A litigation team from Global law firm Hogan Lovells has secured a significant victory in the United States District Court for the Northern District of New York (NDNY) on behalf of the government of Ukraine freeing funds to help finance the country’s defense.
Hogan Lovells partner Dennis Tracey, the lead partner in the case, stated: “This is a significant victory for the Deposit Guarantee Fund and the government of Ukraine that preserves approximately US$42.5 million to potentially be used for Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s aggression.”
The case arose after certain victims of terrorist attacks secured a default judgement against the Taliban, and subsequently filed an ex parte motion in the NDNY and obtained a write of execution against assets in New York of Prominvestbank, a formerly Russian-owned bank in Ukraine, on the basis of Russia’s material support for the Taliban.
Prior to the attempt to execute on the judgment, the Ukrainian government passed laws to nationalize Prominvestbank in response to Russia’s aggression and appointed the Deposit Guarantee Fund (DGF) to liquidate the bank in order to direct any funds towards the war effort.
DGF therefore moved to intervene and to vacate the writ of execution and the court agreed, finding that Ukraine’s nationalization of Prominvestbank aligns with the United States’ interests in supporting Ukrainian war efforts and that the bank was no longer controlled by Russia at the time the plaintiffs moved for the writ of execution.
The Hogan Lovells legal team was led by New York partner Dennis Tracey, and included partner Alex Sciannaca (London), and Senior Associate Alan Mendelsohn and Associate Jonathan Wieder (both New York).
