MOSCOW, August 16 (RAPSI) - A US Court has held that an Antiguan bank has standing to contest the forfeiture of assets held in Antigua and Barbuda that are presently being sought by US prosecutors, who claim that the funds can be traced to former Ukrainian prime minister Pavlo Lazarenko’s alleged criminal conduct, according to court documents obtained by RAPSI.

The US government initiated the present claim in 2004 seeking the forfeiture of upwards of $250 million allegedly connected with “criminal fraud, extortion, bribery, misappropriation, and money laundering”. The funds being sought have been held in various bank accounts throughout Antigua and Barbuda, Guernsey, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, and Switzerland.

According to the court documents, Lazarenko is suspected of having been able to acquire hundreds of millions of dollars by way of “acts of fraud, extortion, bribery, misappropriation, and/or embezzlement” carried out in the 1990s.

In turn, several parties sought to assert their interests in specific elements of the property the US government was pursuing.

In the words of the opinion, “A number of people, preferring that the United States government not get this money, have intervened to prevent its forfeiture. So far, plaintiff United States has managed to dismiss from this action seven of these intervening parties and has successfully defeated a motion to dismiss the complaint.” However, “The plaintiff now moves to dismiss from the action, for lack of standing, one more claimant: [Eurofed]. And here the plaintiff’s winning streak comes to an end.”

One such claimant was Eurofed, an Antiguan bank that is currently undergoing the process of liquidation.

US prosecutors argued that prior to liquidation, Lazarenko used Eurofed to launder the proceeds from his criminal activities.

According to court documents, upwards of $100 million named as in rem defendants were previously held for Lazarenko on deposit at Eurofed.

Through its liquidators, Eurofed intervened in the US case against Lazarenko’s assets, asserting its interest in five properties: approximately $85.5 million held at the Bank of Nova Scotia (Antigua); approximately $1.6 million held at Bank of Nova Scotia (Antigua); all assets held under a certain account at Credit Suisse (Geneva), last valued at approximately $4.8 million; all assets held under a certain account at Banque SCS Alliance SA (Geneva), last valued at approximately $483,629.69; and all assets held under a certain account at Vilniaus Bankas (Lithuania).

The court held that Eurofed had demonstrated a colorable ownership interest in the Antigua assets, but found that it had not demonstrated its standing to contest the forfeiture of the assets in Lithuania and Switzerland.

In conclusion, the court held: "While the plaintiff’s myriad arguments have put Eurofed through its paces, not one of these arguments carries the day. Eurofed, acting by and through its Liquidators, has demonstrated that it has a colorable ownership interest in the defendant assets located in Antigua. It therefore has standing to contest the forfeiture of those assets, and its claim to them will survive the plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.”

Notably, the court warned that the mere fact that Eurofed managed to establish standing at the summary judgment stage does not prohibit the court from revisiting the issue at later stages of the litigation.