Hogan Lovells has been successful on behalf of BTA Bank in a significant milestone in one of the biggest fraud cases ever to come before the English courts
As a result of a Court of Appeal decision handed down today Mukhtar Ablyazov is to be debarred from defending BTA Bank’s claims with a combined value of in excess of US$6 billion.
This will permit the bank to enter judgment against him. The bank will now move to enforce against his assets in order to recoup money for the Bank and its creditors; it will also press ahead against the remaining defendants with the trial of three of the actions that is to start in the High Court this week.
Judgment was handed down today from the Court of Appeal in three appeals brought by Mr Ablyazov: (i) against a judgment of Mr Justice Teare finding him guilty of three counts of contempt of court, including lying about his wealth and dealing with his assets in breach of a freezing order (ii) against the three concurrent 22-month custodial sentences imposed against him as a result, and (iii) against the ‘unless order’ whereby Mr Ablyazov is to be debarred from defending the claims made against him, having failed to return to the country and hand himself over to the authorities and having refused to give proper disclosure of his assets to the bank.
Chris Hardman, lead partner on the case at Hogan Lovells, commented: “We welcome this important decision. It is a key step for an important client of the firm that has invested heavily in the English legal system in its attempts to recover the huge sums that it claims were wrongfully taken from it by Mr Ablyazov and his associates. As the BTA Bank proceedings have made abundantly clear, the English courts continue to show that they are willing to develop the application of the law in an attempt to ensure that their orders are not flouted by determined, well-funded, but unscrupulous defendants.
“It is inevitable that frauds will continue to be perpetrated and concealed in ever more ingenious ways; this case goes to show that the courts will keep pace with the modern means deployed by international fraudsters to hide evidence and assets. As the Court of Appeal judgment states today, Mr Ablyazov has had fair hearings and access to the court, to an extraordinary degree, even if he complains about the results. His conduct in giving false testimony, relying on forged documents, fleeing from the committal order and remaining unwilling to face up to the litigation has created a substantial risk to justice. Today’s decision is both fair and necessary.”
The judgment states: “It can be said that Mr Ablyazov has to the end been granted the opportunity for trial, if he complies with the court’s orders, but has chosen to go his own way, and to forfeit the opportunities which have been given him……A litigant who has demonstrated that he is determined to pursue proceedings with the object of preventing a fair trial has forfeited his part to take part in a trial…..Mr Ablyazov has been unconscionable in his refusal to abide by the orders of the court….It cannot be just or fair, or proportionate, to permit a contemnor to avoid the consequences of his contempt by the expedient of disappearing from sight (but not from the ability to communicate with his lawyers)……It is difficult to imagine a party to commercial litigation who has acted with more cynicism, opportunism and deviousness towards court orders than Mr Ablyazov.”
