In a final award an international arbitral tribunal has ordered Mr Indrek Kuivallik, the claimant in the arbitration proceedings and former owner of SIA “Winergy”, to reimburse the Republic of Latvia for all of its costs incurred in the arbitration proceedings. Mr Kuivallik withdrew unilaterally and with prejudice all of his claims against Latvia in the arbitration proceedings last November.
On 12 November 2014 an international arbitration process against Latvia was initiated where Mr Kuivallik claimed just over 51 million euros in compensation from the State arising from alleged breaches of the Latvia-Estonia bilateral investment protection treaty.
Mr Kuivallik’s claims arose out of civil disputes between SIA “Winergy” and JSC “Norvik Bank” related to Norvik’s attempts to exercise its rights under various loans, mortgages and guarantees with SIA “Winergy” and several other companies. Mr Kuivallik alleged that Latvia’s institutions had improperly sided with Norvik in the civil disputes with SIA “Winergy”. Latvia rejected all of Mr Kuivallik’s claims. The Republic was represented in the arbitration by Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP in Paris.
At the end of 2015, Mr Kuivallik withdrew all of his claims against Latvia in the arbitration proceedings unilaterally and with prejudice to his right to re-litigate the same claims in the future. A three-member arbitral tribunal of Sabine Konrad, Christopher J. Thomas and Toomas Vaher issued a final award in February 2016 ordering Mr Kuivallik to reimburse Latvia for all of its costs incurred in the arbitration proceedings. Mr Kuivallik has to date failed to pay the amounts due to Latvia. Latvia commenced mandatory enforcement proceedings in July 2016 to recover amounts owed by Mr Kuivallik and obtained a favourable judgment from an Estonian court in August 2016 declaring the Award enforceable in Estonia.
Lita Juberte-Krūmiņa
Press secretary to the Cabinet of Ministers
Phone: +371 67082919
e-mail: lita.juberte@mk.gov.lv