Predictable Rules

Given the highly multinational nature of business and investment vehicles, asset tracing and recovery matters are becoming more and more cross-border. Ukraine is notably in the very mainstream of this trend. But these actions are still expected to be complicated, time consuming and costly. Little progress has been made to recover public assets from top officials who fraudently hid assets overseas. In turn, the situation in the corporate sector is more predictable and there are still some success stories.

In light of the Covid-induced recession there is likely to be a significant rise in insolvency cases in coming years.

Ukrainian lawyers should be prepared to find themselves conducting investigations and recovering assets out of our jurisdiction. To this end, funding emerging market litigation as a tool for covering these sizeable costs is another hot topic for the development of this practice.

As our cover story heroes James Hart and Serhii Nyzhnyi, partners of Hillmont Partners, stated, the Covid-provoked situation became “fertile ground for fraud”, especially as some business owners neglect due diligence and the attraction of a legal counsel.

This is the last issue of the UJBL in 2020. Our team wishes you good health and season’s greetings!