Holland Car clients lobby for extradition of its founder Tadesse Tessema

Clients of the defunct car assembly plant based in Ethiopia, Holland Car, are pushing for the extradition of its founder and managing director, Tadesse Tessema (Eng.), to answer to government and the public about the bankruptcy of the car assembly plant.

Sources close to the matter told The Reporter that many of the clients that are pushing for Tadesse's extradition are also those who are going through the formal court process to recover their advance and full payments made to purchase cars assembled by Holland car. By that time, Tadesse had left the country, to the Netherlands, and Holland Car declared bankruptcy; the assembly line had some 100 clients who had placed orders to acquire the cars and had made payments. However, after having to wait for their cars for an extended amount of time, these clients finally learnt that Tadesse was filing for bankruptcy and that there was a chance they might not be covered by Holland Car’s remaining assets.

Consequently, the group of clients is insisting that Tadesse answer questions regarding the bankruptcy and circumstances surrounding the collapse of the first car assembly plant in the country. Furthermore, sources also indicate that efforts are being made to locate Tadesse and bring him back via the Federal Police and Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The claims of the clients, however, go much further than Tadesse offering explanations as to how he ran his company to bankruptcy; in fact, some of them seemed convinced that Tadesse’s declaration of bankruptcy was bogus and that the company, in fact, has assets that are concealed by the individual. Similarly, some of them also claim that Tadesse has used the advance and full payments he received from his customers for other purposes and, for that, he has to be held accountable. Hence, the government is responsible for bringing such indiscretion to justice, they argued.

Four months ago, Tadesse, via teleconference from Holland, broke the news that his company had finally gone under because of the huge investment cost that he had incurred in setting up the public transportation vehicle assembly line he built convinced that Holland Car would be supplying buses for the city. On the other hand, the unprecedented devaluation of September 2010 was also another factor, Tadesse said at the time.    
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