Vilnius Regional Court has postponed the hearing of a lawsuit by a group of companies owned by BaltCap, a Lithuanian investment company, against its former partner Sarunas Stepukonis and Interactive Brokers Central Europe, a Hungarian-based US securities trading platform, for two months after it was due to start hearing the merits of the claim on Wednesday.
The court hearing is now scheduled for October 24, according to the court information system Liteko. According to information available to BNS, the decision was made because the issue of jurisdiction has only been resolved in the court of first instance and has not yet come into force.
In May, Vilnius Regional Court ruled that the lawsuit should be heard in Lithuania, not Hungary, and Interactive Brokers Central Europe later appealed, but neither the appeal hearing date, not the judge have been appointed yet.
The regional court judge also ordered the hearing to be held behind closed-doors, so the announcement of the final ruling may take time or it may not be made public at all.
Lithuania’s Zvirgzdaiciu Energija and Nullus, as well as Poland’s En Efficiency, filed their lawsuit in February, seeking 5.485 million euros in damages from Stepukonis and Interactive Brokers. In February, a court temporarily seized Stepukonis’ assets worth this amount and banned him from accessing his accounts.
In February, a court temporarily seized Stepukonis’ assets of the same value and banned him from accessing his accounts, including Interactive Brokers accounts.
The hearing on the merits of a separate lawsuit filed by Zvirgzdaiciu Energija, Nullus and Moelta, seeking the return of tens of millions of euros gambled away by Stepukonis has not yet started as well. It was filed against Lithuania’s gambling company Olympic Casino and its Estonian shareholder OB Holding 1. The claimants are seeking the return of 26 million euros worth of financial assets and are also seeking damages.
So far, courts have only decided where the case should be heard, in Lithuania or Estonia. In June, Lithuania’s Court of Appeal ruled that the lawsuit should be heard in Lithuania, and the hearings will also be closed to the public. Vilnius Regional Court has not yet set a hearing date, according to the Liteko system.
Stepukonis is suspected of embezzling at least 27 million euros from the BaltCap Infrastructure Fund companies, but according to prosecutors, this amount could be higher. BaltCap representatives estimate that around 40 million euros may have disappeared from the fund’s companies.
Source: BNS
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