Hague Court overturned the decision to pay $ 50 billion to shareholders of Yukos – RBC
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The District court The Hague overturned a decision to pay $ 50 billion to shareholders of Yukos, said the court’s website. He found that the arbitration was not competent to hear complaints of this kind
The District Court of The Hague quashed the historic decision of the Permanent Court of Arbitration, in 2014 ordered Russia to pay $ 50 billion to the former shareholders of Yukos – Hulley Enterprises, Yukos Universal and Veteran Petroleum, follows from the text of the decision on the court’s website.
The District court of The Hague agreed with the arguments of Russia, recognizing that the arbitral tribunal did not have jurisdiction to consider the dispute within the framework of the Energy Charter Treaty, which Russia has signed but not ratified. Each of the plaintiffs (Hulley, Yukos and Veteran) is obliged to reimburse the legal costs Russia to € 16.8 thousand. (In total -. To € 50.4 thousand), according to a court decision
«Our complaint. the decision of arbitration at The Hague to pay $ 50 billion is completely satisfied, “- said the representative of the Russian authorities in the Hague court (by” Interfax quoted “). According to him, the court found that the arbitration is not competent to deal with such kind of actions. “Today’s decision is the abolition of the requirement to pay Russia billions of dollars of compensation,” – said the agency
The decision of the District Court of The Hague gives grounds for removal of arrest from the locked shareholders of Yukos Russian assets abroad, he told “Interfax” a source. familiar with the situation. However, litigation will continue: former shareholders appeal against today’s decision in the appeal court of The Hague. “We will appeal this unexpected decision of the Hague Court and are fully confident that the law and justice finally prevail”, – said the head of GML (represents the interests of the former majority shareholders of Yukos) Tim Osborne, according to
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in November 2014 Russia has submitted to the district court of The Hague (the location of the international arbitration) an application for annulment of the 50-billion compensation to the shareholders of Yukos. According to the rules, the local court could not and did not have to revise the award on the merits – only on the grounds of procedural and jurisdictional. Protection of Russia, in particular, argued that the tribunal had no right to consider the claims of shareholders of Yukos by the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), because Russia has signed the Energy Charter Treaty (1994), but has not ratified and because the claimant company the beginning of their investment in Yukos were only dummy offshore companies, which always stood Russian “oligarchs” (Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Leonid Nevzlin and others) – in other words, were not genuine and conscientious foreign investors. Particular attention is Russia also noted that the arbitrators did not fulfill personally their mandate: on the Russian defense case, assistant trial Martin Valasek actually played the role of the fourth arbitrator, writing the bulk of the solution
«This internal Russian affair – Russia’s tax. dispute between Russian oligarchs and the Russian Federation concerning the Russian tax measures against the Russian company “- that explain why the Hague arbitration should not consider the case of Yukos, the Russian lawyer Jan van den Berg, at the hearing on February 9
While in the Netherlands, the local court studied the validity of the decision of the Hague arbitration, shareholders YUKOS start the process in six countries – Belgium, France, Great Britain, Germany, the United States and India – with the aim of forcibly collect from Russia $ 50 billion in. France and Belgium the local legislation allowed the shareholders to immediately seize Russian assets, but pick and sell their public auction is not yet possible: go the courts. The Hague arbitration, it went almost 10 years, and the head of GML (owned companies plaintiffs) Tim Osborne expects the same number can take to bring a verdict in the execution, he told Forbes in August, 2014. Theoretically, GML can go with the decision of the arbitration courts 150 member countries of the New York Convention.
Last year, the Russian Foreign Ministry informed the governments of Belgium, France and the United States that Moscow may respond to possible confiscation of the Russian property in these countries is “proportional” measures in its territory.
As the Netherlands court sided Russia, most countries can refuse to execute the arbitration decision in favor of Yukos. Most, but not all. In some jurisdictions, particularly in France, the international arbitration decision is treated as an “act of international justice” irrevocable local court of the country, where by coincidence placed one or another international tribunal. French courts did not take into account the process of the Dutch court, so the former Yukos shareholders were able to arrest suitable assets in France, without regard to the Hague District Court. In such countries as Belgium, United States, United Kingdom, local courts may permit the award, canceled the country’s arbitration-based, but rather as an exception.
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