London appeals court allows divorcee to file $ 6bn claim against Russian billionaire
THE LONDON Court of Appeal has allowed the filing of a $6 billion divorce claim by a former wife of one of Russia’s richest men. The filing of this appeal was disallowed by a lower court, whence the appeal went to a higher court.
According to a three-judge bench, Natalia Potanina can now file her financial claim in London against Vladimir Potanin. Potanin’s net worth is said to be $20 billion.
He has a controlling stake in Norilsk, one of the world’s largest producers of nickel and palladium. This ruing reinforces London’s claim as the main centre globally, for such claims.
In 2014 Potanina was awarded a $41.5m a divorce settlement by Russian courts, but her plea is that she should have received a far larger share of her husband’s fortune.
Potanina met her husband as a teenager and they married in Russia in 1983, living there for most of their marriage. They divorced in Russia in 2014. Potanina has a home in England.
Xiaomi off US blacklist
WITH THE advent of President Joe Biden, one more Donald Trump era restriction has fallen. Xiaomi Corp., which was blacklisted by the Trump administration, is now off that list after it reached an agreement with the government. The blacklist meant that American investors would not have been able to put money into the Chinese smartphone maker.
Earlier this year the Chinese smartphone giant had sued the government, after the US Defense Department under former President Donald Trump issued an order designating the firm as a Communist Chinese Military Company, which would have led to a de-listing from US exchanges and deletion from global benchmark indexes. The US Defense Department has now agreed that a final order vacating the designation “would be appropriate,” according to a filing to the US courts.
Geneva court fines Prakash Hinduja for tax evasion
INDUSTRIALIST PRAKASH Hinduja (below), member of the UK-based billionaire Hinduja family, has been fined 157 million francs (Rs 1,270 crore) by a Geneva Court. The fine is for tax violations, according to Swiss newspapers Gotham City and Le Temps.
The fine was reportedly imposed on Hinduja, because he had claimed tax exceptions by showing he was a Monaco resident, when he was actually living in Geneva.
A report in Gotham City said: “The Geneva tax authorities suspect the billionaire of Indian origin Prakash Hinduja of staying in his villa in Cologny (GE) until April 2018, when he had officially settled in Monaco in 2007.”
The newspaper added: “In July 2018, the Geneva public prosecutor sought to collect information on Prakash Hinduja and members of his family on behalf of the cantonal tax authorities, in the context of criminal proceedings, according to a judgment of the Federal Court rendered on April 21.”
Lanka port city bill violates constitution, says Sri Lankan SC
CHINA’S UNSTATED and coercive intention to create a Chinese colony within Sri Lanka has come up against a huge hurdle, the Sri Lankan Supreme Court. The country’s parliament has been told that the court has declared that certain provisions of the port city bill, opposed vehemently by the Opposition, are not consistent with the Sri Lankan Constitution.
The court’s assessment and order was read out by Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena. He said that certain clauses of the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill will have to be passed with a two-thirds majority in the House, as well as through a national referendum. He cited these can be skirted if the government amends them as required by the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court had been hearing 18 petitions led against the bill, with the Opposition having called the bill as the one which would lead to the creation of a Chinese colony in Sri Lanka.The $ 1.4 billion port city project is exempt from a number of local laws and has been criticised by the Opposition, civil society groups and labour unions. They claim the project violated the country’s sovereignty, the Constitution and labour rights.
Bangladeshi investigative journalist arrested
IT WAS clear that all is not well with the justice system in Bangladesh when a lady journalist, known for unearthing and reporting instances of graft, was arrested on charges of violating a colonial-era official secrets act. This even carries a possible death penalty.
The senior reporter Rozina Islam, working for the leading Prothom Alo newspaper, is said to have used her cellphone without permission to photograph documents related to government negotiations to buy Coronavirus vaccines, even as she waited in the room of an official involved in the process.
Islam has been reporting instances of corruption within the country’s health ministry and other ministries. Her recent stories have shed light on millions of dollars spent on allegedly procuring health equipment to deal with the Corona virus pandemic. She was held for over five hours within the chamber of personal assistant to the health secretary. She was reportedly physically and mentally tortured before being handed over to the police.