The United States District Court in Manhattan, New York, has summoned Ukrainian billionaire Dmytro Firtash and Swiss-registered gas trading company RosUkrEnergo in connection with a lawsuit that was filed against them this month by ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.
According to court documents obtained by the Kyiv Post, both Firtash and RosUkrEnergo – along with 100 unamed defendents – have 21 days after service of the summons to “serve on the plaintiff an answer to the attached complaint or a motion under Rule 12 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.”
“The answer or motion must be served on the plaintiff or plaintiff’s attorney,” according to the April 26 court document. (Click here to see the court document.)
In court documents filed in April, Tymoshenko accuses Firtash, a gas trader and chemicals magnate close to her rival, President Viktor Yanukovych, of manipulating an international arbitration court ruling to defraud Ukrainians of billions of dollars worth of strategic gas reserves.
The lawsuit also accuses the Ukrainian government of colluding with RosUkrEnergo, which Firtash co-owns with Russian energy giant Gazprom, to obtain the gas. It effectively suggests that leading government officials are acting in the interests of Firtash rather than the country’s citizens.
Firtash, RosUkrEnergoand Ukraine’s current leadership have repeatedly denied wrongdoing, as has Tymoshenko in reference to charges against her. Firtash’s press service said on April 27 that he hadn’t received any notification from the court about the case.
Tymoshenko has come under pressure over the 2009 gas deal in recent weeks, after prosecutors opened a criminal probe alleging that the deal set the price of gas too high, causing the state losses of around $200 million. Several officials involved in the gas deal and the transfer of the gas are currently in detention as they are investigated for alleged abuses of power.
