| Soneva | |
| Type: | Private |
| Founded: | in Maldives |
| Num Locations: | 3 |
| Num Employees: | 722 (2016) |
| Industry: | Hospitality, tourism, hotel |
Soneva, formerly Soneva Resorts and Residences, is a resort chain founded in Maldives in 1995 by Sonu Shivdasani OBE and his wife Eva Malmström Shivdasani.[1]
Soneva started as a resort brand under the company Six Senses BVI, founded by Sonu Shivdasani and Eva Malmström Shivdasani in 1995.
In 2012, the Shivdasanis sold the Six Senses and Evason branded resort and spa management contracts, and related intellectual property rights, to Pegasus Capital Advisors.[2] The Shivdasanis also sold Soneva Gili (now known as Gili Lankanfushi) and concentrated on resorts with residences, as part of the "One Owner, One Operator, One Philosophy, One Brand" strategy under Soneva.[3] Following the change of Maldivian law in December 2010, Soneva Fushi became one of the first resorts in the Maldives to offer residences to foreigners for purchase under leasehold.[4] A 4 bedroom villa at Soneva Fushi was the first leasehold residential property to be sold in the Maldives in March 2011.[5]
Soneva Fushi is regarded as the first luxury hotel in the Maldives, setting of the trend of luxury holidays in the nation.[6] [7] [8] It was the first "Robinson Crusoe" styled resort in the Maldives [9] [10] and also offered the first wine cellar in the Maldives.[11]
In 2018 Sonashah Shivdasani and his Soneva Jani Resort in the Maldives were highlighted in an OCCRP (Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project) report as partners to the former Minister of Tourism in the Maldives, Ahmed Adeeb, who is currently imprisoned for corruption. Soneva is a privately held company of Sonu Shivdasani and his wife Eva Malmstrom Shivdasani. Records show that the Shivdasanis obtained the Maldives island of Medhufaru and its surroundings, now the location of their Soneva Jani resort, via a no-bid contract in 2014. The Shivdasanis were from one of many companies that unlawfully benefited from Adeeb’s activities, all which were headed by politically-connected members of the elite. Ahmed Adeeb, the now imprisoned former tourism minister of the Maldives, leased out over 50 islands and lagoons for tourism development without the public tenders the law of the Maldives normally requires. Tens of millions of dollars worth of these lease fees were then embezzled by Adeeb and his accomplices.[21]
The Soneva Kiri Resort, a privately held company of Sonu Shivdasani and his wife Eva Malmstrom Shivdasani, was not constructed in line with the legal safety standards required, and has been under investigation by the Department of Special Investigation by the Natural Resources and Environment Division in Thailand. The consequences of the resort’s inadequate safety standards were made manifest in March 2022. A massive fire broke out at the Soneva Kiri Resort on Koh Kut island and gutted one of the site’s villas. Charges have been brought against three executives of the resort, including Sonashah Shivdasani. The claims include causing a fire by negligence, causing damages to people’s property, endangering other persons, and allowing others to use the building for hotel business without obtaining a license from the local officials. In a press article (The Nation, 2 July 2022), RTP’s Assistant Commissioner General Sompong Chingduang was quoted as saying: “Investigation revealed that the resort’s Villa 63, where the fire started, had never been inspected for fire safety and that the company had been renting it out to guests without notifying the registrar as required by the Hotel Act of 2004.” . According to press reports Sonu Shivadsani is a fugitive and has refused to appear to face charges.[22] [23] [24]
In March 2021, a case (KSL Capital Partners, case number 1:21-mc-00064, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado) was brought by a Swiss businessman who petitioned under Section 1782 of the U.S. Code — which allows federal courts to order entities in their districts to turn over evidence to be used in certain foreign proceedings - for the court to obtain information from a private equity firm in order to pursue foreign proceedings against Sonu Shivdasani his company Bluebay Resorts (BVI) Ltd. The Swiss businessman Jean Sebastian Ferrer Funke and his company Ecoprivate Business Ltd. alleged that Sonu Shivdasani deceived them into investing in a $6.2 million villa in Thailand and thus filed an ex parte petition for a federal court order to obtain evidence from KSL Capital Partners, a Denver-based private equity firm specializing in travel and leisure enterprises, which participated in a $230 million investment in Sonashah Shivdasani’s Soneva Kiri Resort. Ferrer petitioned for an order under Section 1782 of the U.S. Code — which allows federal courts to order entities in their districts to turn over evidence to be used in certain foreign proceedings — directing KSL Capital Partners to produce documents as the applicants pursue litigation and arbitration against Shivdasani and his company Bluebay Resorts (BVI) Ltd. According to the petition, Ferrer is one of several victims of the alleged Soneva Kiri Resort scheme.
