Monrovia – When lawyers representing Christopher Neyor, President and Chief Executive officer of Morweh Energy Group, a Liberian owned corporate entity filed a lawsuit against Luckinton Investments Limited and African Petroleum Limited represented by Frank Timis based in London, the United Kingdom, little did they know that Mr. Timis has been running a fleeting of ‘floating or paper tiger offices’ in Liberia that only exist on papers and websites, thus making it difficult to be served with court precepts.
A press statement released by Morweh Energy’s lawyers revealed that in December 2013, Mr. Frank Timis engaged the services of Morweh Energy through its CEO Christopher Neyor for specified consulting services in Angola and Liberia.
It is stated that a service performance contract for US$1 million was signed between the parties out of which a down payment of US$300,000.00 was made. With progress of work, another US$200,000.00 payment was made as per contract.
Also it has been revealed that the business relationship between Chris Neyor and Frank Timis took a bizarre twist when Mr. Neyor announced his candidacy in 2014 for the Montserrado County senatorial seat. After the announcement, Mr. Timis is said to have invited Chris Neyor to London for a meeting.
It has also been gathered that that Mr. Timis’ other company, African Petroleum, which operates two oil blocks in Liberia, also owes Morweh Energy unpaid fees of US$67,000.00, this the company is seemingly following order from higher ups in Liberia to deny payment to Morweh Energy and Mr. Neyor.
Nowhere to serve writ
Lawyers from the Justice and Public Interest Consortium Africa (JUPICA) could only be seen shaking their heads in total disbelief after they were told several times by bailiffs from the Commercial Court that Mr. Timis purported offices said to have been located opposite RLJ in Kandeja only existed on the signboard and that efforts to locate them have proved futile.
A requirement under its Petroleum Sharing Contract with NOCAL is for African Petroleum to have physical presence (office) in Liberia but apparently Mr. Timis’ relationship with the power that be has also exempted him from that contractual requirement.
A man who claimed to represent Mr. Timis when contacted by mobile phone first said “meet me opposite RLJ” but when court officers got closer and then called, he answered: ”What are you talking about?”.
The man then refused to give his exact location and information also gathered says this is the exact tactics of Mr. Timis wherever he does business.
“We intend to pursue this politically motivated refusal of Mr. Frank Timis and his companies to honor legitimate debt to ensure justice is done and Morweh Energy is paid its balance contractual payment to meet its own obligations to employees and others”, Mr. Neyor was quoted in a mobile phone conversation as saying.
Meanwhile, the court precepts from the Commercial court are still pending and have not been served because Mr. Timis and his corporation cannot be found anywhere in Liberia, but Morweh’s lawyers say there are other means through which the precepts can be served.
Neyor served as CEO of NOCAL before he left the company amid speculations of fallout with Robert Sirleaf.