A Nordic financial group is raising the stakes in a lawsuit brought against it, claiming dry-bulk player Probulk ‘is not independent of bankrupt Eastwind’.

Bulker operator Probulk Carriers Ltd is not independent of the bankrupt Eastwind group, Nordea Bank executive Colleen Durkin has told a New York state court.

Nordea Bank is striking back hard at a lawsuit by New York’s Probulk, disclosing details of Pro­bulk’s bank transactions after the June 2009 bankruptcy of Eastwind and asking the New York state supreme court to hit the bulker operator with legal sanctions for “asserting frivolous claims”.

Probulk’s