Global Voice Group SA v Republic of Guinea - United States District Court for the District of Columbia Case No 1-22-cv-02100 - Complaint - 15 July 2022
Country
Year
2022
Summary
Global Voice Group SA (Seychelles) v. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Guinea (Guinea) and The Republic of Guinea (Guinea), in ICC Case No. 22467/DDA
NATURE OF THE ACTION
1. Plaintiff GVG is a company incorporated under the law of the Seychelles that provides monitoring and supervising consulting services to the finance and telecom sectors and to governments and State entities.
2. On May 22, 2009, Plaintiff GVG contracted with Guinea and The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Guinea ("PTRA") to provide and install control tools to enable Guinea to view and tax all international telecommunications traffic. Declaration of Marianne Kecsmar ("Kecsmar Decl.") ¶ 9, Exhibit C ("Partnership Agreement").1 The PTRA is supervised by Guinea's Ministry of Telecommunications and New Information Technologies. Kecsmar Decl. ¶ 9, Exhibit B, p. 2. GVG provided the contracted for services, which Guinea and the PTRA accepted. Guinea and the PTRA then breached the Partnership Agreement by refusing to pay GVG for the services GVG had provided and by wrongfully terminating the agreement. Kecsmar Decl. ¶ 11; Exhibit A, ¶¶ 238, 294, 380 d.
3. The Partnership Agreement contains an arbitration clause governed by the United Nations Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, dated June 10, 1958 (the "New York Convention"). Kecsmar Decl. ¶ 10; Ex. C, Art. 17 ("Arbitration Agreement"). Pursuant to the Arbitration Agreement, the International Chamber of Commerce's International Court of Arbitration ("ICC") in Paris, France, duly-constituted an arbitral tribunal ("Arbitration Tribunal") in proceedings captioned Global Voice Group SA (Seychelles) v. The Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Guinea (Guinea) and The Republic of Guinea (Guinea), in ICC Case No. 22467/DDA (the "Arbitration"). Kecsmar Decl., ¶ 7.2
4. Guinea and the PTRA were represented by sophisticated counsel and fully participated in the Arbitration. Id. at ¶¶ 13-14. The hearing was conducted in Paris, France, the legal seat of the Arbitration. Id. at ¶¶ 7, 14.
5. On July 18, 2019, the Arbitration Tribunal issued a final award, which found Guinea and the PTRA jointly and severally liable to GVG under the Partnership Agreement, awarding GVG more than $20 million in damages. Id. at ¶¶ 7, 15-16, 19, 26, Ex. A ("Final Award") ¶ 380 f. and h., Ex. B at ¶¶ 133-134, p. 19 (4-, 5-).
6. On September 5, 2020, Guinea and the PTRA sought to annul the Final Award before the Court of Appeal of Paris ("Paris Court of Appeal"). Kecsmar Decl. ¶ 20. On September 6, 2020, Guinea and the PTRA filed a corrected action challenging the Final Award.
Id. The two actions were merged by the Paris Court of Appeal into a single action on September 15, 2020, under action number 19/17531. Id. On September 7, 2021, the Paris Court of Appeal rejected all of Guinea's and PTRA's alleged bases for annulment, recognized the Final Award, awarded GVG its legal costs, and dismissed the case. Id. at ¶¶ 21-23, Ex. B (the "Paris Court of Appeal Judgment") ¶¶ 35-36, 53-54, 64, 105, 115, 132-134 and p. 19.
7. Neither Guinea nor PTRA have paid the amounts awarded to GVG. Kecsmar Decl. ¶ 25. Therefore, GVG seeks to recognize and enforce the Final Award as provided for by the New York Convention and the Federal Arbitration Act; and seeks to recognize and enforce the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment pursuant to the District of Columbia's Uniform Foreign- Country Money Judgments Recognition Act of 2011, D.C. Code §§ 15-361, et seq. ("D.C.
Recognition Act").
8. Although Guinea is a foreign state, it is not immune from jurisdiction in this action to confirm the Final Award, and to recognize the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment based on the Final Award. Guinea entered into a binding agreement to arbitrate the parties' disputes that is governed by the New York Convention, which means that two separate exceptions to Guinea's sovereign immunity under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act ("FSIA") apply: the waiver exception and the arbitration exception. 28 U.S.C. § 1605(a)(1), (6).
9. For the reasons set forth in this Complaint, both the Final Award and the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment should be recognized and enforced as a judgment of this Court.
...
DEMAND FOR RELIEF
WHEREFORE, GVG requests that this Court enter an Order:
(a) Recognizing and enforcing the Final Award against Guinea pursuant to the New York Convention;
(b) Recognizing and enforcing the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment pursuant to the D.C. Recognition Act;
(c) Entering judgment in favor of Plaintiff GVG and against Defendant Guinea based on the Final Award and the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment in the following amounts:
1. USD 6,824,441.28, plus simple interest at a rate of 2% per annum from June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015, for the outstanding invoices as set forth in the Final Award;
2. USD 14,973,258.19 plus simple interest at a rate of 2% per annum for the period June 1, 2015 to May 22, 2017, for the amounts due in this time period as set forth in the Final Award;
3. The following sums, bearing simple interest at a rate of 2% per annum from July 18, 2019, the date of the Final Award, until full payment by Guinea, as set forth in the Final Award:
a. USD 90,500.00 for the ICC fees;
b. EUR 85,887.08 for fees and disbursements;
c. EUR 2,967.20 for logistics costs;
d. EUR 4,678.23 for travel expenses;
e. USD 326,965.49 for GVG's legal fees;
4. EUR 200,000 for Plaintiff GVG's legal fees and costs in the action before the Paris Court of Appeal, as ordered in the Paris Court of Appeal Judgment;
(d) Awarding post-judgment interest on the above amounts from the date this Court enters judgment;
(e) Awarding Plaintiff its costs, including legal fees, for the present action; and
(f) Awarding such other and further relief as the Court deems appropriate.
Dated: July 15, 2022
...
