News (#5 May 2018)

Cases

NBU lost action in Privatbank case to Cypriot company

The hearing in the lawsuit filed by Triantal Investments Ltd, a Cypriot company, against the National Bank of Ukraine was held in the District Administrative Court of Kiev. The company required the court to recognize illegal and invalidate the NBU instruction of 17 October 2016, by which the regulator initiated unscheduled inspection of PrivatBank. Furthermore, the results of this inspection provided the basis for the decision of the National Bank to recognize the financial institution as insolvent, which in its turn lead to its nationalization.

It is noted that before the bank’s nationalization, the Cypriots owned 16.8% of its shares.

In this case, third persons were represented by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine and PrivatBank itself. The District Administrative Court recognized the NBU’s actions as illegal and invalidated its instruction to conduct inspection of PrivatBank in
October 2016. The National Bank did not agree with this and filed an appeal on 2 April.

 

Prosecutor’s Office ordered to pay UAH 5 million of moral damage for 12 years of inaction

For the first time in Ukraine, the national court awarded the plaintiff in the civil case with USD 5 million compensation for moral damages caused by the inaction of the the Prosecutor’s Office for 12 years.

This decision of the Appeal Court of Dnipropetrovsk Region was reported by lawyer Natalia Linnik, who posted a photo of introductory and operative parts of the court decision.

 

Wolf of Wall Street producer to pay USD 60 million fine due to non-transparent financing

The producer of the Wolf of Wall Street film has agreed to pay a USD 60 million fine to the US government in response to charges that funds, used to finance this and two other Hollywood films, were made up of money stolen from the Malaysian State Investment Fund.

The lawsuit was settled in September 2017, but the payment amount was announced only now.

Within 30 days, Red Granite Pictures will pay USD 30 million, during the next 180 days — USD 20 million, during another 180 days — the remaining USD 10 million. The settlement terms stipulate that the case against the company will be closed and management will not acknowledge its guilt.

The lawsuit against The Wolf of Wall Street is one of several dozens filed against suspicious assets in the amount of USD 1.7 billion, allegedly received for the funds stolen from Malaysia Development Bhd. The assets include mansions in Beverly Hills, luxury villas in New York, jewelry and works of art.

 

Representatives of Siemens lost appeal in “Crimean turbines” case in Russia

In Russia the 9th Arbitration Court of Appeal upheld the decision of Moscow Arbitration Court, which dismissed a suit against two Rostec structures in the “Crimean turbines” lawsuit filed by Siemens Gas Turbine Technology LLC.

A reminder that Siemens charges the companies Industrial Group “Technopromexport” and VO “Technopromexport” with the allegation that they illegally relocated four turbines to Crimea, supplied for the construction of power plants in Taman.

According to restrictions of sanctions, Siemens was not allowed to use its turbines for electricity production in Crimea, as the EU does not recognize the status of the annexed peninsula.

Siemens demanded the return of the turbines and to declare machinery selling transactions invalid. The company claimed that after its installation, the equipment would lose its value (about EUR 150 million) and required that interim measures be taken in lawsuits, but the court rejected the demand.

In response to the relocation of turbines, the EU introduced additional sanctions against three Russian companies and three individuals.

On 9 April 2018, when speaking at the court session, the Siemens representative stated that the court of first instance had incorrectly applied standards of substantive law when issuing the disputed decision, for which reason, the incorrect decision was taken.

Siemens also claimed that the court ignored the fact that the defendants “did not reasonably deny the fact of agreement execution influenced by fraud”.

 

Court prohibited copying popular “Kievskiy cake” against claim filed by Roshen

The Kiev Economic Court has ruled that Bellaria LLC violated the intellectual property rights owned by the Roshen Confectionery Corporation in terms of using the names “Kievskiy cake” and “Cake Kievskiy”, as well as of elements of the cake packaging design in the form of chestnut leaves (which are traditional to the capital).

The court ruled to destroy all the packaging and labels violating the prohibition, available at the company, as they are easily confused with the packaging of “Kievskiy cake” made by Roshen. The court put forward similar demands to the Auchan hypermarket.

Previously, Roshen explained that the right to label cakes under the mark of
“Kievskiy cake” in Ukraine belongs exclusively to the corporation that owns the trademark series “Kievskiy cake”, both words and combined, as evidenced by the number of Ukrainian certificates for labels for goods and services.

Earlier the corporation stated that they had no claims against  Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket LLC as to production of goods called “Kievskiy cake”, as it is known that the retailer does not carry out such production. In its lawsuit, Roshen asks the court to prohibit Auchan Ukraine Hypermarket LLC, as the company selling the confectionery product “Kievskiy cake” manufactured by Bellaria, as well as the storage and sale of this product.

 

Odessa airport real estate transferred under ARMA administration

The real estate of Odessa international airport and 75% of shares of the company that owns it (Odessa International Airport LLC) were transferred to the National Agency of Ukraine for the finding, tracing and management of assets (ARMA).

The relevant decision on seizure of these assets and their further transfer to ARMA was taken by the investigating judge of Solomensky District Court of Kiev on 29 March 2018, upholding the petition filed by detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and SAPO prosecutors conducting pre-trial investigations in criminal proceedings on abuse of official position by officials of Odessa City Council and Odessa Airport Development LLC.

In particular, the airport building (including two terminals), which has a total area of more than 65,000 sq. m was transferred under ARMA administration.

The seizure of property, whose estimated value is, according to preliminary assessment, about USD 2 billion, will ensure fulfillment of criminal procedure tasks and will become the basis for return of property to the territorial community of Odessa, says NABU.

 

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