A Cyprus-company controlled by Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash is the legitimate and legal owner of what was Hungary’s largest independent gas distributor, according to a ruling made this week by Hungary’s Supreme Court.
Through the Feb. 13 ruling announced in a statement by Firtash’s Group DF holding company, the businessman regained control over Hungarian gas trader Emfesz. The decision is a major victory for Firtash, who years ago lost control over the once-lucrative trader.
The controversial transaction took place in early 2009, around the time that Firtash was cut out of the multi-billion-dollar business of supplying Ukraine with natural gas through Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo, which he jointly owned with Russia’s Gazprom.
In the years leading to 2009, Firtash established himself as a major player in the supply of Central Asian gas to Ukraine and further to Europe. Emfesz gained a large share of Hungary’s gas market, including hundreds of thousands of households.
But in early 2009, then Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko cut RosUkrEnergo out as the intermediary supplier to Ukraine, inking direct supply agreements between Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz.
Then in May 2009, Emfesz director Istvan Goczi sold Emfesz, which was owned by Firtash’s Cyprus-registered Mafobi, for a symbolic $1 to Swiss-registered RosGas. The latter’s ownership remains unclear to this day. This transaction triggered a long legal battle during which Emfesz’s financial position and market share in Hungary suffered sharply.
Things turned positive again for Firtash in 2010, when Viktor Yanukovych, the candidate whom he backed, narrowly beat out Tymoshenko in a presidential election. Last year, Tymoshenko was sentenced for seven years in prison for brokering the 2009 gas agreement that cut RosUkrEnergo out. The U.S. and EU have expressed concern that the charges are politically motivated.
Meanwhile, Firtash’s business in Ukraine has blossomed under Yanukovych. And he reclaimed ownership in Emfesz through Hungarian courts.
“The Supreme Court judgment is the highest and final confirmation that Emfesz was in effect stolen from us,” Robert Shetler-Jones, CEO of Group DF, said in a statement.
“This is not the end of the matter. We will now start the process to recover the assets of Emfesz that have been stripped out of the company over the past three years and to hold to account all those responsible for what must be one of the largest frauds in Hungarian corporate history,” Shetler-Jones added.
