Moldovan authorities won a trial with a Russian-covered company related to the fugitive oligarch Ilan Shor in the Arbitration Court of Stockholm.
An aeroplane is seen on the runway after landing in the background of the International Airport of Chisinau, Moldova, on September 27, 2016. Photo: EPA/DUMITRU DORU.
Moldova won the lawsuit filed at the Arbitration Court of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce by the offshore company from Cyprus that manages the Chisinau International Airport, Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd.
Komaksavia requested from the state in 2020 compensation of over 883.7 million euros after the Public Property Agency of Moldova, APP, terminated on July 8, 2020, the 49-year contract for the concession of assets and land related to the Chisinau International Airport.
The Moldovan authorities motivated the decision by saying the company had not fulfilled its investment commitments from the contract signed in 2013, which amounted in 2020 to 66.2 million euros.
“The Stockholm Court rejected these requests and ruled that Komaksavia did not make any investment in the assets of the Chisinau International Airport”, announced the Justice minister, Sergiu Litvinenco, on Wednesday evening.
Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd is the majority shareholder in Avia Invest, with a 95 per cent stake, the company that manages the Chisinau International Airport, concessioned in 2013 by a controversial decision by the government of former prime minister Iurie Leanca.
Before becoming the Cypriot offshore – Komaksavia Airport Invest Ltd, the company was registered in Moscow until September 2016, with the name Komaksavia OOO.
The General Prosecutors Office announced at the end of last month that former Moldovan Prime Minister Iurie Leanca is under criminal investigation in the Chisinau International Airport concession case after the prosecutors summoned him for hearings on July 22.
Leancă was prime minister at the time of signing the Chisinau International Airport concession agreement, and the decision was taken during a meeting of his cabinet of ministers.
The Avia Invest Board of Directors President was the controversial oligarch and fugitive politician in Israel, Ilan Shor.
Shor was convicted in the first instance in the “grand theft of billion dollars” case and was considered the mastermind of this heist from three private Moldovan banks between 2012-2014, which the National Bank of Moldova guaranteed.
At the same time, the Arbitration Court of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce awarded Moldova the sum of 216,678.75 euros compensation for the expenses of the international arbitration process.
Source link: balkaninsight.com
