Akhmedova v Akhmedov & Ors

Shortly after the grant of the freezing order, the Wife’s Liechtenstein lawyers received copies of judgments issued by the Constitutional Court in respect of the complaints by Counselor and Sobaldo relating to the freezing and document seizure orders addressed to Bendura Bank (see paragraph 30 of my earlier judgment); and the complaints by various parties against the Wife being granted “private party” status in the criminal proceedings and the order permitting her to inspect documents.

In respect of the freezing and document seizure orders, the Court rejected the complaints and upheld the orders. I have read its judgment which provides certain additional and relevant information about the criminal proceedings, namely:

I accept Mr Willan’s submission that this information supports the inferences which the Wife invited me to draw at the without notice hearing particularly that (a) the Genus Trust was initially set up to receive the Monetary Assets and (b) those assets were then transferred through other trusts associated with the Husband with substantial amounts being paid back to him. Moreover, this information suggests that there are probably still valuable assets in Liechtenstein given that the FIU blocked the transfer of US$120 million by the Carnation Trust.

Separately, the Constitutional Court rejected the complaints from Qubo 1, Qubo 2 and WalPart objecting to the Wife’s private party status and access to certain criminal documents on the court file. As a result, she is now able to inspect documents 1-61 on the criminal files.

However, the Wife does not have access to the whole criminal file. Each application to inspect documents on the file needs to identify the documents to be inspected and, as documents are added, further applications become necessary. Each of these applications can be challenged all the way up to the Constitutional Court. Mr Willan told me that the Wife has made applications to access documents 62-282 and documents 283-363. The first application has been granted, in part, by the first instance and the appeal courts but is suspended pending a complaint to the Constitutional Court which may not be determined for another year. The second application has been granted by the first instance report and is presently before the appeal court. Mr Willan submitted that it appears that WalPart and its associated entities intend to exercise every appeal right to delay the Wife’s access to this material.

Following an extended appeals process, Qubo 1 and Qubo 2 have exhausted their ability to challenge the orders requiring third parties to provide information in connection with the freezing orders granted on 28 December 2016. LGT Bank has now confirmed that, as at December 2016, each of Qubo 1 and Qubo 2 held minimal cash balances of about £25,000.

Stabiq, which was the secure storage facility at which it is believed the Artwork is held, has apparently still failed to provide the required information and thus is in breach of its disclosure obligation.

I remind myself that the Wife learned of two of the Liechtenstein trusts from disclosure in New York under 28 US Code 1782. On 16 September 2019, the Husband’s lawyers applied to the Southern District of New York to discharge the orders and to prohibit the Wife from using any of the documents or information acquired in any pending or future proceedings. Mr Willan suggested that the Husband learned of the 1782 relief as a result of seeing the documents related to this application. The Wife’s lawyers filed a response the following day and a ruling is awaited.

Separately, on 30 September 2019, the New York County Court granted summary judgment recognising, in part, this court’s orders of December 2016 against the Husband, Cotor, Qubo 1, Qubo 2, Straight and Avenger. In summary, it recognised the capital element of Haddon-Cave J’s order and dismissed various complaints made by the Respondents against that order.

Mr Willan also told me that the Wife had been granted summary judgment in the Marshall Islands in the sum of £125 million plus interest against Straight. This is stayed for thirty days pending an appeal. This is stayed for thirty days. If there is an appeal by Straight, the judgment will be stayed for longer, but Mr Willan told me that, in those circumstances, Straight is likely to be required to provide security pending the resolution of the appeal in the amount of the summary judgment.

The Wife has received documents relating to the Husband’s affairs, including potentially privileged and/or confidential documents. On 30 September 2019 she issued an application for directions, as indicated at the without notice hearing. This application has not yet been served on the Husband. In order to facilitate the speedy resolution of this application, I made suitable directions of my own motion and fixed an on notice hearing date in early November 2019.

Mr Willan invited me to continue the freezing order. Neither of the Respondents, who were served with notice of this hearing and with the documents supporting the Wife’s application, were present or represented. None of the developments since the order was made have changed matters adversely as far as the Wife’s case is concerned. In fact, the information from the Constitutional Court supports the inferences I was invited to draw at the without notice hearing.

I accept Mr Willan’s submissions. The reasons for granting without notice relief set out in my earlier judgment remain valid and have been reinforced by subsequent events. I have determined that the freezing orders should continue and I so order.