misleading information about Prax\u2019s financial position<\/a>, including claims that the business was solvent and able to meet its debts.<\/p>\nIn court submissions, lawyers for Glencore said: \u201cPrior to the liquidation, Mr Soosaipillai was, in fact, conducting the business of the Prax Group … fraudulently.\u201d<\/p>\n
The company also claimed that statements made to it were \u201cuntrue and misleading\u201d and alleged that Soosaipillai was aware of this.<\/p>\n
Glencore is seeking to recover crude oil it said it still owns, as well as refined products made from that oil at the refinery. The company argued that alleged false information provided by Prax means its agreements should be cancelled, allowing it to reclaim its products before the company\u2019s remaining assets are divided among creditors.<\/p>\n
However, lawyers representing Prax argued that Glencore should be treated like other creditors in the insolvency process. They said allowing Glencore\u2019s claim could create \u201cchaos\u201d and go against the principles of collective insolvency.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny fraud that may have taken place would, if demonstrated, be a misfortune that befell all the creditors of the company in common,\u201d Prax\u2019s lawyers said, adding that Glencore had not suffered a unique loss compared with other creditors.<\/p>\n
Prax, founded by Winston Soosaipillai and his wife Arani in 1999, expanded from owning petrol stations into a global energy group. The company bought the Lindsey oil refinery from French energy firm TotalEnergies in 2021 as part of a series of debt-backed acquisitions.<\/p>\n
The business later collapsed in 2025 after \u201cmaterial irregularities\u201d were discovered in a loan facility with HSBC. The issue led to the cancellation of the loan and triggered a financial crisis, leaving Prax with more than \u00a31.5 billion in debts.<\/p>\n
Soosaipillai and his wife each hold a 40 per cent stake in Prax directly, with the remaining shares held through trusts where both are trustees.<\/p>\n
A representative for Soosaipillai was contacted for comment, according to The Telegraph. The allegations have not been proven in court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights Commodity giant claims former Prax owner was \u201ccentrally involved\u201d in alleged misconductThe claim relates to oil supplied…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110273,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[123],"tags":[53812,132,1008,53813,53814,53815],"class_list":["post-110272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-glencore","tag-arani-soosaipillai","tag-glencore","tag-oil-refinery","tag-prax","tag-prax-group","tag-winston-soosaipillai"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117013087872116282","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}