In the latest development in the long-running litigation between Jolly Harbour-based real estate firm Lux Locations and developer Yida Zhang, Lux Locations have applied to court for Yida to be committed to HM Prison Antigua for deliberate non-payment of a debt due to Lux Locations.
This follows the Privy Council’s January 31st ruling rejecting, as ‘fabricated’, Yida’s claim that he had not understood a 2017 court order under which he agreed to pay outstanding fees to Lux Locations for their role in connection with his US $60 million purchase of the land that now forms the special economic zone in Antigua’s north-east.
Yida’s shares in Yida International Investment Antigua Limited, the company that owns the land, are subject to a court-imposed ‘final charging order’ in favour of Lux Locations, and both Yida and the company are expressly forbidden by a court order from selling any land without first giving 14 days written notice to Lux Locations’ attorneys.
Commenting on this development, directors Nadia and Sam Dyson said, “It is disappointing that we are having to take this step, and we are not doing so lightly. But, almost two months after the Privy Council saw through Mr Yida’s false claims not to have understood what he was agreeing to in 2017, he has still not paid what he owes our company. Mr Yida is clearly able to pay what he owes if he wishes to do so, and his refusal to do so has left us with no choice. We also take this opportunity to draw attention to the charging order over the shares in Mr Yida’s company and to the injunction against any land sales without prior written notice.”