United States Court of Appeal issues ruling in favour of Moldovagaz stock company, Moldovan government

Chisinau, 24 June /MOLDPRES/ - The Court of Appeal from the United States of the second district (New York) has quashed the ruling by the New York District Court from 1 November 2019 on the reestablishment of the prescription for the recognizing and fulfillment of the arbitration ruling based on the summons on behalf of Gater Assets Limited against the Moldovagaz stock company of Moldova.    

According to the public relations service of Moldovagaz, the overall sum of the debt indicated in the file amounted to 32.5 million dollars, of which 9.86 million dollars represents the basic debt for the natural gas supplied in 1998 to the stock company Gazsnabtranzit (the legal successor being the Moldovagaz stock company) and 22.64 million dollars is the penalty, calculated starting from the 2000 year, with a rate of 6.375 per cent per year.  

According to the text of the ruling by the American Court of Appeal, the Moldovan government does not exercise extended control over the Moldovagaz stock company and neither takes an unfair advantage of the enterprise’s corporate structure. Moreover, the document also reads that the Moldovagaz stock company is an independent legal entity with full rights. Thus, the Moldovagaz stock company confirmed its ‘’status of legal independence.’’  

Gater Assets Limited received the rights of claim from Lloyds Underwriters in 2012, which re-insured a contract on the supply of natural gas for Gazsnabtranzit in 1998. The first decision on the recognizing of the ruling on the recovery of the main debt was issued at the New York District Court in July 2000 and under the ruling by the Court of Appeal of the second district from 22 June 2021, it cannot be enforced.   

The interests of the Moldovagaz stock company were represented by the American law firm, MoloLamken LLP, as well as by a Moldovan lawyer Serghei Covali, selected based on an open international contest. For its part, the Moldovan government’s interests were represented by the legal company Steptoe & Johnson LLP and a Moldovan lawyer, Andrei Bivol. On behalf of the Moldovagaz stock company, the coordination of the legal procedures was carried out by the adviser of the head of the company’s administrative board, Dumitru Melnic.  

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