(Bloomberg) -- Shipping billionaire John Fredriksen lost a near decade-long court case against former top executives of Arcadia Group after a UK judge dismissed claims of major fraud.
Arcadia — a well-known oil trader bought by Fredriksen’s Farahead in 2006 — sued its former CEO Peter Bosworth and CFO Colin Hurley in February 2015 over what it said at the time were losses of around $287 million caused by the pair diverting oil trading profits into companies controlled by them.
Since renamed as Alta Trading, it wound down its business in 2022. Fredriksen — whose empire sprawls from shipping companies to salmon farms — had hoped to use the company as a lucrative oil-trading arm, aiming to complement the giant fleet of tankers he owns through Frontline Plc.
A UK judge dismissed the claim Wednesday, ruling Bosworth should be awarded $9.26 million in as yet unpaid bonuses plus interest and Hurley should also be paid $3 million plus interest.
“Mr. Fredriksen struck me as someone who had convinced himself that he had been defrauded, and was unwilling to reflect on that belief even where the facts suggested otherwise,” Judge Andrew Henshaw said in the judgment.
Henshaw said Bosworth and Hurley had acted “in what they honestly and reasonably considered to be in the Arcadia Group’s best interests, and within the discretion afforded to them as CEO and CFO respectively of the companies whom they served.”
--With assistance from Jonathan Browning.
©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
