Norwegian telecommunications company Telenor is almost sure that their real opponents in the long dispute over control of Russia’s VimpelCom are Alfa Group and its owner Mikhail Friedman. This cannot be proved, and Fridman and Alfa deny this fact.
Telenor is now appealing last week legal decision that is to deprive it of 29.9% share in Russia’s mobile operator, which followed Telenor’s rejection to pay $1.7 billion to VimpelCom. Earlier the company appealed a decision of the Russian Arbitration Court, which satisfied the claim of the BVI-based Farimex.
The Telenor-VimpelCom case followed Alfa Group’s case with British oil company BP PLC over their TNK-BP joint venture, which was succeeded by the Russian group, and raised doubt that BP would be able to retain control of TNK-BP.
According to the Norway’s company representatives, Farimex Products, a company with a little stake (0.002 per cent) in mobile company VimpelCom, last year initiated a lawsuit against Telenor as part of a wider effort by Alfa to gain control of their joint assets - VimpelCom in Russia, and Kyivstar in Ukraine.
Alfa is said to have 44 percent of VimpelCom’s stock through its Eco Telecom unit. The director of US-based Firebird management fund manager said that Farimex is very transparently a front for Alfa. Alfa itself rejects any ties with BVI-registered Farimex, but the common view of market observers is that Telenor-VimpelCom suit is an Alfa action.
The BVI-registered billing company Platte International Ltd (earlier known as Micro Bill Systems Ltd), which has attracted attention after consumer complaints about pop-up bills for pornographic websites, has stopped trading in the UK. Its management company Platte International (UK) Ltd has shut down, without explaining the reason. The announcement of this fact came through the written answer in parliament informing the Office of Fair Trading that “Platte would cease trading from 25 February 2009 and Platte International Ltd (British Virgin Islands) ceased marketing to the UK from 2 February 2009. “
Platte International BVI has stopped buying sponsored links on search engines, so UK consumers will not be led to sites that install its software, but its decision to stop operations in the UK became a surprise. Stanly Hiwat, the Brazil-based CEO of the BVI company, did not answer any questions on this matter. However, he confirmed that he had cancelled his “management contract” with Platte International (UK) Ltd - the company run by Ashley Bateup, the founder of MBS, - and the fact of closing the UK company, “as a direct result of that decision.”
Another question not answered by Hiwat concerns VAT unpaid by Platte International (BVI), which is a company registered offshore. The BVI company claimed it did not exceed the VAT threshold, which makes £67,000 a year for delivering electronic services to UK consumers from outside the EU, but probably it did. And finally, the most current issue is that people have received payment demands from a debt collection company Oriel Collections, on behalf of Platte International (BVI).
Many computer owners in the UK actually suffered from the pop-up billing system of MBS and its successor, Platte International Ltd., but the Office of Fair Trading declined to ban it. Some victims of the pop-up billing system have the opinion that the OFT failed to act in time, and now they ask them to outlaw all such systems in the UK.
Two Tradex Global hedge funds registered in the British Virgin Islands, and their trading advisor, Tradex Global Advisors, have filed a civil complaint against a Cayman Islands-based Solaris Offshore Fund and its associates Solaris Opportunity Fund and Solaris Management, accusing them of a $2.75 million securities fraud.
The civil complaint, filed in Delaware’s District Court in the beginning of February, asserted that the Cayman-based fund, along with its associates both based in Illinois, knowingly misrepresented their activities and capacity to make profits. According to the complaints of investors, misleading representations led them to invest in the defendants’ funds. It is stated in the complaint that the defendants committed securities fraud, common law fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and negligent misrepresentation arising out of the plaintiffs’ investments in Solaris Offshore Fund.
The BVI-registered funds discovered the fact of fraud in November 2008, and now they are trying to recover their damages from the defendants. They also claimed that there was a “lack of transparency” in the relationship between the Cayman funds.
The defendant’s legal counsel wrote the letter, informing the plaintiffs that the Fund is trying to accomodate numerous redemption requests, and attempting to gain enough liquidity to accomodate the $2 million request. Plaintiffs consider however that the defendants use these as a means to avoid fulfilling the redemption request, which prompted them to file the complaint.
Offshore tax havens that refused to pass information on tax dodgers faced an unprecedented economic sanctions by the world’s most powerful countries, which will be probably agreed at the G20 summit in London in April this year.
As a result of the campaign Britain could target some of its own offshore territories, including the Cayman and the British Virgin Islands, where British banks and corporations use scores of subsidiaries to avoid taxation. The blacklisting threat has come after opposition politicians in the UK called for a review of the tax haven dealings by banks.
After the G20 preparatory summit in Berlin, the new list of uncooperative tax havens will be prepared. Other leading offshore centers, among them Panama and Liechtenstein, are among more than 30 jurisdictions that have failed to sign agreement to pass over information about corporations and individuals who take advantage of their secrecy and their low taxes. British Virgin Islands are not among them.
Earlier lists which were prepared by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) did not bring any changes, but now the G20 nations plan to promote a series of sanctions which are designed to deprive the tax havens of billions of dollars of their business.
France’s biggest bank, BNP Paribas SA, lost two lawsuits seeking to force UBS AG to release a combined 2.5 million euros ($3.1 million) that had been invested with two funds linked to the arrested manager Bernard Madoff, who is accused of running a $50 billion fraud.
The representative of BNP Paribas in Paris refused to immediately comment this, when reached by phone. Judge said in her ruling that BNP’s requests were “completely inadmissible”. UBS spokeswoman said the bank was “pleased” with the decisions.
A Luxembourg court rejected BNP’s requests in two rulings. BNP had sought the return of money that were held by UBS for separate funds that had invested money with Madoff. The rulings are among those four from Luxembourg courts that ruled that UBS did not have to immediately pay investors’ claims for redemptions from funds linked to Madoff. UBS had argued it cannot make payments on pending requests while investigations into Madoff are continuing.
More than 15 Madoff-related cases have been filed in Luxembourg courts by investors seeking repayments or documents to establish liability, and the majority of the cases are against UBS. In one of the lawsuits, BNP targeted UBS for a payment from an account it holds for the British Virgin Islands-registered Groupement Financier fund. The company sought 1.5 million euros from UBS from the Groupement Financier account, which has about 250,000 euros left.