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Rotterdam Court to pass a final decision on FIM Bankâ€™s lawsuit against Azerbaijan on December 24

26 November 2008 08:24 (UTC +04:00)

Bakhtiyar Mammadov, the lawyer for Azerbaijanâ€™s Ministry of Communications and Information Technologies, said the decision had been expected on June 18 but postponed because of busy schedule.
He added that FIM Bankâ€™s claim for sustaining the lawsuit is $6.775 million in connection with the arrest of the shares in New Skies Satallites N.V.
Mammadov added that if the court pass a decision in favor of Azerbaijan, 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. will be lifted.
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.