Businessman Eduardo Albor, the former director of the water park, faces accusations of fraud and legal disputes over control of the bankrupt company.
Eduardo Albor, the former director of bankrupt water park operator The Dolphin Company, has been arrested in Mexico, authorities said Friday.
Albor was arrested Thursday afternoon at a Cancun restaurant and will be transferred to a jail in Mexico City, arrest records show.
Albor’s arrest stems from a legal action that one of The Dolphin Company’s Mexican subsidiaries filed against him last year after his advisers took control of the company, the company’s lawyer, Sean Greecher, told a judge during a bankruptcy hearing in Delaware on Friday.
What is the former director of The Dolphin Company accused of?
Albor is accused of misleading a Mexican court to try to undermine changes in corporate governance implemented by his advisers last year, Greecher said.
The company has been overseen since last March by lender-backed advisers who have battled Albor for control of the business, which has been hit by financial problems and a spate of dolphin deaths. Last year, Florida authorities said they were investigating one of their parks in Panama City Beach, now closed, for alleged animal abuse.
Albor testified in federal court last year that his top priority was to protect the parks’ hundreds of dolphins and other animals. He has attributed the company’s financial problems to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The former director of The Dolphin Company has fought U.S. lenders in Mexican and U.S. courts for more than a year.
A U.S. bankruptcy judge ordered him to pay $10,000 a day if he did not stop interfering in the company’s operations. Last year, Albor installed credit card readers to divert ticket revenue to partners who still worked at the company. When confronted about the money, he argued that diversion was the only way to avoid affecting the business.
The Rise and Fall of The Dolphin Company
The company was founded in 1994 in Isla Mujeres with four dolphins and later incorporated other nearby parks. Albor, a lawyer, took over in 1999 and continued to add attractions in the Caribbean and Mexico, later expanding to Italy, Argentina, and Florida.
The company filed for court protection last year and has been selling animals and other assets to help pay its creditors.
The case is Leisure Investments Holdings LLC, number 25-10606, in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.
Source: El Financiero
