Aston Boss Stroll Force India dragged to court action

The business partner of Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Masebin, who failed in the bid for Force India, has agreed to defend Aston Martin billionaire leader Beer President Vijay Mallya in the High Court over the acquisition of his bust Formula 1 team.

Lawrence Stroll, who bought the team for m 90 million in 2018, renamed it Racing Point and installed his son Lance in one of its driving seats, denying allegations that “these claims are false” on Saturday night.

They were sworn in by the business partner of Russian fertilizer billionaire Dmitry Masebin, who failed in the auction for Force India.

Team executives, including two senior FRP consultants, have sued CEO Jeff Rowley for negligence and breach of trust in the sales process. Mr Masebin’s son is also a racer.

Dr. Mallya, the head of the liquor maker behind Kingfisher Lager, is fighting to extradite him from the UK to India on fraud charges, which he denies. As his legal issues escalated in 2018, Force India hit a financial crisis and called insolvent experts from the FRP.

In a written statement, Paul Austling, senior independent director of Mr Masebin’s fertilizer company Uralkali, said Mr Stroll had agreed to provide “a corable liquid discharge” as part of Dr Mallya’s bid.

Mr Austling told the High Court in August 2018 about a “confusing” Saturday evening phone call from Dr Mallya in which he said he had reached an agreement with Mr Stroll, which was “significantly” more expensive than what Uralkali had offered.

“I understand him, because in the strange and evasive way he speaks, I have to guess that Mr Lawrence Stroll agreed to pay him a fee … he describes this in a colloquial way, ‘a decent exit.'”