LONDON (Sept 17): Iron ore trader Radiant World may hold just US$10,000 (RM40,990) in cash despite its most recent financial statements referring to cash balances of over US$200 million, lawyers for a Jefferies-linked fund suing over an alleged fraud said on Thursday.
LAM Trade Finance Group II, in which US bank Jefferies holds a minority stake, last month obtained a freezing order from London's High Court against Radiant World, its founder Pinkesh Nahar and others.
Radiant World has come under pressure over concerns that invoices provided to its banks may not have been valid, which the firm has strongly denied. Singapore's police force last month said it was investigating Radiant World.
LAM Trade Finance Group II, which has also obtained freezing orders in Hong Kong and Singapore, says it purchased iron ore receivables from linked companies, by which it bought the right to be paid by traders such as Glencore and Vitol, but that those receivables either did not exist or were not validly assigned.
"It appears that the defendants used debit notes to paper over the cracks, as it is put by the claimant, for as long as they could and it is characterised that 'the well has now run dry'", Judge Simon Bryan said when he made the freezing order.
Radiant World did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a hearing on Thursday, lawyers representing LAM Trade Finance Group II argued in court documents that the freezing order should remain in place because of the risk that the defendants would dissipate assets.
They said that asset totals provided in a witness statement on behalf of Radiant World were "substantially different" from those in the group's financial statements for the year to September 30, 2025.
"The audited financial statements refer to cash balances of over US$200 million whereas (the statement) says that Radiant World holds only USUS$10,000 in cash," they argued.
Radiant World is embroiled in various lawsuits, having sued Glencore this week in Singapore seeking more than US$2 billion.
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