news1: Court approved service of process on Leviev
An important development in the ILS 2.5 billion derivative lawsuit filed by businessman Benny Synbati, against Lev Leviev, Leviev Group and executives in the group, due to his expropriation from a gold mining company in Kyrgyzstan.
The Tel Aviv District Court did not accept the objection to the invention last week (15.9.10) and at the weekend allowed the law firms Afik Turgeman and Nashitz Brands to produce a copy of the derivative lawsuit filed in Tel Aviv in June for two foreign companies registered in Cyprus.
The companies TK GEO RESOURCES and TK GEO RESERVES are Kyrgyz foreign companies, registered in Cyprus, and according to Synbati, there is serious concern that the assets of his gold mining company and fraud, were fraudulently transferred to Leviev, his former partner, or his representative, and are now controlled by these two companies. , Who received the government concession to mine gold in the Synbati mines in Kyrgyzstan.
According to Adv. Shlomi Turgeman of Afik Turgeman, who represents Synbati in collaboration with Adv. Gad Nashitz of Nashitz Brands, "The most serious thing in this case is that these foreign companies, which own almost all of the company's assets, are They have strong links to Leviev's heart. "
For example, one of the owners of TK GEO RESOURCES, Zachar Smoshkin, is a business partner of Leviev in the past and probably even today. Also, in an up-and-coming chain of foreign companies, Synbati reveals that this company is part of a cluster of companies in which there is a Russian bank that granted Leviev a loan of about $ 400 million.
According to Synbati, in an application for approval of a derivative claim filed by Leviev, the latter used their joint venture as an instrument to repay its debts to banks and oligarchs in Russia. Synbati further claims that after the collaboration between the two ran aground, Leviev worked to dismantle the company and the result that the Kyrgyz government boycotted the factory where the gold was produced and nationalized the concessions. According to Synbati, Leviev secretly controls the two Kyrgyz companies that currently own the mines. Leviev denies any connection to these companies, and both companies have approached the court through the firm of M. Piron & Co., to delete them from the lawsuit filed by Synbati against them and against Leviev.
Member of Leviev in Kyrgyzstan in 2006
The affair began with a concession granted by the Synbati contractor in the early 1990s to operate in Kyrgyzstan in the field of gold mining. In 2006, Synbati joined Leviev, for a few million dollars, to fund the final steps to complete the metalworking process to international standards. In 2007, Leviev began the process of dispossessing Synbati, and after Synbati refused to sell his share to Leviev at his request, Leviev began operations that led to the liquidation of the joint venture, which was valued before Leviev's entry by British professionals for about $ 1 billion.
The hearing in the case, one of the largest and principled cases currently in the Tel Aviv District Court, is scheduled to take place before Judge Ruth Ronen, who was recently appointed to the Tel Aviv Economic Court. Last week, Judge Esther Nahlieli Hyatt approved the production of the statement of claim for these two companies, thus paving the way for the beginning of the hearing in the derivative claim, which has so far been delayed due to the issue of invention.
"Summoning foreign companies to discuss Israel will refute the delusional claims"
The Leviev Group stated in response that in a hearing held on September 15 in the Tel Aviv District Court before Judge Esther Nahlieli Hayat, the court accepted the position of Adv. Ron Berkman, representing Lev Leviev and a group of other defendants, according to which the foreign companies should be summoned to Israel. The Cypriots to clarify the stage of the application for approval of the claim as a derivative claim.
"The defendants' position was that summoning the foreign companies to a hearing in Israel was necessary to completely refute Synbati's delusional claims, as if these companies were related to Mr. Leviev and were working for him," the response said.
According to the Leviev Group, the court recommended to the parties' attorneys to agree to this proposal, and therefore it was agreed, that the foreign companies would be summoned to a hearing in Israel and the scope of the summons would be reduced, at this stage, only to a hearing on Synbati's claim.
The group mentioned that Synbati had filed a lawsuit against Leviev and a group of directors and officers at S.H.G. Golden & Silver Ltd, in which he claimed, inter alia, that rights and franchises acquired by the two foreign companies in Kyrgyzstan, were in fact acquired for Leviev who according to the same claim has an affiliation with these companies.
Mr. Leviev and the other defendants submitted their response to the court in which they argued that "this is an illusory, completely unfounded lawsuit, which was sewn up with rough seams and has no connection to reality."
Among other things, Adv. Ron Berkman, on behalf of Lev Leviev and the other defendants, requested that these foreign companies be brought to Israel for a hearing so that the court can clearly prove that they are independent and not related to Mr. Leviev at all. As stated, this position was accepted by the court .
[Hebrew Only]