV Group.
ttn-69
Strong allegations against Tomislav Debeljak in court case about bankruptcy in Kleven verft – news Møre og Romsdal – Local news, TV and radio
