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London court dismisses claim of Surkis family against Poroshenko, Gontareva in PrivatBank nationalization case
(Paragraphs 3-8 have been added, the headline adjusted)
KYIV. Sept 22 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The High Court of Justice in London dismissed a claim of Ihor Surkis and a group of companies against Petro Poroshenko and Valeria Gontareva in the case of the PrivatBank nationalization, demanding compensation for over $350 million.
"Today London court ruling was issued, which completely denied Ihor Surkis and a group of companies owned by his family in a claim for the nationalization of PrivatBank. A claim for over $350 million. The claims were made against fifth president of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and former governor of the National Bank [Valeria] Gontareva. These claims were declared as unfounded by the court," the European Solidarity party’s press service said, citing attorney-at-law of PrivatBank Illia Novikov.
According to him, employees of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry tried to mislead the London court by sending an official letter stating that Ukraine, represented by the Foreign Ministry, had renounced state sovereign immunity in this claim.
"If the court recognized this version, ultimately it would have to pay $350 million plus interest from the budget of Ukraine […]. This letter was signed by Mr. Lukianov, who was the acting secretary of state of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Novikov said.
According to attorney Ihor Holovan, NABU and SBU have grounds to start a pretrial investigation into the origin of this letter in the form of a ruling of the London court.
He said that Surkis will need to compensate court expenses, which amount to over $2 million.
According to a source familiar with the course of litigation regarding PrivatBank, this lawsuit was filed demanding compensation for non-fulfillment of the conditions for the sale of about 25% of the shares of the 1 + 1 television channel to the former head of state.
The plaintiffs in the case were Ihor Surkis and Camerin Investments LLP, Sunnex Investments LLP, Tamplemon Investments LLP, Berlini Commercial LLP, Lumil Investments LLP, Sofinam Investments LLP.