The BVI Court heard in open hearing that Vidya Sharma, an ex-employee who had been dismissed by IPOC, has a consultancy agreement to receive $1m from LV Finance to provide testimony to support its defence. Mr Sharma, one of Alfa and LV Finance’s ‘star witnesses’, has previously been exposed in the German Courts for having been prepared to sell his testimony to the highest bidder in an SEC fraud investigation.

Another Alfa witness, Mr Anthony Giorgio has an agreement for $7m under which he will provide testimony to support Alfa’s defence of its actions.

IPOC is unable to reveal further details of Mr Sharma’s agreement at this juncture as it is currently subject to a confidentiality agreement in the Zurich arbitration proceedings. IPOC has applied to lift the confidentiality order in Zurich. LV Finance, who originally requested confidentiality in the Zurich proceedings against IPOC’s protests, and Vidya Sharma have so far opposed the release of this key document. However, IPOC is aware that LV Finance has already been heavily briefing the media and providing them with court materials from the Zurich proceedings.

Commenting on the revelations, an IPOC spokesman said:

“These revelations leave Alfa’s credibility in tatters. They have resorted to ‘chequebook testimony’ to prop up allegations against IPOC, which have previously been roundly rejected by a fully independent ICC Tribunal in a Final Award in Geneva.

“They are peddling a series of smears and conspiracy theories to try and divert attention from the massive corporate fraud they have perpetrated to rob IPOC of MegaFon shares worth hundreds of millions of dollars.”

An earlier ruling in the dispute from the International Chamber of Commerce in Geneva in August, also exposed the baseless nature of Alfa and LV Finance’s defence. The ICC Tribunal ruled that the Alfa Group were not “bona fide purchasers” of the MegaFon stake, finding they and LV Finance constructed a scheme to transfer the MegaFon shares in the knowledge that this would breach IPOC’s rights under its option agreements with LV Finance. The ICC also indicated it believed that LV Finance were purveyors of unreliable testimony and dismissed their money laundering and corruption allegations. The ICC ruling is, to date, the only final decision reached in IPOC’s ongoing legal disputes with LV Finance and Alfa.

During the Geneva proceedings it came to light that Kroll Associates UK was the subject of a criminal investigation by the Swiss police for its role in the tailing of the Tribunal Chairman, the searching of his rubbish and attempts to get access to his bank accounts. Kroll Associates has been involved in assisting Alfa/ LV Finance in the dispute.

© Media Strategy in behalf of IPOC International Growth Fund Limited