Tellurian co-founder Charif Souki on Monday challenged the credibility of Tellurian investor Chris Parker, who recently filed a lawsuit that alleges Souki reneged on a promise to indemnify Parker, who owns about 2% of outstanding stock in the Houston-based natural gas company, after losing tens-of-millions from Tellurian’s decline in share value.
“We did not have those conversations,” Souki said of the alleged indemnification discussions during a phone call Monday with The Texas Lawbook and his lawyer, Tim McConn of Yetter Coleman. “I have never done any business with him (Parker).”
As for everything else in the lawsuit, “the rest is verbiage,” Souki said. “But we’ll find all this out at trial.”
According to court records, McConn accepted service of the lawsuit on behalf of Souki last Monday. McConn and Paul Yetter, who also represents Souki in the matter, first worked with Souki a couple years ago during a high-stakes lawsuit between Souki, his former company, Cheniere Energy (which Souki also founded) and other parties. The parties struck a walkaway deal on the eve of trial, which was set in Harris County District Court in early 2020.
Souki, who was sued late in the litigation, said he chose Yetter Coleman after a long-time lawyer friend recommended the firm to him.
“I think they represented me extremely effectively,” Souki said of McConn and Yetter. “I think the intervention of Tim and Paul convinced them (Cheniere) that maybe they should go away.”
Parker’s lawsuit, filed Jan. 20 in Denver federal court, alleges Souki’s failure to indemnify Parker’s investment losses breached a contract with Parker and Red Mango Enterprises. Red Mango is a private company in which Parker owned additional Tellurian shares. The suit also alleges Souki fraudulently induced Parker to keep his shares for longer when he made the materially false misrepresentations about indemnification and that he unjustly enriched himself by doing so.
According to the lawsuit, Parker resides in Los Angeles and is also a citizen of Grenada. Red Mango is a private company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands.
Souki said he first met Parker in March 2018 and that he “might have seen him a dozen times” since.
“When I met him I was under the impression he was a UK citizen residing in Hong Kong, and that’s about all I knew about him,” Souki said.
“He introduced himself as a shareholder, but he’s neither the first nor last one,” said Souki, referring to Tellurian’s 40,000 shareholders.
Parker, who began investing in Tellurian in 2017, wanted to sell his shares in 2019 after the stock price continued to decline, the lawsuit said, but Souki convinced him to defer until 2020, and — after another meeting in Aspen, Colorado (where Souki resides) — again until the end of 2021. According to the suit, Parker sued after Souki did not commit to paying Parker or fulfilling his obligation at the end of 2021.
“He doesn’t seem to understand how important what we’re doing is,” Souki said. “Especially now with everything happening in the world with Europeans … [and the] rest of the world being short on gas. I’m disappointed that someone who says he’s a large shareholder doesn’t get it … or maybe he doesn’t care.”
Souki said he’s mentioned publicly multiple times, including on a weekly podcast he hosts that’s targeted toward Tellurian investors, that buying shares in Tellurian should be viewed as a long-term investment.
“No one should be under the illusion that things are going to happen quickly. And I’m very clear about this every week,” Souki said. “If [people are] trying to buy Tellurian for a quick trade, then they shouldn’t. … Go find something else to do.”