Following Tan Sri Tony Fernandes' sale of the Caterham F1 Team to a consortium of Swiss and Middle Eastern investors in July, all has not exactly been smooth sailing, if reports are to be believed.
In its first month of new ownership, a group of individuals were reported to have claimed unfair dismissal from the F1 team, and there were also allegations that its staff had not been paid their July salaries, to which Caterham F1 said was "wholly untrue" in a statement.
A few months later, Caterham Sports Limited (CSL), the 1Malaysia Racing Team-operated company that builds racing cars for the F1 team, went into administration, placing 200 jobs and its base in Leafield, Oxfordshire in uncertainty. Bailiffs had reportedly seized various items from the Leafield site.
Fernandes' Caterham Group (comprising Cars, Technology & Innovation and Composites) proceeded to release a statement in early October saying that it "has no affiliation with Caterham F1 Team," and that the bailiffs' actions had "no bearing whatsoever on the car company or any of its affiliate business arms."
More recently, Caterham F1 released a statement, effectively accusing former owner Fernandes of not transferring shares to the new owners. It said CSL's administrators were appointed on behalf of Export-Import Bank of Malaysia (Exim Bank), a creditor of Fernandes and the Caterham Group, and that the administrators' appointment had negatively affected the F1 team's activities.
Caterham F1's new owners, Engavest SA, said that they were now forced to explore all options including the withdrawal of the management team, and that lawyers will bring claims against all parties to the effect that Fernandes will run the F1 team "as an owner."
The AirAsia founder told the BBC that the statement was "garbage," and in response to a question by a Twitter follower, he tweeted: "If you buy something you should pay for it. Quite simple."
Fernandes and Caterham Group CEO Graham Macdonald issued a joint statement yesterday, claiming that the new owners of the F1 team have not fulfilled the conditions necessary for the transfer of shares, including paying "all of the existing and future creditors, including the staff."
The statement claimed that Caterham Group's lawyers have asked Engavest several times to comply with the conditions, but to no avail. "Not only have they failed to pay the creditors (and have even left our shareholders to pay some of the creditors on their behalf), but they have failed to pay us anything for use of our factory and site, or anything for the use our brand name. In short the new owners have paid us nothing and now the administrators have been appointed they want to walk away from their liabilities," Macdonald stated.
The war of words continues. Engavest SA has hit back in another statement, refuting the allegations and saying it has met every single one of its conditions in the S&P agreement, as well as paid all salaries.
"Incidents such as a Caterham Group representative forcibly breaking into a filing cabinet containing our private and confidential documents and the continued refusal to deal with the outstanding loan of Exim Bank and complete the agreement has culminated in Engavest's total contempt of Mr Fernandes and his Group executives with whom we entered a deal in good faith."
Read the statements in full here.
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