Kyiv, February 3, 2012. Yesterday the Kyiv City Commercial Appeals Court held a hearing of an appeal claim filed in case 35/465 for the recovery of $45.2 million from the Ukraina department store. The evidence used in the case is a series of debt agreements entered into by Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A., signed with the forged signature of the director/owner Peter Darragh Quinn – a fact he has confirmed under oath. The panel of judges has denied the authorized representative appointed by Ukraina Acting Director Rostislav Levinzon the right to represent the shopping mall and rescheduled the further hearing of the case to February 9. "The history of the misappropriation of the property rights for the Ukraina shopping mall has been accompanied by a series of forgeries and breaches of procedure in the Kyiv City Commercial Court. The latest fact, to which we have drawn the attention of the judges, testifies that the signature of Peter Darragh Quinn on the agreements of cession, referred to by Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A., is a forgery. Mr. Quinn has personally made a statement to confirm this, saying he never entered into these agreements. Notwithstanding these facts, the Kyiv City Commercial Court has allowed a claim to be based on a forged document. In addition, the court has denied the representative of the lawfully appointed acting director of the mall, Rostislav Levinzon, the right to participate in the proceedings, while ruling that the claimant be represented by the person authorized by the dismissed former management of the company," summarized the representative of the law firm Magisters Arsen Milyutin. This is not the first hearing of case 35/465, Lyndhurst Development Trading S.A. versus the Ukraina shopping mall. The previous hearing of 23 January 2012 was rescheduled due to the alleged ill health of then Presiding Judge O.I. Loban. Notably, the decision to reschedule the hearing of case 35/465 to February 1, 2012 was accompanied by the replacement of not only the judge, but of the entire panel of three judges (O.I. Loban, B.O. Tkachenko, R.V. Fedorchuk). The making of the decision in the present case was entrusted to judges P.V. Avdeyev, N.M. Korshun and V.V. Kuksov. The representatives of the claimant, IBRC and the majority shareholder of the Mall, Quinn Holdings Sweden AB (QHS) are also taking part in the proceedings in the case No 35/465. "We are doing everything possible to protect, by lawful means, the rights and interests of the foreign investors with respect to the mall and to prevent the illegal dispossession of the property rights to this asset", stated Arsen Milyutin. 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 Britain. At the moment, the bank is being forced to actively assert its rights and lawful interests in the suits that were 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. 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 Ukraina, a publicly held company in Kyiv, Ukraine. Currently QHS holds nearly 93% of the company's stock. For additional information, contact: Oleksiy Syvak, Senior Advisor, CFC Consulting +38(044) 492-75-99 or [email protected]
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