Opinion ID: 3063949
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Sitindustries: Tambourine and Hawksbay

Text: 2 Tambourine and Hawksbay are two subsidiaries of the Italian entity Sitindustrie, S.P.A. (“Sitindustrie”). Sitindustrie manufactures tubes in stainless steel, copper, and nickel alloys. The founder of Sitindustrie, German Bocciolone (“German”), was the CEO until he died in 1993. After German’s death, his daughter Antonella Bocciolone (“Antonella”) took over as the CEO. In 1997 at the direction of Antonella, Sitindustrie’s holding company, Kobarid Holdings, S.A. (“Kobarid”) acquired Hawksbay and Tambourine to control Sitindustrie’s investments. Antonella served on the board of both Hawksbay and Tambourine with David Brenman, Tambourine’s chief operating officer through 2002. Antonella and Brenman later married in 2000. At their direction, Tambourine lent twenty million dollars to Lionheart International Ltd. (“Lionheart”) to be invested. Several months later Tambourine asked for the money back, but only received ten million dollars. Tambourine briefly retained Defendant Pertnoy, Solowsky, & Allen (“PSA”) in 1999 to locate the missing ten million dollars - this sum of money was known as the “Lionheart ten million.” The Lionheart ten million, however, is not part of this litigation. In 1998, Tambourine entered into a Management Agreement with Edward Reizen, a self proclaimed fund management expert. Tambourine agreed to pay 3 Reizen four hundred thousand dollars annually to manage Tambourine’s assets. The Management Agreement gave Reizen full authority to act for Tambourine. In March 1999, Antonella and Brenman appointed Reizen to the Hawksbay board. Reizen was designated as the manager of Hawksbay’s bank accounts and given the authority to transfer and invest Hawksbay’s funds. At Antonella and Brenman’s direction, Tambourine also lent the ten million dollars it did receive back from Lionheart to Hawksbay - this sum of money was known as the “Hawksbay ten million.” From 1999 to 2002 Reizen allegedly interacted with numerous financial institutions as Hawksbay’s representative. He was later removed as a board member in November 2002. In 2000, after learning from the Sitindustrie financial manager that there was financial stress, Antonella’s younger brother Fausto Bocciolone (“Fausto”) began to look for the twenty million dollars managed by Tambourine and Hawksbay. After getting the cold shoulder from Antonella and Brenman, Fausto secretly copied documents concerning the money from Brenman’s office. Fausto brought his concerns to the rest of the Bocciolone family and Antonella subsequently resigned as CEO in 2001. She was replaced by Fausto. Antonella and Brenman were later removed as Hawksbay directors in November 2002 and Fausto was appointed as a director of both Hawksbay and Tambourine. Fausto is currently the 4 CEO of Sitindustrie. In December 2002 the Hawksbay loan matured, but was never repaid. Sitindustries created a team to look for the missing money in January 2003, including a Swiss lawyer, Yves Auberson. Auberson was able to trace the money for a while, but ultimately could not locate it. Sitindustries subsequently sued Antonella and Brenman in Switzerland and Canada to recover the Hawksbay ten million. That suit is not part of this case.