Eterna Law, working in cooperation with Maples and Calder in the British Virgin Islands and Matthew Hardwick QC (instructed by Maples and Calder Partner Arabella di Iorio), successfully appealed a lower court's ruling involving the discharge of a worldwide freezing injunction on behalf of clients Rustam Yusufovich Gilfanov and Sergey Aleksandrovich Tokarev in the Eastern Caribbean Court of Appeal (BVI Court of Appeal).
According to Eterna Law, "on 3 February 2017 the Eastern Caribbean Court Appeal, having considered the matter reported as (1) Rustam Yusufovich Gilfanov and (2) Sergey Aleksandrovich Tokarev v (1) Maxim Valeriovich Polyakov (2) Valeriy Oleksandrovich Polyakov and (3) Phoenix Holdings Limited ... allowed the appeal of Mr. Gilfanov and Mr. Tokarev and reinstated a USD 10 million freezing injunction against the Defendants - Maxim Valeriovich Polyakov, Valeriy Oleksandrovich Polyakov and Phoenix Holdings Limited – principally on the basis that the judge had been wrong to find (1) that there was no general risk of dissipation; and (2) no loss."
Eterna Law also reported that "the judgment of the ECCA provides an up to date analysis of (1) the relevance of a finding of a good arguable case of fraud to the inference of a risk of dissipation; (2) the assessment of damages in cases where property has been acquired in reliance on a fraudulent misrepresentation; and (3) the circumstances where the BVI court can order a freezing injunction against a non-cause of action defendant."
The Eterna Law team consisted of Partner Oleh Beketov and Senior Associate Aleksandr Lugovskyi.