Ex-owners of PrivatBank ask for time to fight suit heard by London court
Ex-owners of PrivatBank (Kyiv) Ihor Kolomoisky and Hennadiy Boholiubov on November 15, 2019 asked a London judge for more time to file their defenses in the bank suit, law360.co.uk portal has reported.
According to the report, Michael Bools QC, representing Kolomoisky, asked High Court Judge Brian Rawlings to give him until February 25 to file his defense.
However, PrivatBank's lawyer Andrew Hunter QC, said it is "untenable" to suggest that the defendants have not already carried out extensive investigations.
As reported, PrivatBank in December 2017 filed a lawsuit to the High Court of London against owners Kolomoisky and Boholiubov and the companies supposedly belonged to Kolomoisky and Boholiubov or are controlled by them.
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales on October 15 granted the appeal of PrivatBank against the decision of the court of lower instance of December 4 last year on the discrepancy between the jurisdiction of the financial institution's claim against the ex-owners.
The three Lord Justices of Appeal concluded that the bank has a good arguable case to recover the full $1.9 billion 9$3 billion including interest) given in the particulars of claim, and that the worldwide freezing order should remain in place.
It is planned that at the beginning of 2020 there must be a procedural hearing at which a schedule for hearing the lawsuit will be approved. An expert told Interfax-Ukraine that the hearing of the lawsuit on merits is expected no earlier than the second half of 2021.