Australia-based Seafarms Group Limited (SFG) is facing another court case as the Cameron Group claims the company engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct.
SFG posted an update to the Australian Securities Exchange indicating the Cameron Group – which is associated with Jan Cameron, a well-known businesswoman in Australia – filed a claim on 19 March claiming the company breached provisions of the Corporations Act when it made statements in 2021 about Stage 1 of Project Sea Dragon. Also named in the lawsuit are Ian Trahar, Harley Whitcombe, Paul Favretto, Christopher Mitchell, and Hisami Sakai.
Project Sea Dragon is the name of an ambitious prawn aquaculture project that would have farmed up to 10,000 hectares of aquaculture ponds to raise black tiger prawns. The first attempt at the project failed after a former CEO claimed it could not proceed after performing a review, trading of the project’s securities was suspended, a court ruled the project should be liquidated for abuse of corporate laws, and the company’s appeals of the court’s decision were exhausted.
The project recently appeared to get another shot at viability as Seafarms Group finalized the purchase of Project Sea Dragon’s assets, purchasing them under a subsidiary named Sea Dragon Shrimp. The company said it was planning to apply for new licenses and approvals where they could not legally be transferred and was awaiting an Australian Federal Court decision on whether it could access funds seized in the initial litigation.
Now, the Cameron Group lawsuit has added another complication to the company’s goal of farming shrimp in the Australian Outback.
“The company believes the claims made by the Cameron Group are unfounded and maintain that SFG has not engaged in any of the conduct alleged in the proposed statement of claim,” SFG said in a release. “SFG and the other defendants are defending the proceedings.”
