Co-Founder in Court Fight with HB Antwerp
September 11, 23
(IDEX Online) - A co-founder of HB Antwerp says he's taking legal action after he was forced out over what the company says was a "sharp difference in strategic vision and approaches to business".
Managing partner Oded Mansori was part of the team that established HB in 2020 as a technology-driven startup aimed at disrupting diamond cutting and forging innovative deals.
He said, in a press release issued earlier today, that two of his co-founders, Rafael Papismedov and Shai De-Toledo, "took the initiative to deviate from the collective vision and mutual agreements".
Their actions, he said, aimed to remove him, his vision and his capacities from HB. As a result, he said, "a legal process is currently underway in court". He declined to provide further details on the legal action.
HB said in its own press release, issued later in the day, that it had, as of 1 September, "terminated Mr. Oded Mansori's management role in all the HB companies due to a sharp difference in strategic vision and approaches to business."
It said its vision of a business built on honesty, transparency, and ethics, leading to significantly greater profitability and value for all stakeholders, guided the company in all its decisions.
HB said it would not be providing further detail, because of ongoing legal action.
Soon after it was formed, HB signed a deal with Canada-based Lucara to buy all large stones from its Karowe mine, in Botswana, including the 1,758-carat Sewelo, the third largest diamond ever recovered.
In April the government of Botswana took a 24 per cent equity stake in the company, in what the country's president described as a potential "game-changer".
Pic shows Oded Mansori from LinkedIn profile