backKing & Spalding, together with leading Belgian law firm NautaDutilh, have successfully represented several Moldovan oil and gas investors (the "Stati Parties") in a landmark US$545 million Belgian court ruling relating to a multi-jurisdictional enforcement saga against the Republic of Kazakhstan.
The case – National Bank of Kazakhstan & the Republic of Kazakhstan v The Bank of New York Mellon, Anatolie Stati and Ors – is in its eighth year.
The Brussels Court of Appeal on June 29, 2021, dismissed all of the appeals by the Republic of Kazakhstan and the National Bank of Kazakhstan against an attachment order in relation to certain property of Kazakhstan’s National Fund. These included grounds in relation to state immunity and that the award had been allegedly procured by fraud. As a result of the ruling, the attachment order - originally granted in favour of our clients in October 2017 and presently estimated to equal US$545 million - remains fully intact.
This landmark decision to set to create an important international precedent in the areas of state immunity, central bank property, abuse of rights by the judgment debtor, third party attachments and territoriality of enforcement measures, among others.
The case relates to global enforcement-related proceedings which stem from a US$545 million Energy Charter Treaty award rendered against the Republic of Kazakhstan in December 2013 in favour of the Stati Parties, represented by a multi-office King & Spalding team.
To see previous coverage of this matter at King & Spalding see here.
Please find the judgment (in its original Dutch version and English translation) here.