O’Melveny Worldwide

Law360: Exiled Chinese Billionaire, Lender Ask For Ch. 11 Exit

May 25, 2022

The Pacific Alliance Asia Opportunity Fund (PAX) and Chinese billionaire Ho Wan Kwok simultaneously asked US Bankruptcy Judge Julie Manning to dismiss Kwok’s Chapter 11 case, but for different reasons. PAX has been pursuing Kwok, who filed for bankruptcy a week after he was ordered to pay US$134 million in contempt fees, for repayment of a US$28 million loan and a subsequent US$116 million court judgment. Counsel for PAX said that the series of events including the filing’s timing, the lack of a business to reorganize, and Kwok’s arguments, show that the Chapter 11 filing was “bad-faith attempt” to avoid fees and PAX’s suit. “The remedy for that should fit the motivations,” PAX counsel Peter Friedman said. PAX is represented by Friedman, Stuart M. Sarnoff, Laura Aronsson, and David Harbach of O’Melveny & Myers LLP.

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