Srishti Kalro Quoted in Law360 on Court of Appeal Decision in PrivatBank Case

Srishti Kalro, an associate in the litigation practice at Akin Gump, has been quoted in the Law360 article “The Most Important Financial Services Cases Of 2019.” The article looks at some of the biggest decisions of the past year for financial services in the United Kingdom.

Kalro’s comments focused on a Court of Appeal decision in October that revived a $1.9 billion fraud lawsuit brought by the Ukrainian lender PrivatBank against two of its former owners. The case, according to the article, was a test of the U.K.’s rules on jurisdiction.

The article reports that the bank had accused the defendants, as well as six related companies, of using a fake loan scheme to steal money from it, but the case was dismissed for lack of jurisdiction after the men, who are based in Switzerland, complained that the bank only included English companies to gain a foothold to sue in the U.K.

Appellate judges, though, ruled that the bank could sue in the U.K. to see what evidence the English companies might have on the nature of the disputed transactions, with Kalro observing that the ruling highlights the courts’ willingness to assert its authority to hear cases.

Barring any extreme examples of abuse, Kalro said, the ruling shows that judges will permit lawsuits “with the sole object” of establishing a way into the courts. “I think someone who now wants to use the English courts won’t need to worry about the other party objecting about their motives,” she said. “There remains a category of abuse, but a lot of it has fallen away.”

Kalro and litigation partner Mark Dawkins wrote an article on the case for Practical Law’s Dispute Resolution Blog, which can be found by clicking here.