San Leon, a Dublin-headquartered oil and gas company, has been granted a short-term injunction freezing up to €50 million in assets owned by a Canadian asset management company.
San Leon plc, with offices at Crampton Avenue, Dublin 4, has alleged in the High Court that Ontario-based Tri Ri Asset Management Corp has not honoured two agreements negotiated by the firms since October 2023.
The second such alleged deal, in which Tri Ri purportedly agreed to swap shares in US technology firm Palantir worth almost €50 million for shares in San Leon, is the subject of proceedings that came before the court on Wednesday.
Gary McCarthy SC, appearing with Declan Harmon BL for San Leon, said he was seeking an order freezing up to €50 million in assets owned by Tri Ri, its director Shan Ahmad Ali, and its chief investment officer Asad Ali. Mr McCarthy also said he was seeking an injunction restraining Tri Ri from selling its 419,000 shares in Palantir.
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Mr Justice Brian Cregan said he would grant the orders on an interim basis. The application was made with only the San Leon side represented.
Tri Ri, according to San Leon, holds shares worth $850 million (€790.7 million) and has additional assets under its management worth $1.2 billion (€1.1 billion).
In a sworn statement to the court, San Leon chief executive Oisín Fanning said that for some time, the oil and gas firm had been seeking to raise capital and “progress business opportunities”, in particular oil exploration in Nigeria.
On foot of this, and following negotiations in September 2023, Tri Ri agreed to invest up to $187 million (€173 million) in San Leon.
In a sworn statement to the court, San Leon chief executive Oisín Fanning said that Tri Ri failed to honour this agreement, and no money was transferred to San Leon.
This inflicted “reputational and financial damage” on San Leon, Mr Fanning claims. San Leon intends to initiate separate legal proceedings against Tri Ri arising from this alleged breach of contract, Mr Fanning said.
Some time after this, Mr Fanning spoke with Asad Ali, who described himself as Tri Ri’s chief investment officer. Mr Fanning said Mr Ali spoke of wanting to “make amends” for the previous alleged failure to honour the investment agreement. Mr Ali blamed his father, Tri Ri director Shan Ahmad Ali, for the previous issues.
After he consulted with “trusted advisers”, Mr Fanning said he took the view that “everyone is deserving of a second chance”. After “some hesitancy”, he said that the parties agreed to a swap of San Leon shares for a number of “highly liquid public limited stock”. Mr Fanning said San Leon intended to immediately sell the stock to raise capital quickly.
On February 14th, 2025, pursuant to the agreement, stockbroker JP Morgan confirmed the purported transfer to San Leon of Tri Ri’s 419,000 shares in Palantir. However, Mr Fanning claims that these shares “remain undelivered” to San Leon.
The shares were worth almost €50 million on February 14th, according to Mr Fanning. The shares have since fallen in value, and are now worth close to €34 million.
Mr Fanning alleges that both Shan Ahmad Ali and Asad Ali have been “intimately involved in interfering” with the transfer of the Palantir shares to San Leon. “They have also been involved in acts of intimidation, including in making physical threats to my person,” he claimed.
This “intimidation” followed correspondence between the parties, in which San Leon set out the alleged breach of contract, and required steps to remedy the breach.
Mr Fanning alleges that Asad Ali has threatened to send individuals to his home to “deal” with him, that Asad Ali sent “aggressive and inflammatory” WhatsApp messages to him, and that Asad Ali made a public statement about him on social media aimed at causing “reputational and professional harm”.
Explaining the orders sought from the court, Mr Fanning said that the Palantir shares at the centre of the proceedings are “readily tradable” and could be disposed of by Tri Ri at any time.
Mr Justice Cregan adjourned the case to later in the week.