Shivdasani is accused of running a scheme that used Bluebay as a vehicle to fraudulently induce Ferrer and Ecoprivate to purchase a Thai villa and surrounding land at the Soneva Kiri Resort for $6.2 million. However, Shivdasani failed to deliver the property to them, resulting in Ferrer and Ecoprivate requesting access to KSL's documents for use in a contemplated criminal complaint against Shivdasani in Switzerland for fraud and criminal mismanagement, and for Ecoprivate to commence an arbitration proceeding against Bluebay. In a subsequent U.S. discovery action, on 28 July 2023, Ecoprivate Business Ltd. and Jean Sebastian Ferrer Funke (‘Applicants’) were again granted their application in obtaining an order, under 28 U.S.C. § 1782, to serve subpoenas on The Clearing House Payments Company L.L.C., the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Barclays Bank PLC, and HSBC Bank USA, N.A. The Applicants contended that the records they seek are relevant to two foreign proceedings: a contemplated criminal proceeding in Switzerland and a contemplated action to enforce an arbitral award in the United Kingdom.[25] [26] [27]
Soneva owns and manages Soneva Fushi (Baa Atoll) and Soneva Jani (Noonu Atoll) in the Maldives,[28] as well as Soneva Kiri (Koh Kood) in Thailand.
Soneva also owns and manages a two bedroom luxury yacht, the Soneva in Aqua.
Three more locations are underdevelopment, two to be located in the Maldives (one in the North and one in the South) and the other to be on Okinawa, Japan.[29]
The Soneva Foundation is a UK registered charity (number 113811) founded in 2010. It is funded by Soneva's 2% carbon levy on room revenue and profits from the sale of water bottled on the property.
One project is focused on the restoration of forests in northern Thailand, in Chiang Mai where 452,000 trees were planted.[30] [31] [32] A Framework Species Methodology was used, and 90 different species of trees were planted with guidance from the Forest Restoration Research Unit at Chiang Mai University. Three main sites were restored: at Si Lanna National Park, The Royal Project at Nong Hoi, and the Pai River Watershed Wildlife Sanctuary.
The Soneva Foundation has also implemented 488 projects in 53 countries to improve access to safe drinking water or basic sanitation. These projects turned into the WHOLE WORLD Water (WWW) campaign, which was co-founded by the foundation, together with Karena Albers and Jenifer Willig in 2013. Hotels and restaurants who join the campaign filter and bottle their own drinking water in reusable glass bottles, and donate 10 percent of the profits in sales to the WWW fund.[33] [34] In many places including the Maldives, this process saves the property money as they cut down on costs associated with the transportation and disposal of imported plastic-bottled water. Several properties have joined the campaign, including Fairmont Hotels, several Ritz-Carlton properties, Virgin Limited Edition hotels, Raffles Hotels and Auberge du Soleil[35] [36]
The Soneva Foundation also holds the annual SLOW LIFE Symposium, from which WHOLE WORLD Water was formed. Business leaders, scientists, NGOs, renowned thinkers and policy makers convene with the goal of implementing positive change in the world that is also good for business.