Belgian bailiffs have attached $517mn worth of property of the National Fund of the Republic of Kazakhstan, which is managed by the Brussels branch of the Bank of New York Mellon, Moldovan group Ascom controlled by the Stati family announced in a press release on October 24. 

Ascom is thus moving ahead with recovering $500mn from the Kazakh state. Altogether, the value of the attached property of Kazakhstan in Belgium, Sweden, Luxembourg and the Netherlands jurisdictions currently exceeds $5.6bn, Ascom said.

Kazakh officials claim the case is not over and have accused Ascom of fraud and perjury during the legal action that so far resulted in some $500mn in compensation ruled by international courts in favour of the Moldovan company, awarded for its properties being nationalised in Kazakhstan.

After a similar attachment decision was issued by a Swedish bailiff for $100mn on October 19, the Kazakh ministry of justice explained to Tengri News that such decisions are provisional, and the Kazakh ministry also claimed that the case was not over. 

Kazakhstan has appealed the ruling stipulating $500mn compensation in favour of Ascom at the Swedish Supreme Court, the ministry claimed. However, the latest publicly available ruling in the case, issued by the Swedish Court in Svea last December against Kazakhstan’s set aside application, specifies there is no way to appeal the decision. The Kazakh ministry of justice also mentioned to Tengri News a separate case opened by Kazakhstan against Ascom in the US for alleged frauds. 

In an answer emailed to bne IntelliNews on October 25, Ascom confirmed that Kazakhstan indeed submitted an appeal against the decisions of Svea Court to the Swedish Supreme Court in February 2017. It is this appeal that is invoked by Kazakhstan when asking the courts in various jurisdictions “not to hurry up” decisions on Kazakh assets. However, Ascom argues that the ECT [Energy Charter Treaty] Award given on December 19, 2013 is final with no right to appeal, so the appeal to the Swedish Supreme Court by no means prevents attachment of Kazakh assets. Furthermore, the Swedish Supreme Court "issued a decision in favour of Ascom on October 24", the Moldovan company informed without commenting yet on the content of the decision. 

It is unclear whether the Swedish Supreme Court (Sveriges Domstolar) will even consider Kazakhstan’s appeal. Leave to appeal is required for a case to be considered by Sveriges Domstolar. This is granted by the Supreme Court itself, basically only in those cases where it is important to establish a judgment that may provide guidance for the Swedish district courts and courts of appeal.  The "decision in favour of Ascom" mentioned by the Moldovan company might thus be a denial of leave to appeal. Such a ruling would open the door for the sale of Kazakh assets already attached.

“Through a series of transactions with undisclosed affiliated persons and forged financial reports, Stati [family] fraudulently overstated the cost of building a gas processing plant in Kazakhstan by concluding fictitious treaties and committed perjury before an international arbitration tribunal,” the Kazakh Ministry of Justice commented to Tengri News.

The attachment in Belgium is a continuation of the company’s efforts to enforce the judgment of the arbitrators of the Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce of December 19, 2013 against Kazakhstan, Ascom commented.

The latest court decision was part of Stati’s efforts to recover the money he invested before 2010 in two companies holding operating licenses for natural gas fields Borankol and Tolkyn in Kazakhstan, and in developing an LPG plant. Kazakhstan has constantly rejected the accusations and refused to pay supplementary compensation.

Stati claimed his firms in Kazakhstan were nationalised with incomplete compensation and asked for supplementary compensation in 2010 under the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT), an organisation whose member Kazakhstan has been since 1998. The ECT’s Arbitral Tribunal issued its final decision in 2013, ruling that Stati was entitled to $500mn worth of compensation.