Chinese oil giant Sinopec has been cleared after claims by a Hong Kong businessman that company executives were involved in a plot that left him imprisoned for five years on trumped-up charges.
US District Judge Beverly Reid O’Connell in Los Angeles dismissed a £3billion claim against the firm, agreeing that it had not been properly served with the complaint and, even if it had been, that she lacks jurisdiction over the alleged wrongdoing in China.
Tiangang Sun, former chairman of GeoMaxima Energy Holdings, claimed last year that officials of Sinopec and the Chinese government had him arrested in 2005 after he sued the oil company in Beijing for breaching a pipeline contract.
“The only domestic conduct that Mr. Sun alleges are the telephone calls he received from Sinopec China coconspirators while he was in the United States,” according to the judge’s decision.
“Threatening telephone calls are insufficient” to allow the lawsuit in U.S. courts, she said.
Michael Zweiback, Sun’s lawyer, said he will appeal the decision.
“While we are disappointed with the court’s ruling, we always have known that this is a case that would have to be resolved by the appellate court,” he said.
Sun said in his complaint that he was not brought before a judge until about three years after his arrest.
While he was imprisoned on bribery and embezzlement charges, his assets were seized and his wife and daughter had to hide in the countryside, Sun said.
Sun was released in 2010 and allowed to leave for the US in 2012, after two years of house arrest, according to the complaint.
He said he continued to receive threats, some against his wife and daughter still living in China, warning him not to pursue legal steps against Sinopec in the USA.
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