Warren Steel Holdings investor says company is in ‘serious peril’

Staff report

WARREN

Vadim Shulman of Monaco has filed a lawsuit in Trumbull County Common Pleas Court alleging that fellow investors in Warren Steel Holdings, a Champion Township steel mill, have conspired to reduce the value of his shares in the company.

Shulman names as defendants Warren Steel Holdings Inc., 4000 Mahoning Ave. in Champion; Mordechai Korf of Miami, president of Warren Steel Holdings; Halliwel Assets Inc. of British Virgin Islands; Panikos Symeou of Cyprus; and Igor Kolomoisky and Genady Bogolubov, both of unidentified addresses.

The suit says Shulman owns one-third of the shares of Halliwel Assets, which owns Warren Steel Holdings. The company employs more than 200 people but is in “serious peril” because of what Shulman says is the “self-dealing and self-interested transactions” of other parties in the suit.

The suit says Schulman invested $28.5 million around 2001 to buy and operate the factory; then the parties took out a $90 million line of credit from a company controlled by Kolomoisky, a Ukrainian citizen.

Starting in 2012, Schulman “began to sense questionable activities and began to have his agents and attorney investigate” Warren Steel Holdings, the suit says.

Schulman determined that loans had been taken out on behalf of the company that were provided by companies owned by Korf. The loans reduced the value of Schulman’s shares, he alleges.

The lawsuit seeks to force the company to turn over audited financial statements to Schulman to “determine the true value of Warren Steel and the legitimacy” of the loans and other transactions that have taken place, the suit says.

Korf did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment.