The questionable Kiev arbitral award seeks to move European investors’ stolen MAIB shares into new a company, which will complicate their recovery, Turcan Cazac Law Firm has said in a press release, quoted by Info-Prim Neo. According to the press release, Creative Production, Inc. (place of registration unknown) has claimed ownership of the shares in Moldova-Agroindbank S.A. (MAIB) which were fraudulently taken from a group of European investors in late July/early August 2011. Should this new company take control of these shares, it will further complicate the return of the shares to their rightful owner. The group of six investors from Slovenia and the Netherlands (Adriatic Fund B.V., Druga d.o.o., Factor Banka d.d., KIG d.d., Milena Logar and Venture Holding B.V. – together the “Victims”) held combined 285,386 shares representing circa 28% of all shares issued by MAIB. The Victims have initiated legal proceedings to recover their stolen shares. At present, 240,506 of shares are registered under the name of Global Systems Corp. (Belize), and 44,880 shares are registered under the name of Merchant Outpost Company (Seychelles). Belize and Seychelles are offshore jurisdictions and under the Moldovan Law on Financial Institutions, companies registered in offshore jurisdictions are prohibited from owning in aggregate more than 5% of voting shares in a bank. The Victims are challenging in Moldova and other relevant jurisdictions the rights of Global Systems Corp. (Belize) and Merchant Outpost Company (Seychelles) to be registered as holders of all the shares that they claim to hold in MAIB. In a bid to move these shares to a different company, possibly ‘onshore’, parties are seeking for the shares held jointly by Global Systems Corp. (Belize) and Merchant Outpost Company (Seychelles) to be transferred to Creative Production, Inc. To achieve this, a new arbitral award (most likely ad hoc*) was allegedly issued in Kiev, Ukraine, on 16 August 2011 (award number 2011/K-25). On 23 August 2011 the arbitral award was then submitted for recognition and enforcement to the Economic Court of Appeals (file no. 2e-917/11). The date of hearing by the Economic Court of Appeals is not yet known. When Victims’ lawyers have attempted to review the case file on 7, 8 and 9 September 2011 they were not allowed to, because the Victims are not parties to the proceedings (despite immediate written applications to be allowed to intervene), and were told to come back on 12 September 2011 (despite 10 September being a working Saturday in Moldova). On 27 August 2011 the Government of Moldova approved a Law by way of assumption of responsibility towards the Parliament, whereby no transfers of shares in banks (even on the basis of court orders) can take place without the prior approval of the National Bank of Moldova. On 5 September 2011 two members of the Moldovan Parliament have asked the Moldovan Constitutional Court to declare the 27 August law as unconstitutional. If the Economic Court of Appeals grants the application by Creative Production, Inc. to recognize and enforce the Kiev arbitral award, and the Constitutional Court cancels the 27 August law, then the shares in MAIB taken away from the Victims will most likely be transferred onwards to Creative Production, Inc., which will further complicate the return of the MAIB shares to the rightful owners. *Note: Ad hoc arbitration means that arbitrators (usually one or three persons) are selected by the parties to the arbitration proceedings (i.e. in this case, by Creative Production, Inc., Global Systems Corp. and Merchant Outpost Company). Ad hoc arbitrators do not need to be lawyers, do not need to be citizens of the country where they hold the arbitral hearings (i.e. Ukraine), usually do not store the arbitral file in any publicly-accessible location, and oftentimes do no want to be found after they issue the arbitral award. Turcan Cazac Law Firm is the legal counsel to the European Investors that became victims of a theft of shares owned in Moldova Agroindbank S.A., it is said in the press release.