By Nikolas Leontopoulos and Pavlos Zafiropoulos
In addition to the Greek prosecution over his financial dealings, Victor Restis is entrenched in a prolonged legal battle with the UANI, an influential advocacy group whose declared aim is “to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons”. UANI had alleged in May 2013 that Enterprises Shipping and Trading (EST), the shipping company of which Mr Restis is chairman, had engaged in business with Iran thus violating international sanctions. UANI subsequently launched what the Restis group calls ‘a name and shame’ campaign against the Greek shipowner.
In response Mr Restis and his lawyers filed in July 2013 a lawsuit against UANI claiming defamation. Last week a settlement appeared close between the two groups but fell through following the emergence of new evidence that showed (according to UANI) that statements made on behalf of EST that the group had never had any dealings with Iran were not true.
According to correspondence (pdf) between the two groups (disclosed by UANI), three EST cargo ships (Bergen Max, Helvetia One and African Wildcat) have in fact visited Iranian ports in eight instances between March 2012 and as recently as January 2014.
EST lawyers are now saying that they are confident that the visits still did not constitute a violation of sanctions as they were carrying humanitarian aid. “Mr. Wallace [UANI's CEO, former US Ambassador in the UN in the George W. Bush administration] is very aware that the shipments were made under time charter parties with prominent trading entities which appear on UANI’s own website as companies with permission from the US government to provide humanitarian aid to the Iranian people”, the Restis statement said.
The fallout brought to light details about the settlement that the two groups were working on. It has been alleged that EST attempted to purchase UANI CEO Mark Wallace’s cooperation by personally offering him money and a board seat as well as a contribution to the group.
According to a report by the shipping trade journal, TradeWinds, affiliates of Victor Restis recently agreed to make a $400,000 donation to UANI. In exchange, under the terms of a tentative settlement struck late last month on the back of meetings with UANI chief executive Mark Wallace in Manhattan and Abu Dhabi, the non profit group planned to issue a press release stating the Greek operator and its subsidiaries:
“Have in place a comprehensive written compliance policy which strictly prohibits them from doing any business in or with the Islamic Republic of Iran or its agents and instrumentalities.”
Tradewinds reports that “in a letter sent to the judge assigned to the case the non-profit’s attorneys said their client pulled the plug after finding evidence that some of the plaintiff’s vessels recently called on Iran, which led it to believe the “representations” about the compliance policy were 'utterly untrue'“.
The UANI letter alleges that “[P]laintiffs attempted to induce UANI to adopt these false statements and ‘look the other way’ by offering to pay Ambassador Wallace personally, on top of the $400,000 payment to UANI, for service as a member of the board of directors of Golden Energy,” [a company controlled by the Restis group.]
In a response released today EST denies these allegations: “Despite UANI’s allegations, it is totally untrue that EST ever offered any donation to UANI or any payments to its CEO, Mr. Wallace.” [EST] was, however, prepared to make “a contribution towards the substantial legal bills” that UANI incurred as a result of the lawsuit.
According to Tradewinds, EST admitted that it offered the former diplomat a seat on the board of affiliate Golden Energy but said the gesture was meant to demonstrate its “full support” of the group’s mission by giving him an opportunity to learn about the tanker business and see it is not engaged in unlawful trading.
“Mr Wallace was invited to join the board of directors of tanker managers Golden Energy Management on a pro-bono basis,” the company continued in Monday’s statement, adding: “EST never offered to pay Mr Wallace in any way for his services.”
Who is Victor Restis?
Victor Restis is a Greek billionaire ship-owner, rated number 56 in the 2012 Lloyd's List top 100 influential people in shipping. One of his companies, Seanergy bulker owner, is listed on NASDAQ. The Restis Group has a wide range of interests in business sectors that include energy, real estate, agribusiness, media and banking through FBBank. For his involvement in the last, Mr Restis was arrested in summer 2013 and faces charges of money laundering and embezzlement. While he was initially deemed a flight risk and held in pretrial custody, he was granted conditional release in early December following an appeal by his lawyers.