PRESS RELEASE: Richard Woodhouse: We are being cynically robbed of our property

Kyiv, December 26, 2011. Today the official representative of the Irish state-owned bank IBRC Richard Woodhouse made an official statement with respect to the ruling of the judge of the Kyiv City Commercial Court Maria Litvinova, who satisfied the claim of Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A. company against the shopping mall "Ukraina" for the payment of 45.2 mln US dollars. He called it legalized robbery and said he had never encountered such a cynical deprivation of property. Such was the reaction of Richard Woodhouse after the announcement on Friday, December 23, of the decision in the case N35/465 in the Kyiv City Commercial Court. The off-shore company Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A. became the fourth in the group of companies, which obtained the right to demand the re-payment of the debt on the loan, which, as it transpired, was arranged for the shopping mall "Ukraina", and it used this right by initiating a legal action against the Mall two weeks ago. "It was clear to us from the first minutes of the hearing that the decision has already been made and the subsequent actions of judge Litvinova only confirmed it", shared his impressions Dmytro Marchukov, the representative of the "Magisters" attorneys' agency, who acted in the interests of IBRC in the proceedings. "We don't understand why the representatives of the public company Univermag "Ukraina", who, unlike Larysa Yanez Puga, have not accepted the claims of the off-shore company, were not allowed to participate in the hearing. We were also stricken by how quickly the judge was able to examine the case and hand down the judgment - it took her only two hearings with a one day break between them." The key representative of the bank Richard Woodhouse was outraged most of all by the fact that judge Litvinova has ordered the payment of 45.2 million US dollars to the off-shore company Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A. even after she had been informed about the decision of the High Court of the Northern Ireland of December 23, 2011, by which it prohibited Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A. from claiming this money, and that the breach of this decision would entail criminal liability for this company. Unable to resist the lawlessness in the Kyiv City Commercial Court, the management of the Irish state-owned bank IBRC and the representatives of the majority shareholder of the shopping mall "Ukraina", the Swedish company Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS), have turned for support to the Ukrainian business community and to the Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov. "We are basically facing the Ukrainian court system, which in essence, acts as a tool of legalized robbery of foreign investors, and we are all seeing it on the example of the cynical deprivation of property of the shopping mall "Ukraina", stated Richard Woodhouse. As has been clarified by the representatives of the "Magisters" attorneys' agency, who are protecting the rights of the Irish state-owned bank IBRC and the majority shareholder of the mall the QHS company, the ruling of judge Litvinova is a part of a complex scheme, which aims to unlawfully change the ownership of the "Ukraina" mall. "The next step could be the blocking of the company's accounts and its forced bankruptcy. We continue to defend the rights of our clients by all lawful means, yet it is not the first time that we face the decisions of the Commercial Court concerning the shopping mall "Ukraina" which we cannot explain from the point of view of the adherence to the rule of law", commented the lawyers from the "Magisters" attorneys' agency. Quinn Holdings Sweden AB was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Stockholm. Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS) is the majority shareholder of PAT Univermag Ukraine, a publicly held company in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently QHS holds nearly 93% of the company’s stock. IBRC (Irish Bank Resolution Corporation) is a financial institution that is fully owned by the Republic of Ireland and thus, indirectly, by all Irish taxpayers. Prior to a name change on October 14, 2011, IBRC was known as the Anglo Irish Bank Corporation Limited. Founded in 1964 in Dublin, the company continues to have its headquarters there today, with offices in other cities in Ireland and Great Britain. At the moment, the Bank is being forced to actively assert its rights and lawful interests in the suits that have been initiated very recently in the Commercial Court of the City of Kyiv with the purpose of removing encumbrances on assets that have been placed under lien in the Bank’s favor. For additional information, contact: Oleksiy Syvak, Senior Advisor, CFC Consulting +38 (044) 492-75-99 or [email protected]
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