Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment Co. Ltd. has reportedly attached a Bombardier Aerospace Global 6500 business jet owned by the Federal Republic of Nigeria months after a Canadian court granted the Chinese investment firm permission to seize the aircraft to enforce an international arbitration award, the Nigerian online newspaper People's Gazette reported.
Sources familiar with the matter told the daily that the Chinese company had recently finalised the transfer of custody paperwork for the aircraft from the Canadian authorities in Montreal.
On January 25, 2024, Judge David R Collier of the Superior Court (Commercial Division) of Quebec in Montreal issued an order granting Zhongshan Fucheng permission to seize the jet, registered in the Isle of Man as M-MYNA (msn 9471) and at the time under the control of British Virgin Islands-registered company Titbit Limited and custodians, Canadian aviation services firm Aviation Etcetera S.E.C., and Canadian business aviation consultancy Starlink Aviation Inc.
The action forms part of Zhongshan Fucheng's international efforts to claim Nigerian overseas assets in the execution of a USD69.1 million award granted to the Chinese firm by an ad hoc arbitral tribunal in London on March 26, 2021, relating to a 2016 dispute over Nigeria's expropriation without compensation of land that Fucheng had acquired in a free trade zone.
On March 21, the Superior Court of Quebec rejected Nigeria's request to be exempt from a summons related to the seizure of the aircraft in the province. The seizure proceeded despite Nigeria's argument for state immunity.
Similarly, the Paris Judicial Court (Tribunal Judiciaire de Paris) has authorised Fucheng to attach three aircraft in the Nigerian presidential fleet as collateral for the arbitral award. As a gesture of goodwill, the Chinese company released a presidential jet to allow President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to conduct a four-day official visit to France. ACJ330-200 5N-FGA (msn 1053) travelled from Abuja to Nice and back between August 19 and 22, according to ADS-B data.
Zhongshan Fucheng has taken legal action to claim Nigerian assets in various jurisdictions, including the UK, the US, Canada, Belgium, France, and the British Virgin Islands.
