THE Supreme Court has refused an application by St Ann businessman Arthur Von Strolley to freeze the assets of Joseph ‘Joey’ Issa, his close friend of 14 years.

Von Strolley had asked the court for the order as part of his suit he brought against Issa to recover US$1.19 million he said was invested with Issa’s companies.

Justice Carol Beswick on Friday refused Von Strolley’s application, noting that she was not of the view that Issa would flee the island without paying his debts.

The matter was ordered to proceed to case management, where a trial date could be set.

This is not the first time that Von Strolley has sought to freeze Issa’s assets.

Von Strolley, last December, obtained an order from the High Court freezing Issa’s assets along with those of his investment companies Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited and Wisdom Investments Holdings Limited.

But the order was in January discharged by Justice Patrick Brooks. Brooks, however, told Von Strolley that he could again renew his application against Issa, who also operates the Cool Group of Companies.

According to court documents filed last October, Issa, son of hotelier John Issa, is being sued for US$1.5 million in damages by Von Strolley after an investment deal linked to the ill-fated forex trading outfit, Olint TCI, went sour.

Von Strolley is contending that he was induced by Issa to invest US$1.19 million with Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited, with the agreement that he would get a four per cent per month return on the principal. The claimant said that the money was generated from the sale of his house and from his business, and was invested over a period from June 2007.

In the suit, Von Strolley said that he received various amounts as returns on his investment. However, since February 2008, Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited had ceased making returns – calculated at US$337,343.63 – and neither has he received his principal, despite repeated demands.

Von Strolley further alleged that Issa had advised him that some of the funds had been invested with Olint TCI without his (Von Strolley’s) authority or instructions, “knowing the said company to be unable to meet its financial obligations”.

Olint TCI, operated by foreign exchange trader David Smith, has had its funds frozen in the Turks and Caicos Islands where it is based and is the subject of several other lawsuits.

However, Issa denied that Wisdom Investments Holdings Jamaica Limited had any dealings whatsoever with Von Strolley, and that he had no “personal contract or dealings with the claimant”.

Issa instead charged that the dispute arose in respect to an investment which the claimant requested Wisdom Investments Holdings, which was incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, to have made on his behalf in Olint.