BUSINESSMAN David Wong Ken and his partners Friday lost their US multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Dr Vin Lawrence, the National Investment Bank of Jamaica (NIBJ) and others in the Supreme Court.

Wong Ken, Jack Koonce and Shirley Shakespeare were seeking up to US$35.6 million (just above J$3 billion) in damages, claiming that their investment in Western Cement Company faltered because of a conspiracy to promote rival businesses.

In addition to losing their suit, the claimants will have to shell out close to J$200 million to NIBJ, which was yesterday successful in a counterclaim brought against them in relation to guarantees the investment bank said the claimants signed in 1995.

The judgement was handed down by Justice Bryan Sykes.

Wong Ken and his partners have alleged that the defendants — which also include former government minister Horace Clarke, Clarendon Lime Company, Limestone Corporation of Jamaica, Cezley Sampson and Vinroy Gordon — and others conspired to ruin his Western Cement Company so that rival firms to which they were connected could corner the market for domestically produced quicklime. Clarke has a stake in Clarendon Lime and Licojam.

The claimants had asked the court for US$31.3 million as compensation for economic loss from NIBJ.

The remaining US$4.3 million is exemplary damages sought against Lawrence, a former chairman of the Urban Development Corporation; Clarke; and NIBJ on allegations of “conspiracy, deceit, breach of fiduciary duty and misfeasance carried out by a public body for the purpose of damaging the interest of the claimants in order to promote, revive and secure the interest” of Licojam, Clarendon Lime and Clarke.

Western Cement was formed with support from the NIBJ, with the aim of mining limestone and manufacturing caustic soda, a critical ingredient in the refining of bauxite to alumina. The NIBJ, which has since been folded into the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), provided loans to Western Cement and had a stake in the company.

Among the specific accusations are that the NIBJ allowed Lawrence to sit on its board while he was a director of Clarendon Lime as well as a consultant to the company and to Clarke.

The suit pointed out that Lawrence, also sat on the boards of bauxite/aluminarelated firms in which the Government had stakes. The suit further claims that Lawrence was aware, and had access to the details of Western Cement’s proposals for the sale of quicklime to the Jamalco alumina refinery, in which the Government is a major shareholder.

In addition, Wong Ken also complained that the NIBJ, while it had a stake in Western Cement, including a seat on the board, did not disclose that it was promoting a merger between Clarke’s companies and the United Kingdom firm, Rugby.

It was also claimed that the NIBJ, never heeded the warnings from an employee who sat on the boards of Western Cement and Clarendon Lime (which the investment bank helped to set up) that both companies could not survive in the market.

Wong Ken also argued that Clarke, as minister with responsibility for mining between 1995 and 1997, was privy to information about Western Cement, even as he was launching his own firm and developing a relationship with Rugby.

The defendants have strongly denied any form of wrongdoing and have denied any conspiracy. NIBJ had argued that it had no fiduciary duty to the Western Cement investors. Clarke and his companies had insisted that they were not party to confidential information pertaining to Western Cement.