Mel Gibson‘s trip to Guatemala isn’t just to help raise awareness for the plight of the rainforest. No way. Mel is there with the Petra Group, and is an investor in one of their companies called Green Rubber. The purpose is to make money by creating a recyclable rubber. In other words, Mel wants to save the rainforest and make a bundle from it at the same time.
Green Rubber has its own problems. A couple of years ago, Bruce Willis, an other celebrity investor, sued them to get back $900,000 of his $2 million investment. Willis sued Petra and its leaders Datuk Vinod B. Sekhar and Malaysian Prince Tunku Imran. The “Die Hard” star said that he invested $2 million in Green Rubber because the pair promised him there would be an IPO. When it didn’t materialize, Willis got back only $1.1 million. He wanted the other $900,000, too. He claimed he had Vinod evaded him. The case was settled “amicably” in 2008– meaning Willis got his money back said he supported Green Rubber.
Vimod — who is on the Forbes list of richest people in the world–has his own issues.
Last month in Malaysia, the Department of Insolvency tried to jail him for contempt of court. According to the MalaysianInsider.com, Vinod, who was declared a bankrupt by the Kuala Lumpur High Court on June 8, 2005, committed two offences when he became a director of 25 companies and left the country without the permission of the Director-General of Insolvency, under Section 38 of the Bankruptcy Act. Vinod was declared a bankrupt for failing to settle his debt totalling RM12.376 million with credit company Orix Credit Malaysia Sdn Bhd and 11 other companies.”
