On April 12, state oil company Ukrnafta won a ruling forcing Russia to pay $44.5 million compensation for expropriation of the company’s property in Crimea.
In the case started on June 15, 2015, the company successfully argued before the arbitral tribunal in Switzerland that in April 2014 Russia seized its administrative office in Crimea as well as 16 petrol stations
The tribunal accepted jurisdiction in June 2017 and the Supreme Court of Switzerland upheld the ruling on jurisdiction in October 2018.
The company’s legal counsel, Yehor Serov, said that “any assets used by the borrower, that is the Russian Federation, for commercial purposes” could be used for collecting the compensation.
Those include Russia-owned banks Prominvestbank, Sberbank Ukraine, and VTB Bank Ukraine. Everest Estate and 18 other co-claimants targeted the shares of these banks in Ukraine last year after receiving a similar arbitral award.
Ukrnafta is jointly owned by the state of Ukraine as a majority shareholder (50% +1 share) and the business entities connected to oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky.
