In re Asia Mar. Pac., Ltd.

In re Asia Mar. Pac., Ltd.

Opinion

 [*702]  OPINION AND ORDER

VALERIE CAPRONI, United States District Judge:

Asia Maritime Pacific, Ltd. ("Petitioner"), an entity organized under the laws of Hong Kong, petitioned ex parte, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1782, to obtain discovery from various banks and investment companies "for use in pending foreign proceedings and for purposes of locating assets of Arma Shipping & Chartering Co." ("Arma"). Pet. at 1. Arma is alleged to be "a trading company with no significant hard assets held in its name." Su Decl. ¶ 21. Arma failed to appear in a London arbitration that was commenced by Petitioner seeking damages flowing from Arma's alleged breach of a maritime charterparty agreement. Id. ¶¶ 16-17.

Petitioner provided no basis to believe that Arma has ever engaged in a financial transaction with any particular bank in New York, but the proposed order would permit it to serve subpoenas on sixteen very large banks that have branches in New York City.¹ The proposed order casts a wide net, directing the banks to produce, [**2]  essentially, any document that relates to  [*703]  any financial transaction involving Arma in which the bank was the "originator, intermediary or beneficiary bank," as well as "detailed account statements," and the identity of persons with authority over any Arma account at the bank, from January 1, 2014, until the date of the proposed order.

Petitioner apparently believes that if enough large banks search their electronically-stored information, the identity and location of assets belonging to Arma are bound to surface. The Court declines to lend its subpoena power to this fishing expedition. The petition is DENIED.

BACKGROUND²

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