Judges of the Kyiv Appellate Court last week left unchanged a May 4, 2012 decision of the Shevchenkivskiy Distrcit Court to return an apartment in central Kyiv to its American owner.
Leonel
Trevino, an international business professor at Loyola University New
Orleans, alleges
that a group of criminals stole the 6A
Mykhailivska Street apartment
from him using forged documents, a rubber stamp and a criminal
notary. He has
spent the past five years fighting for the ownership rights to the
apartment, for which he paid $382,000 in 2007. He said he has paid an
additional $70,000 in legal fees during the ordeal.
The
Appellate Court on May 30 had postponed the decision because an
interpreter was not present for Swedish national Mokhtar Karim, the
current owner of the disputed apartment. Karim wanted to address the
court but does not speak Russian or Ukrainian. In court, he lashed
out at judges, waving what he said were rightful ownership documents
to the Kyiv apartment.
“I
don’t understand this,” Karim shouted. “I did everything
correct. I have documents to prove I am the owner. I have lost my
money and my job because of this. This is not just an apartment; this
is my life.”
He
told the Kyiv Post after the May 30 hearing that on top of the
$253,000 he paid for the apartment in 2009, he has invested about
$100,000 in renovations.
Trevino
was not present in court on May 30 when it postponed the hearing, or
on June 25, when it upheld the district court’s decision. But he
told the Kyiv Post by email that he was pleased with the recent court
decision.
“It
is excellent news,” Trevino said. “I am pleased and look forward
to taking over my apartment with State Enforcement Agency.”
But
if history is any indication, that step may be easier said than done,
according to his lawyer, Maksym Kopeychykov, a partner at Ilyashev &
Partners.
The
2012 court ruling was never enforced, and instead Karim, who
purchased the apartment from a man named Igor Bogdan, who is
suspected of playing a role in the original theft and resale of the
apartment, was allowed to remain in possession of it. Furthermore,
Karim’s lawyers could appeal the decision and postpone the
reclamation.
“We
hope that it will not take more than one month, but we expect that
there will be no smooth process, because (Mokhtar) Karim’s lawyers
would file the cassation appeal and they might challenge every action
performed be the state enforcement officer, which will in turn cause
delays with actual enforcement,” Kopeychykov said.
Kyiv
real estate company Park Lane assisted Karim in purchasing the
apartment four years ago. Karim’s attorneys told the Kyiv Post that
the real estate company looked over the apartment’s history and saw
no discrepancies.
Kopeychykov
said two sales in less than seven months – well under market value
each time – should have raised some eyebrows.
Park
Lane did not respond to Kyiv Post requests for comment.
Ukraine
courts have ruled that the first two sales of the Kyiv apartment in
2008 were done fraudulently. And forensic experts from Ukraine, the
U.S. and Canada have concluded that the first sale used a copy of
Trevino’s signature that was probably forged. Both sales were
notarized by a man convicted at least twice for similar crimes.
Kyiv
Post editor Christopher J. Miller can be reached at
[email protected],
or on Twitter at @ChristopherJM.
