Ascom Group SA - Anatolie STATI - Gabriel STATI - Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd v The Republic of Kazakhstan - Legal Opinion - Legal Opinion of Christoph Schreuer - 21 January 2020
Country
Year
2020
Summary
1. Counsel for Kazakhstan has asked me for a legal opinion on the question of the effect of false or fraudulent evidence on the Award in Anatolie Stati, Gabriel Stati, Ascom Group SA and Terra Raf Trans Traiding Ltd v. Kazakhstan, SCC Case No. V 116/2010 of 19 December 2013 ("Award").
2. For the purpose of preparing this legal opinion counsel for Kazakhstan has provided me with the following documents:
Arbitration Award dated 19 December 2013
Fourth Witness Statement of Patricia Nacimiento dated 27 August 2015
Swedish Court of Appeal judgment dated 9 December 2016
Fifth Witness Statement of Patricia Nacimiento dated 13 January 2017
Expert Report of Dr Patrick Schöldström
Judgement of Knowles J. dated 6 June 2017
Declaration of P. Carrington dated 1 April 2019
Affidavit of M. Kirtland dated 9 May 2019
Declaration of A. Foerster dated 10 May 2019
KPMG Letter to HSF dated 21 August 2019
KPMG Correspondence received from MoJ 25 October 2019
Report of PricewaterhouseCoopers dated 21 January 2020
Order of the Court of Appeal of Brussels dated 3 December 2019
3. From these documents it transpires that a new set of evidence has become available to Kazakhstan since the date of the Award and up until late October 2019, which reflects that in the arbitration proceedings under the Energy Charter Treaty ("ECT Arbitration") the Stati Parties submitted materially false statements and evidence to obtain the Award in their favour. Among such new evidence is the correspondence between the Stati Parties' former auditors at KPMG Audit LLC ("KPMG"), the Stati Parties and counsel for Kazakhstan in the period of February 2016 and October 2019 ("KPMG Correspondence"). By virtue of the KPMG Correspondence, the auditors withdrew all audit reports issued for twenty six financial statements of Tristan Oil Ltd., Tolkynneftegaz LLP and Kazpolmunay LLP (collectively "Stati Companies") in the period of 2007 - 2009 ("Financial Statements") due to a number of material misrepresentations made by the Stati Parties during the audit process. Additionally, in its letter of 21 August 2019 addressed to Anatolie Stati, KPMG made the following demand: ...
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