George Chai, a retired businessman and shareholder of embattled Stocks & Securities Limited (SSL), returned to court yesterday as he continues his claim against Delta Capital Partners Limited and Zachary Harding, co-founder of Delta and former CEO of SSL.

Chai filed his claim in the commercial division of the Supreme Court of Jamaica in September 2023 for breach of contract, damages for unjust enrichment and special damages of US$210,378.38 related to a promissory note entered into on July 10, 2023. A promissory note is a written promise to pay a certain amount of money by a certain time. Chai’s claim is seeking a total amount of US$215,378.38 or J$33.04 million from the two defendants at an interest rate of 15 per cent.

Yesterday’s session before Justice Stephane Jackson-Haisley was an application by Chai’s attorneys for an oral examination, which in the formal court setting is a hearing whereby a debtor/defendant answers questions about their financial position, income and expenses to satisfy a judgement or aid in the potential enforcement of a judgement.

That application hearing was done via video conference, which means only the interested parties were present for the hearing. Otherwise, that was the first time the case was mentioned with any subsequent hearings to appear on the weekly court list.

Harding was SSL’s CEO between September 2019 to June 2022 and started Delta Capital Partners in August 2020 as a private equity firm with a Caribbean focus. A St Lucian International Business Company (IBC) called SSL Investments Limited was renamed to Delta Capital Holdings Limited in that same month.

Harding owned 45 per cent of Delta Capital Partners alongside Hugh Croskery, who also owned the same stake in the business. Allison Hemmings, Ivan Carter and Anthony Dunn were also shareholders in the business. Harding, Carter, Sarah Meany, Melanie Jones, Justin Ram, Livingstone B Morrison and Victoria Vysotina were the directors of the company at the time.

Delta Capital Partners had announced numerous deals and potential acquisitions between 2020 and 2022 where it struck a deal to acquire the credit card portfolio of Massycard (Barbados) Limited. However, Jones, Ram, Morrison and Vysotina left the board in March 2022 before Meany departed in October 2022.

Dionne Hadley and Shante Williams also joined the board afterwards, but resigned along with Carter, Delta Capital’s CEO in March 2024. Suzette Rochester and Anthony Dunn, Delta’s chief investment officer, joined Delta Capital Partner’s board days before the other director resignations. Thus, Delta Capital partners’ board is now Dunn, Rochester and Harding.

Massy Holdings terminated its agreement with Delta Payment Services (Barbados) Limited to sell its Barbados business. Harding noted in a previous Jamaica Observer story that Croskery surrendered his shares in Delta Capital Partners in September 2022.

Also, SSL clients are still pondering when they will be repaid their principal on the Delta Capital Holdings promissory notes which matured in October 2023. Those notes were issued in October 2020.

Chai also returned to court on September 24 and October 3 in his $4.20 billion lawsuit against SSL Growth Equity Limited, former SSL Chairman Hugh Croskery, Mark Croskery and Jean-Ann Panton for fraud, misrepresentation, breach of trust, unjust enrichment and failure to account for all sums owing to Chai. Those hearings before Justice David Batts sought to serve SSL Growth Equity outside of the Jamaican jurisdiction since the holding company is domiciled in Barbados. SSL Growth Equity owns 62.50 per cent of SSL, while Chai owns the remaining stake.

Chai along with SSL and SSL Growth Equity are the subjects of a $186.50-million lawsuit by Spectrum Capital Partners Limited. Spectrum Capital was set to become the majority shareholder in SSL through a US$4-million capital injection, but that deal eventually fell through. However, the case is stalled since Justice Batts has frozen all ongoing and future cases against SSL which cannot take place without the court’s permission.

The case of SSL versus Financial Services Commission resumes tomorrow for the entire day which will be overseen by Justice Batts.