Chinese foodservice giant Joyvio, owner of Chilean salmon farmer Australis Seafoods, has taken its heated legal battle against the farmer’s former owner, Isidoro Quiroga, to a new level, filing claims not just in Chile but also in both the United Kingdom and the United States.
Joyvio is reportedly seeking more than GBP 10 million (USD 12.8 million, EUR 11.6 million) in civil litigation in the U.K. against Quiroga and some of his family members. The exact amount will remain unknown until after the hearings, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
Shortly after the U.K. suit, Joyvio's lawyers also filed legal action in the U.S., specifically in a court in the U.S. state of Florida, and requested the release of financial information that Quiroga, his family, and their companies have in the bank JP Morgan.
“It is a public fact that we have sued Quiroga in London [where he has lived since 2021], and we have initiated this action in the United States since Isidoro Quiroga and his children have moved their domicile outside of Chile,” Alberto Eguiguren, a lawyer heading up Joyvio’s legal team, said. “They have dissolved their companies in Chile, and in recent days, they have even transferred their assets outside of Chile.”
The legal request is for JP Morgan to turn over the correspondence it has maintained with the Chilean businessman, including documents regarding his income, expenses, investments, and account balances, to the Florida court.
“This legal action in the United States is to search for Quiroga’s assets. In this way, we want to ensure that with the judicial ruling, we will win; both in Chile and in England, there are sufficient assets to compensate the damages suffered that must be paid by Quiroga,” Eguiguren said.
The latest moves come just months after Joyvio accused Quiroga and his inner circle of fraudulently hiding information regarding salmon overproduction when the Chinese firm purchased Australis in 2018 for USD 921 million (EUR 832 million). In June, the Chinese firm officially filed a USD 1.22 billion (EUR 1.1 billion) lawsuit against Quiroga.
The dollar figure is comprised of the original USD 921 million (EUR 832 million) for which Joyvio bought the company, as well as USD 300 million (EUR 271 million) in restitution for the alleged fraud.
Quiroga and his legal team said the accusations are slanderous.
“The notification served in England corresponds to a new stage in the Joyvio group’s unsuccessful extortion strategy,” Quiroga’s investment firm, Asesorías e Inversiones Benjamín, said in a statement. The 29 June notification of the lawsuit in England against Quiroga and his son “only aims to pressure Isidoro Quiroga and try to achieve in England what [Joyvio has] not been able to achieve in Chile,” it said.
Quiroga said he hopes to prove the accusations against him are unfounded , “as will be demonstrated in England, New York, Miami, or any other jurisdiction chosen by the Joyvio Group,” Asesorías e Inversiones Benjamín asserted.
The investment firm also said Joyvio had all of Australis’s relevant information in the due diligence process at its disposal, including more than 12,000 legal, financial, and technical documents, and was not only aware of the cases of overproduction but expressly ordered the Chilean administration to increase production levels “[as] is demonstrated by clear, precise, and forceful emails that directly involve the chairman of the Joyvio Group, Shaopeng Chen,” it said.
While that lawsuit is ongoing, Australis has been working closely with Chile's environmental authorities to right its historical infractions.
Isidoro Quiroga is one of Chile’s wealthiest businessmen. He was responsible for introducing and cultivating kiwi in Chile, and some have referred to him as the “water tsar” in Chile, given his vast ownership of water rights throughout the country. In the financial market, he has owned shares in agriculture and energy firms. He reportedly acquired the U.S. firm Enphase Energy for USD 84 million (EUR 75.9 million) in 2018 through his family office, turning around and selling it for USD 819 million (EUR 740 million) two years later.
Photo courtesy of Australis
