A team of Faegre Drinker and Akin Gump litigators obtained the complete dismissal of a multi-million-dollar lawsuit brought against firm client Argentem Creek Partners by the Republic of Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan sued Argentem, a SEC registered investment advisor and emerging-market credit specialist, in New York State court based on Argentem's funding of efforts by two foreign oil development companies to collect on a $500 million arbitration award issued against Kazakhstan in 2013 after it expropriated assets developed by the companies during the prior decade. According to Kazakhstan, the arbitration award was based entirely on fraudulent evidence, and Argentem (by funding efforts to enforce the award by companies in which Argentem had previously invested) was liable for conspiracy to commit fraud, aiding and abetting fraud and a variety of other common law torts (some based on English law).
Adopting the lead argument developed by Faegre Drinker, Justice Andrew Borrok dismissed all of Kazakhstan's claims as an “impermissible collateral attack" on an arbitration award that previously had been confirmed by the courts of Sweden (where the award was rendered) and the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (where the parties sought to enforce the award against Kazakh assets).
In June 2023, the New York State Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department upheld the dismissal of the lawsuit.
