Mad at Telenor, Virgin Islands Company Chills in Siberian Court

Legal matters can be confusing. Especially when they involve a British Virgin Islands company, Farimex Products, Inc., which claims that Telenor Russia harmed VimpelCom by preventing VimpelCom from purchasing Kyivstar and delaying VimpelCom’s purchase of Ukrainian Radio Systems. Alfa Group subsidiary Eco Telecom made a similar claim against Telenor in a recently filed Geneva arbitration proceeding. Although Farimex says it owns only 1,250 common 1 shares (with a current market value of less than USD 800,000), Farimex is claiming damages of close to USD 3.8 billion and has requested the Khanty-Mansiysk court to arrest all of Telenor’s shares in VimpelCom. Khanty-Mansiysk is a remote town in Siberia, 2,759 kilometers from Moscow, in Russia’s largest oil producing province. This follows a recent, largely identical claim raised by Eco Telecom, a part of the Alfa Group, seeking a similar compensation through international arbitration proceedings. Telenor is investigating the question of who is behind the issue, claiming that the lawsuit has no merit, and explaining that Telenor’s investment in VimpelCom is one of their largest assets, and that they have always acted in VimpelCom’s best interests. Telenor is also surprised that a lawsuit from a company based in the British Virgin Islands should be launched in this Siberian city— Fornebu, Norway and Moscow, Russia