Fridman files USD 16 billion claim against Luxembourg over frozen assets

LUXEMBOURG - Russian-Israeli oligarch Mikhail Fridman has filed a USD 16 billion claim against Luxembourg over its decision to freeze his assets after he was placed on the European Union's (EU) sanctions list.

In documents outlining the claim, Fridman's legal team alleges that the EU sanctions were applied without due process and that his assets are still frozen, blocking him from managing or benefiting from them and calling for "compensation based on the fair market value of his investments," which it says is "conservatively anticipated to be no less than USD 16 billion."

Fridman was sanctioned in 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, with the EU describing him at the time as "a top Russian financier and enabler of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s inner circle." He is a major shareholder of Alfa Group, one of Russia's largest privately owned investment groups.

He successfully sued the EU over his inclusion on the sanctions list and was removed in April.

Fridman’s claim was made under a 1989 investment treaty between Luxembourg and the former Soviet Union, arguing that Luxembourg breached protections he is guaranteed as an investor under the treaty’s terms.

He has filed for arbitration under the United Nations' international trade rules, asking for the case to be handled in Hong Kong. 

Meanwhile, Russian billionaire and Fridman's business partner Piotr Aven, who has a Latvian passport, has not joined Fridman's claim against Luxembourg, but together with his legal team is carefully analyzing the option to file such claims in jurisdictions where he has suffered financial losses because of the sanctions, said Aven's lawyer Janis Karklins.

As reported, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) in April lifted the sanctions the EU Council had imposed on Aven and Fridman on February 28, 2022.