You're reading: Tymoshenko says that US court taking up her suit against Firtash

Leader of the Batkivschyna Party Yulia Tymoshenko has said that a U.S. court has taken up her lawsuit against a co-owner of the Swiss-registered gas trader RosUkrEnergo Dmytro Firtash.

"The court has accepted our lawsuit for consideration," she told reporters on Wednesday before entering the Prosecutor General’s Office.

According to Tymoshenko, the ruling of this court will be absolutely legitimate in relation to any individual or legal entity.

When asked, who filed the suit, she said: "I, personally, as an individual, and some members of our faction."

Tymoshenko said that the lawsuit was sent to a court of New York a few weeks ago, but on April 27 they received confirmation that it had been accepted for consideration.

She added that in her lawsuit she is asking the court to recognize the actions of Firtash and Ukraine’s senior officials to return 12 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo as illegal, and to recognize that the amicable agreement that was reached at the Stockholm court was a conspiracy.

Tymoshenko, in a U.S. lawsuit on racketeering, has accused gas trader RosUkrEnergo AG and its co-owner, Firtash, of conspiring to manipulate an arbitration court ruling that she claims robbed Ukraine of its natural gas supplies.

The Arbitration Institute of the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce obliged Naftogaz on June 8, 2010 to return RosUkrEnergo 11 billion cubic meters of gas and also pay it a penalty of 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas, as stipulated by the contract.

Naftogaz, in turn, returned 12.1 billion cubic meters of gas to RosUkrEnergo after buying the necessary amount from Russia’s Gazprom at $230 per 1,000 cubic meters.

The Security Service of Ukraine completed its pre-trial investigation into a criminal case against officials of Naftogaz Ukrainy and the State Customs Service on the unlawful seizure of gas belonging to Swiss-based gas trader RosUkrEnergo and the illegal customs clearance of the gas in February-March 2009.

Former First Deputy CEO of Naftogaz Ihor Didenko, former Head of the State Customs Service Anatoliy Makarenko, and Deputy Head of the Energy Regional Customs Taras Shepitko were arrested in connection with the case.

The Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office opened the third criminal case against Tymoshenko in April this year, this time around on charges of abuse of office in concluding the gas contracts with Russia in 2009, which, according to the investigation, caused damages amounting to Hr 1.5 billion to the state.