Omega Case: Gov’t to appeal against decision of Stockholm Arbitration relating to Omega Group
Zaza Okuashvili, the founder of Omega Group, appealed to the Stockholm court – the Ministry of Justice of Georgia is the respondent in the case. Photo: Stockholm Arbitration.
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The Georgian government is going to appeal against the decision made by the International Arbitration Institute of Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Stockholm in the Omega Group case, according to which the Georgian government has been banned from enforcing the judgment of the Tbilisi City Court.
Omega Group faces more than 50 million GEL in debt to the state, while its debt to the Bank of Georgia exceeds 84 million GEL.
The business says that under the Georgian Dream leadership its cigarette company OGT suffered $100 million in losses after multinational company British American Tobacco, “which was lobbied by the Georgian Dream government officials”, violated the laws on competition and tobacco control.
The corporation says that they had to take loans to cover their necessary expenses for the corporation’s staff and their dues to the state, however, they failed to meet their financial obligations.
Omega Group says that they appealed to the government in 2017 to have their debt restructured, “but the government ignored the problem” which led to a further increase in financial debt and the interest rate.
- More about Omega Group case can be found here.
Today Omega Group announced that OGT was to be sold by auction on the basis of the judgment of Tbilisi City Court, but the Stockholm Arbitration has banned the Georgian government from enforcing this judgment.
In addition, Georgia is ordered to compensate Zaza Okuashvili, the founder of the Omega Group, for court-related expenses.
On the other hand the Ministry of Justice of Georgia released a statement and explained that Georgia will not pay the imposed compensation.
The Georgian government has already informed [Stockholm] that it is going to appeal the decision made by the arbitrator regarding Zaza Okuashvili's case. Consequently, Georgia will not pay the imposed compensation either, even though the special arbitrator has only partially found with Okuashvili”, announced the Ministry of Justice.
The arbitrator partially satisfied the applicant's claim and established the necessity of taking temporary measures. However, it is not clear why the arbitrator prohibited the enforcement of Tbilisi City Court’s decision of October 4, 2018 since it has not been enforced by the National Enforcement Bureau”, reads the statement of the Ministry.
Zaza Okuashvili, the founder of Omega Group, appealed to the Stockholm court – the Ministry of Justice of Georgia is the respondent in the case.
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