Nobu Su, the fallen Taiwanese shipowner turned serial maritime inventor, has uploaded a short documentary to YouTube, available below, in which he alleges one of Taiwan’s top banks laundered money and was responsible for the downfall of his shipping empire.
Su’s shipping line TMT took loans from Mega International Commercial Bank in 2010. As TMT struggled with depressed freight rates two years later it sought to extend these loans, with the bank agreeing to extend them and taking a ship as a mortgage. A fortnight after this loan extension was agreed, Su claims Mega Bank contacted TMT one afternoon with a sudden demand to pay back all the money it owed – $45m in total – within 90 minutes. The loan defaulted and Su lost 16 ships.
In August last year news broke across Taiwan about Mega Bank’s money laundering activities in New York, something Su now believes also hurt him too.
In the short documentary Su then goes on to look at the banking documents between his company and the bank and suggests the contracts signed were “totally illegal” and he should get his ships back immediately.
“Mega Bank was not alone, it was just the tip of the iceberg,” Su concludes in the six-minute documentary, which Splash understands is a curtain raiser for a feature length documentary from London-based Go Fish Films due out next year which will look at Nobu Su and the global financial crisis.
Su is no stranger to scraps with banks having gone through a long legal fight with ex-senior management at British bank, RBS.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=34&v=NdKSwQ6vEKQ
