The attorney for hoteliers Ebrima Solomon Tamba and Marcel Lambertus Teunis van Andel Thursday told the Kanifing High Court that it’s unacceptable for Austrian national Manuel Stofleth Mitterer to be making “serious allegations” against his clients and soiling their reputation.
“You [Manuel] cannot be making serious allegations and tarnishing the image of my clients,” Lawyer Sanyang charged.
According to him, his clients are honourable men, who have distinguished themselves in what they are doing.
Counsel Sanyang indicated to the court that Manuel has been playing the victim’s card while he’s in fact the one trying to defraud his partners.
It would be recalled that Tamba, Andel and Mitterer partnered a few years ago to sell holiday apartments. However, their partnership suffered when Tamba and Andel suspected that Manuel was not channeling the money from the apartment sales to the company account. Whenever they confronted him for explanation of the whereabouts of the proceeds, he would tell them he had lodged the money into a cryptocurrency account. And he refused to convert the money into convertible currencies when asked by his partners to do so.
In his submission on the previous high court order that ceded the supervisory role in the Bitcoin Tower construction to the Sheriff Division, which is currently at the centre of legal dispute between Manuel on one hand and Solomon and Marcel on the other, Sanyang strongly argued: “Our submission is that the order obtained [from the Banjul High Court] must be set aside.”
In a strong but measured tone, Tamba and Andel’s lawyer contended that Mr. Stofleth was intent on defrauding his clients. Sanyang argued that the Austrian cannot at the point insist on any payment from his partnership venture with Tamba and Andel as, in his words, this will tantamount contravention of the terms of their agreement on revenue sharing.
“The promissory note showed that it [Manuel’s should be from the proceeds of Kasumai Real Estate or the farm. How can he pay when money is not made?,” Sanyang submitted.
He further submitted to the court that Manuel was scheming to use the agreement to forfeit the proceeds.
At that juncture, Sheriff Tambedou, representing Mitterer, rose to briefly counter-argue on the issue of the promissory note but the matter, which was presided over by Justice Kwabeng, was at that juncture set adjourned to December 4th for ruling on counsel Sanyang’s submission that the high court order that mandates the Sheriff Division to oversee the continuation of the Bitcoin Tower construction be set aside.
