FEDERAL JUDGE BARS PILATUS BANK OWNER ALI SADR FROM TAKING DISCOVERY IN AID OF FOREIGN ARBITRATION

A US District Court Judge in New York has entered a protective order barring Pilatus Bank owner and Chairman ALI SADR HASHEMINEJAD from taking a deposition and obtaining documents in the United States, against a business consultant with a prior relationship to Malta's banking regulator. The 8-page Memorandum and Order analyzes the issue, quotes from a number of the pleadings, and contains extensive citations to legal authorities. 

Sadr's attorneys had requested the Discovery to use in his international arbitration case against the Republic of Malta for damages. Sadr had employed a Hong Kong entity, Alpena Ltd., as Applicant, claiming that it is the holding company for Pilatus Bank, in order to bring the matter, based upon an existing agreement between Malta and China to arbitrate business disputes. Pilatus had its license revoked by the European Central Bank, after his indictment in District Court in New York (SDNY), is seeking to recover for what he alleges was the wrongful loss of his bank.

 The Court (Eastern District of New York) ruled that Sadr could not use the Federal Courts to obtain assistance to obtain Discovery, because the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) has no governmental authority, is not a foreign or international tribunal, but a private foreign arbitration. 

We shall be further discussing this complex case, with its relationship to pending Malta criminal proceedings against Pilatus Bank and its former MLRO, and the ICSID arbitration, in another article. stay tuned.

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