Federal Court Orders Harvard and Daughter of Prominent Harvard Donor to Disclose Financial Records in Connection With International Debt Dispute

BOSTON, Feb. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Judge William G. Young of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts ordered the President and Fellows of Harvard College and Claire Spackman, a student at Harvard, to turn over financial records and testify regarding assets belonging to an alleged "Hong Kong technology tycoon" and Harvard donor named Charles C. Spackman.

The federal court ordered the disclosures in support of a lawsuit pending before a court in Hong Kong to enforce an unpaid judgment rendered against Spackman. The judgment was a result of more than a decade of legal action in Korea surrounding the 2000 "collapse" of a public KOSDAQ-traded company, founded by Spackman, called Littauer Technologies. 

According to papers filed with the court, Spackman allegedly caused Littauer to enter into a ~US $1.3 billion self-dealing merger from which he profited by more than US $100 million, while minority investors suffered enormous losses. The Korean Public Prosecutors' Office initiated a criminal investigation in connection with Littauer's failure.

Following the criminal investigation, Sang Cheol Woo (Mr. Woo), a minority investor in the company who lost virtually all of his investment, sued and won a civil judgment against Spackman in Korea, which remains unpaid.

In June 2016, Mr. Woo sued to enforce the judgment in Hong Kong. On February 10, 2017, Mr. Woo filed the action in U.S. federal court to obtain records and testimony from Harvard and Claire Spackman in support of discovery for the matter. 

The papers state that Spackman, a Harvard alumnus, donor and benefactor of Harvard's Charles C. Spackman Scholarship Fund, controls a "virtual empire of companies bearing the 'Spackman' brand" — including an entertainment production company that produced the movie Snowpiercer, starring Academy Award winners Tilda Swinton and Octavia Spencer — and lives in "an estate located in what Forbes magazine described as 'the wealthiest neighborhood on earth.'"

The applicant, Mr. Woo, is represented by Kobre & Kim, a law firm with offices in Asia, offshore jurisdictions, Europe and the U.S., focused on international judgment enforcement. A copy of the memorandum of law filed by Kobre & Kim is available here and the District Court's decision can be viewed here.

About Kobre & Kim

Kobre & Kim is a global disputes and investigations firm that focuses on enforcing high-value judgments and arbitration awards, as well as cross-border asset forfeiture and recovery. We often work with other law firms solving their conflicts and assisting with cases that are beyond their geographic reach.

Our judgment enforcement team has experience litigating in various courts around the world and includes Hong Kong solicitors, English barristers and solicitors (including three English Queen’s Counsel), U.S. litigators, including former U.S. government lawyers and offshore lawyers. Many of our judgment enforcement and asset recovery cases involve the development of global strategies for enforcement efforts in a number of regions including Asia, the U.S., the Caribbean and Europe.

For more information visit: www.kobrekim.com.

SOURCE Kobre & Kim