EHT unitholder KP Poh says he didn't keep US$1.9m from Urban Commons' founders

POH Kay Ping, a unitholder of Eagle Hospitality Trust (EHT), has refuted claims by Urban Commons Queensway (UCQ) that he and his company - Poh Altan Resources Company (PARC) - were beneficiaries of funds taken out of an EHT unit.

In response to queries from The Business Times, Mr Poh said the money was transferred to PARC in May 2020 in connection with a "contemplated business transaction".

As the transaction did not proceed by June 2020, Mr Poh said the US$1.9 million was not utilised and the funds were ultimately returned.

In a court filing last month made by UCQ, Mr Poh was listed as a recipient of US$1.9 million transferred by EHT's former directors Howard Wu and Taylor Woods.

The source of the funds was a loan taken out by Mr Wu and Mr Woods on behalf of UCQ under the US Cares Act's Paycheck Protection Programme (PPP).

At the time the application for the loan was made, Mr Wu and Mr Woods were no longer legally in a position to make the application. The pair had also allegedly planned in advance to have the loan proceeds "immediately transferred away from UCQ's bank account the moment the loan was funded".

UCQ had therefore filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to freeze sufficient funds of Mr Wu and Mr Woods to recover US$2.4 million. The motion was denied by a US judge last week.

UCQ is one of the debtor companies within the EHT stable and the owner of The Queen Mary, a floating hotel docked in Long Beach, California.

Mr Wu and Mr Woods are co-founders of Urban Commons, the sponsor of EHT. They stepped down from the board of EHT in May last year, but remain on the board of Urban Commons.

The transfers had allegedly taken place between May 19, 2020 and May 28, 2020. The wire description contained Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation and PARC.

Mr Poh, better known as KP Poh, is the director and chief executive of Tian Poh Resources, a natural resources company headquartered in Australia. The principal activity of the company is the exploration of minerals in Mongolia.

In his responses to BT, Mr Poh termed the footnote a "speculative allegation" that portrayed PARC and himself as beneficiaries of "purported PPP proceeds".

He stated that neither he nor PARC knew anything about Mr Wu and Mr Woods' transferring of funds out of UCQ.

Mr Poh also said he had been in touch with Mr Wu "by virtue of being an EHT unitholder", but does not have personal knowledge whether other unitholders are in touch with Mr Wu or Mr Woods.

"Queenway's allegations ... are recklessly false and inappropriately portray PARC and myself as being complicit in alleged PPP-related fraud," said Mr Poh.

He added that through his US lawyers Brown Rudnick, UCQ's lawyers have been asked to take "affirmative steps to correct the public record".

Mr Poh holds some 1.85 million units in EHT, and is also a member of the executive ad-hoc committee that is fighting to represent the interests of minority unitholders in the EHT debacle.