For Jonathan Faiman, it doesn’t rain but it pours. The Ocado co-founder and Neos chaiman, who is Already embroiled in a bitter court battle with his former Ocado business partners and childhood friends over charges of corporate espionage and intellectual property theft, now faces yet another daunting legal foe in the form of a billionaire fertiliser oligarch.
According to The Times of London, Faiman is being pursued by by the Russian tycoon and multi-billionaire Andrey Melnichenko. As stated in legal papers filed in New York, Melnichenko lent Faiman $42m (£35m) and €25m (£23m) between 2017 and 2018. Melnichenko claims Faiman failed to make repayments and is going to chase him through London courts.
“This is all just a glitch. As soon as our Cayman bond closes in the next day or two, we’ll be able to pay all our creditors,” Faiman offered.
A GoFundMe page set up to support Faiman’s legal costs hasn’t raised anything so far.