It started out with allegations of stolen secrets and quickly gave way to plenty of jokes involving “bad karma” before ultimately winding up an in arbitration, and it now looks like the legal tussle between Tesla Motors and Henrik Fisker of Fisker Automotive has finally come to a close. That lawsuit, as you may recall, had accused Fisker (who worked on Tesla’s WhiteStar sedan) of stealing Tesla’s hybrid technology and using it in Fisker’s own car, the Fisker Karma. The judge in the case apparently couldn’t disagree more with Tesla’s claims, however, and has now cited “overwhelming” evidence in ruling in Fisker’s favor. For it’s part, Tesla simply said that, “we disagree with the ruling, and we’re focused on producing and shipping cars to our customers,” while Fisker is expectedly taking the opportunity to gloat a bit, saying that the ruling “completely vindicates” Fisker.

Lovells LLP

Vikram Sidhu and Jonathan Glusman

USA
October 23 2008

On September 5, 2008, the New York base International Court of Arbitration, attached to the International Chamber of commerce, named former ROA Minister of Nature Protection Vardan Ayvazyan, presently serving as President of the National Assembly’s Economic Affairs Committee, as a defendant in a case involving the issuance of mining exploration licenses that Hetq covered in detail at the beginning of this year.

 For more information of the case in question, 14770/EBS, you can go to the Court’s website: www.iccarbitration.org. 

At the core of the matter is the gold mine in Hankavan, Armenia. While serving as Nature Protection Minister, Vardan Ayvazyan issued exploratory licenses to two companies at the same time. The actual owner of one of the companies, Golden Ore, is Andranik Manukyan, former ROA| Minister of Transport and Communication, who now serves as a presidential advisor to Serzh Sargsyan. Shortly thereafter, and in a process that involved numerous violations of the law, the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development issued the company an operating license. In quick succession Golden Ore was then sold to GeoProMining Ltd, a diversified resources holding company headquartered in Moscow. Almost immediately this company obtained the Sotk and Meghradzor gold mines owned by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal’s Ararat Gold Recovery Company. In a word, the transaction was a package deal. 

Our informed sources tell us that the Hankavan gold mine was sold to the tune of $30 million and that the government didn’t receive one red-cent from the transaction. At least this is what the Golden Ore’s tax accounts show. 

Along with Vardan Ayvazyan, three other citizens of Armenia were named as defendants – Mayren Batoyan, Edvard Djanibekyan and Yuri Lalazaryan.

O’Melveny & Myers LLP

David Herron, Scott H. Dunham, Linda Kwak and Shannon Gibson

USA
October 3 2008