Astraea Group Appointed Global Counsel in $500m Investor–State Enforcement Claim

Astraea Group has been appointed global counsel in the enforcement claim against the Republic of Kazakhstan arising from an Investor-State arbitral award in the Stockholm Chambers of Commerce under the Energy Charter Treaty. The award in favour of Ascom Group, Terra Raf Trans Trading Ltd and Anatoli and Gabriel Stati ordered the Republic of Kazakhstan to pay $500m, the entirety of which it has refused to pay.

James Ramsden QC of Astraea Group described the case as “of significant geo-political importance given the now very different and fast changing attitudes towards kleptocrat and those enablers who have assisted their activities”. Astraea Group will work closely with Sequor Law in Miami who are specialists in anti-corruption investigations.

James Ramsden QC recently appeared before the Supreme Court in Gibraltar leading Philippe Kuhn of 39 Essex Chambers in applications to challenge jurisdiction and strike out proceedings funded by the Republic of Kazakhstan against Terra Raf Trans Trading Ltd. Judgment is awaited.

This hearing accompanied success by the same Counsel team and Astraea Group on 25th May 2022 in an appeal by the Republic of Kazakhstan to the Court of Appeal of Gibraltar (Sir Maurice Kay, Sir Colin Rimer & Sir Patrick Elias). The Court of Appeal unanimously found in favour of Terra Raf in a claim to register and enforce in Gibraltar costs orders from the English Commercial Court under the Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1935 which is in the same terms as the Judgments (Reciprocal Enforcement) Act 1933 in England. The judgment will be of interest to parties involved in cross-border commercial arbitration enforcement.

James Ramsden QC commented:

This is an important and resounding decision which upheld a first instance judgment described as “lucid” by the Court of Appeal. Its wider significance is another set back for the Republic of Kazakhstan in its long running and vastly expensive attempts to evade liability under the ECT Award. We owe a great debt to Freddie Vasquez QC and Dhiraj Negrani of Triay in Gibraltar as co-counsel for Terra Raf and also to the excellent team at TSN (Keith Azopardi QC, Kelly Power & Shane Danino) who acted for our co-defendants in the recent jurisdiction challenge. It was our privilege to work with them all.

The information provided in this article is of a general nature and does not constitute, nor should be relied on, as legal or professional advice.