Friedman and Aven filed a lawsuit for 1 billion dollars against Ukraine

ABH Holdings SA, a company registered in Luxembourg and associated with the structures of Alfa-Bank, filed a lawsuit against Ukraine. The company demands compensation for the damage caused by the nationalization of the Ukrainian branches of Alfa-Bank. She estimates the amount of damage at more than one billion dollars.

The claim was submitted to the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, which is part of the World Bank. The company’s statement says that the Ukrainian authorities illegally took the bank from its owners and forcibly nationalized it, “combining the methods of corporate raiding and extracting profit from the war.”

In addition, ABH Holdings claims that Ukraine launched a behind-the-scenes company to discredit its main shareholders, makes false accusations against them and uses “black PR” methods.

The main shareholders of ABH Holdings are the co-founders of the Russian financial company “Alfa Group” Mikhail Fridman and Piotr Aven. After the start of the full-scale Russian war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian branch of Alfa-Bank was renamed Sense Bank. Then its main owners were removed from the management of the bank. In the summer of 2023, the bank was nationalized by a decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The National Bank of Ukraine clarified that Sense Bank will be under state management until the end of martial law in the country.

• The co-founders of Alfa Group, billionaires Piotr Aven and Mikhail Fridman, are under sanctions from the United States, Great Britain and the European Union, as well as other Western countries. The authorities of these countries believe that they are close to the President of Russia Vladimir Putin and serve the interests of the Kremlin, including Russian aggression in Ukraine. Ukraine also imposed its sanctions on them and nationalized the assets they owned in the country.
• At the same time, the deputy of the State Duma of Russia, the former head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, turned to law enforcement agencies with a request to check the activities of banker Mikhail Fridman for involvement in the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Presumably, the reason could be Friedman’s statement, which he made in September 2022. Then the businessman offered to donate one billion dollars from his own funds to the restoration of Ukraine in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.