This same story immediately below has appeared in two publications that we know of, over the last twenty-four hours. We re-publish it in its entirety, not for its accuracy, but the interest we have here in the Cayman Islands for this businessman.
AMERICAN MULTI-MILLIONAIRES TO VISIT VIETNAM
Billionaire Mike Ryan from the Cayman Islands and Bob Livingston, the founder and chairman of Livingston Group LLC will visit Vietnam to seek out investment opportunities.
The Dau tu (Investment) newspaper cited Link World Unlimited Events LLC as saying that during their nine-day stay, the two investors will tour Hanoi , the central province of Ninh Thuan , Phu Quoc Island in the southern province of Kien Giang and Ho Chi Minh City .
The areas they are interested in include heavy industry, finance and banking, shipbuilding, the transport sector, ports and the construction of hotels and resorts.
They also plan to meet with a number of Vietnamese businesses during their visit.
Mike Ryan is the owner and developer of the Grand Cayman, the Ritz Carlton and the Four Seasons in the Cayman Islands. He also owns a number of international conference centres around the world, the Condominium Hotel chain and a string of exclusive resorts.
Bob Livingston, who is the 106 th Speaker of the US House of Representatives, is also an envoy for many world famous names, including Rolls-Royce, Lockheed Martin, the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company, the US Chamber of Commerce, Verizon, John Wickerman and the George Washington University.-VNA
Go to http://talkvietnam.com/2012/05/american-multi-millionaires-to-visit-vietnam/
We reported that a lawsuit was filed on Tuesday April11th in the Cayman Islands, against property developer Michael Ryan. Mr. Ryan was accused of misappropriating assets from companies involved with The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman luxury hotel and residences development.
The writ alleges that Ryan received and/or misappropriated money and property belonging to the Plaintiffs and illegally transferred them to the defendants all of which the creditors say Ryan has some form of direct or indirect benefit.
This amounted to a breach of his fiduciary duties the plaintiffs claim, but no actual values have been revealed. The plaintiffs who are essentially the companies Ryan used to control but which are now in the hands of his creditors are seeking an order from the court to force him to return whatever has allegedly been misappropriated.
This latest legal claim comes on the heels of RC Cayman’s writ suing Ryan for the outstanding loan of US$234 million used to develop the Ritz Carlton Grand Cayman, which Ryan was according to the creditors the guarantor.
Ryan told us the Grand Cayman lender was “trying to embarrass me and ruin my reputation.”
He claims that he and companies he controls are owed “many millions of dollars” by firms that are now under the control of the project’s main lender, Delaware-domiciled RC Cayman Holdings LLC, which appears to be ultimately controlled by Connecticut-based Five Mile Capital Partners
We have no knowledge that Mr. Ryan is the owner and developer of the Four Seasons in the Cayman Islands. A Four Seasons Hotel was named recently in Cayman Islands Premier McKeeva Bush’s admission, that after he had completed his dealings with Stan Thomas at a Las Vegas hotel in relation to one of the three police investigations he is under, he went with him to look at the Four Seasons hotel there. This was the brand Thomas was considering for the resort he proposed to build on the West Ray Road land – the subject of the re-zoning. Mr. Ryan’s name did not come up.
Mr Ryan is a director of the four companies that went into receivership under KPMG international accountants. These companies which control the Ritz-Carlton condominiums, were named on Monday March 12 by KPMG as Cesar Hotelco (Cayman) Ltd; CondoCo Grand Cayman Resort Ltd;Â Cesar Properties Ltd; and CondoCo Properties Ltd.
Mr Ryan faces other debts, including $6 million to the Cayman Islands government in import duties, waived during construction of the hotel, but now outstanding.
He also borrowed heavily for acquisition of the Safehaven Golf Course, converting it into the North Sound Golf Club after his Fujigmo paid $80 million in November 2007. The same month, a $125 million loan to Fujigmo was signed by Close Trustees Cayman Ltd, although the status of that loan remains undisclosed.
Also undisclosed is the fate of a 2004 $74.5 million loan for development of the hotel property made by Missouri’s religious-oriented Marvin Schwan Charitable Foundation. By 2009, that loan, to Mr Ryan’s IRR Ltd, had grown to $202 million.
The sum may have been converted into a shareholding in the Ritz property.
All of the above makes the story of Mr. Ryan being one of the billionaires visiting Vietnam even more incredulous.
