Topic: Bribery and corruption

An Emirati company has lodged the first-ever ICSID claim against the Comoros, which concerns an investment project linked to a “passports for cash” scheme that led to a corruption scandal.

03 April 2025

An UNCITRAL tribunal has dismissed a Florida-based commodities trader’s US$206 million treaty claim against Estonia over a seaport, rejecting allegations that state agents had tried to extort corrupt payments from the claimant.

01 April 2025

A Moscow court has enforced a US$99 million award won by a sanctioned Russian television company in a Swiss arbitration against Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash’s Group DF. 

25 March 2025

A Singapore court has rejected South Korea’s bid to set aside a US$43 million investment treaty award won by US hedge fund Mason Capital over the state’s interference in a Samsung merger. 

20 March 2025

US oil services group Schlumberger has sought to stay an UNCITRAL arbitration worth at least USS$230 million over alleged corruption in a Guatemalan oil project, arguing it is not a signatory to the underlying contracts.

20 March 2025

A Swiss-headquartered iron ore mining and trading company has threatened to bring an investment treaty claim against Ukraine in response to the targeting of its assets by anticorruption authorities prosecuting a “fugitive oligarch”.

19 March 2025

The Amsterdam Court of Appeal has enforced an ICC award worth US$85 million plus interest against an Iraqi state entity over a salvage contract while setting off amounts it was granted in a separate award. 

04 March 2025

A Swedish court has rejected a bid by entities associated with oligarch Igor Kolomoisky to revive a US$6 billion Energy Charter Treaty claim against Ukraine – despite finding that the grounds for dismissing the case were wrongly decided. 

03 February 2025

This year's Milan Chamber of Arbitration conference looked at the interplay of criminal law and international arbitration, including discussion of the Lagergren case, which a speaker said marked the start of the transition from an "eyes shut" to a "zero-tolerance" approach to corruption 60 years ago, and of the more recent Enrica Lexie inter-state case between India and Italy. 

28 January 2025

The latest Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner international arbitration survey examines the challenges of corruption in the wake of last year’s P&ID judgment, finding that most arbitration practitioners are concerned about the issue but think the arbitral process is robust enough to mitigate it.

10 December 2024