Bensadoun answered: "He made a comment about Jason but I can't recollect the exact words."
In his written judgment, High Court Judge A.T. Reyes said Cantor had failed to show it lost more than a "nominal figure" in revenue because of the departures. He also said the defendants had not conspired against Cantor.
"There is not a shred of evidence suggesting that, whether individually or collectively, they had any intention to injure Cantor Hong Kong," he said.
Over lunch in a private room at the members-only American Club two weeks before the court decision, Boyer said he'd helped Lutnick rebuild Cantor after 658 of its employees were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attack.
Rebuilding Cantor
"I respected him as a businessman," said Boyer, who flew back to New York from the firm's London office after 9/11. "I couldn't argue with his work ethic or business acumen."
Motivated by reports of China's rising incomes, Boyer moved to Hong Kong to open Cantor's outpost in the city, in an office he outfitted with a pool table. The firm traded blocks of stock for institutional buyers from the U.S. and Europe, and introduced them to Hong Kong-listed companies that had typically only dealt with local retail buyers.
His relationship with Lutnick began to sour in 2009, Boyer said in an interview. The CEO took a more hands-on approach to the business and Boyer was told that instead of a bonus he'd get a loan that might be forgiven, he said.
"I was caught off guard," Boyer said. "It came out of the blue."
Into the breach stepped Johnson Chun Shun Ko, a self-made businessman who specializes in buying and selling distressed assets, including the failed brokerage that became Reorient. His publicly disclosed holdings in three companies are worth $133 million, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Humble Origins