KIEV, February 14 (Itar-Tass) — The American firm UTICo, which is working with the Ukrainian Prosecutor General’s Office by power of attorney, has succeeded in subpoenaing former Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko to a New York court.
Last year, UTICo filed a lawsuit with a New York court against Timoshenko in a bid to collect 18,344,480 U.S. dollars from the United Energy Systems of Ukraine which she had headed. On December 9, 2011, Kiev’s district court received a resolution from the New York court, ordering that the papers be delivered to Timoshenko.
An attempt to do so was made a week later at a pre-trial prison where Timoshenko was being held in custody at that time, but she “refused to receive the documents without stating the reason”.
On January 10, 2012, Kiev’s district court legitimised the whole procedure. “The documents subject to delivery at the request of the foreign court are deemed delivered,” the court said.
A week after that, the Justice Ministry reported so to the American law firm that is managing UTICo’s lawsuit against Timoshenko. On February 7, the New York court issued a document stating that a copy of the subpoena had been served on Timoshenko in accordance with the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil or Commercial Matters of 1965.
According to Ukrainskaya Pravda, UTICo cooperates with the Prosecutor General’s Office. It was authorised by the Prosecutor General’s Office in 1998 to represent its interests in lawsuits filed by the United Energy Systems of Ukraine against former Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko in the United States. Timoshenko filed a lawsuit with the same New York court against Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, Finance Minister Valery Kghoroshkovsky, Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka and other Ukrainian government officials.
On October 11, 2011, Kiev's Pechersky District Court sentenced Yulia Timoshenko to seven years in prison and upheld Naftogaz Ukrainy's lawsuit seeking compensation of 1.516 billion hryvnia (189.5 million U.S. dollars) for damage sustained by the company as a result of the gas contracts signed with Russia in 2009.
On October 11, 2011, Timoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for having acted in excess of her powers which had resulted in damage to the national interests of the country.
Timoshenko has also been barred from holding public positions for three years and has to pay a penalty of 189 million U.S. dollars in damages to Naftogaz Ukrainy.
In late December 2011, Timoshenko was transferred from the investigation prison to a penal colony.