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Azerbaijan will wait for a final decision on FIM Bankâ€™s lawsuit by yearend

29 October 2009 13:50 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Aynur Veliyeva â€“ APA-ECONOMICS. At its next sitting on October 6, Rotterdam Court didnâ€™t pass a final decision on the lawsuit filed by FIM Bank of Malta against the Government of Azerbaijan.

Bakhtiyar Mammadov, lawyer of Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, said the bank proposed two more witnesses for supporting its claim.

So, the court postponed the trail until the yearend for the testimony and examination of claims.

On December 24, 2008 the court had accepted Azerbaijan evidence, but offered a grace to FIM Bank for cogent evidence and convincing witness testimony.

The claimant is represented by Loyens & Loeff, and the government of Azerbaijan is defended by Eversheds Faasen.

During more than four-year trial, four court decisions have been made in favor of Azerbaijan, lifting the arrest on Azerbaijanâ€™s 50,000 shares worth $400,000 in New Skies Satallites N.V and a $1.1 million stake in Bermuda-registered Intersat Ltd..

The problem stemmed from the fact that several years ago Azerbaijan-based Pochtbank applied to FIM Bank for a loan to pay its debts. FIM Bank demanded official documents on the behalf of Azerbaijan. Pochtbank submitted counterfeit documents to get the loan. Although FIM Bank had found that the documents were fake, it lent the loan on the mutual consent.

The forged documents submitted to FIM Bank indicated that the loan would be used for procurement of equipment of alleged AzTell and BakTell owned by the Communications Ministry of Azerbaijan and the ministry allegedly provided guarantee for repayment (these companies didnâ€™t exist in fact). Pochtbank failed to repay the loan which was borrowed through counterfeit documents.

Hoping to take the lost money from the Government of Azerbaijan, FIM Bank made lawsuits against the country in various countries.