backKing & Spalding, together with leading Benelux law firm NautaDutilh, have secured another major win on behalf of their Moldovan clients (the “Stati Parties”) in the groundbreaking US$545 million multi-jurisdictional award enforcement dispute against the Republic of Kazakhstan.
On 23 June 2021, the Amsterdam District Court issued its ruling in a сlaim brought by the National Bank of Kazakhstan (NBK) against the Stati Parties in its capacity as the trustee manager of Kazakhstan’s National Fund.
In September 2018, NBK issued a claim against the Stati Parties before the Dutch court alleging that it suffered losses in excess of US$118 million in the wake of a US$22.6 billion attachment (believed to be the largest in legal history) obtained by the Stati Parties in the Netherlands in October 2017 with respect to certain assets of Kazakhstan’s National Fund.
The attachment followed Kazakhstan’s continued refusal to honour a US$545 million final and binding ECT arbitration award rendered in Sweden in December 2013.
The Amsterdam court dismissed the claim on the merits in its entirety by holding that “in this case there is no question of an unlawful attachment leading to risk liability,” that “it cannot be held that the Stati Parties abused their powers,” and that the attachment in question “did not result in the alleged loss” on the part of NBK.
The court also awarded the Stati Parties their legal costs in relation to this matter.
In the meantime, the Stati Parties, represented by King & Spalding as global litigation counsel, have successfully secured and maintain the benefit of various attachments of Kazakhstan’s state assets in the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Sweden, with the combined total value of all attachments worldwide exceeding US$6.25 billion.
The judgment can be found here in English and in Dutch.