By decision of the Ukrainian government, Sense Bank will be nationalized in the summer of 2023; it will remain under state control until the end of martial law in the country.
ABH Holdings SA, the official representative of the structures of the former Alfa-Bank, has filed a lawsuit against Ukraine and is demanding compensation for damages from the nationalization of Sense Bank (formerly Alfa-Bank Ukraine), called by company “illegal expropriation.” .” The company estimated the cost of the damage at more than a billion dollars. The company’s press service reported this on Friday, January 5.
The legal basis of the claim is the agreement between the Belgo-Luxembourg Economic Union and the Government of Ukraine on the mutual attraction and protection of investments.
“The claim was filed with the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), the world’s leading body for the settlement of investor-state disputes under the auspices of the World Bank in Washington, DC,” the statement said.
According to ABH Holdings, Ukraine “illegally stripped” the bank of its owners, beneficiaries and shareholders and forcibly nationalized it, “combining methods of corporate raiding and military profiteering.” In addition, according to ABH Holdings, the Ukrainian authorities have launched a campaign to discredit the bank’s main shareholders, allegedly using “black PR” methods against them.
The shareholders of ABH Holdings include the co-founders of the Russian company Alfa Group, Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven. The Ukrainian branch of Alfa-Bank was renamed Sense Bank after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sense Bank was nationalized in Ukraine in the summer of 2023. The state, represented by the Ministry of Finance, acquired the bank for 1 Hryvnia. The National Bank of Ukraine cited Fridman and Aven’s connection to Russia, as well as personal sanctions against them, as the reason for the nationalization of the definition.
In December 2023, the SBU placed Fridman on the wanted list. According to the SBU, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Fridman has invested almost two billion rubles in several military factories in the Russian Federation. Among other things, we are talking about the Tula Cartridge Plant and the Ural Optical-Mechanical Plant named Yalamov, which produces high-tech equipment for Russian combat aircraft and helicopters.
We previously wrote that Mikhail Fridman and another Russian billionaire Petr Aven called their billion-dollar investments in European countries a mistake.
As is known, in March 2022, Aven and Fridman were subject to sanctions from the EU and Great Britain, and in August 2023, they were blacklisted by the US Treasury Department.
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Source: korrespondent
I’m Liza Grey, an experienced news writer and author at the Buna Times. I specialize in writing about economic issues, with a focus on uncovering stories that have a positive impact on society. With over seven years of experience in the news industry, I am highly knowledgeable about current events and the ways in which they affect our daily lives.