Rybalkin, Gortsunyan, Dyakin and Partners law firm (RGD), together with a legal team of King’s Counsels and solicitors, has obtained a significant court decision in favor of RGD’s client. The decision cancels orders freezing approximately USD 3 billion in assets as part of Renova Industries Limited et al v. Emmerson International Corporation et al case. The Court awarded costs to RGD's client.

The freezing orders were issued by Judge Wallbank during urgent hearings in October and November 2018, without summoning the defendants. In 2019, the High Court of the British Virgin Islands set aside these orders. The appellant appealed against the decision to quash provisional measures and received an order to suspend their removal pending the appellate court's decision. The appeal hearings were held in July 2019.

The opponents stated 32 grounds in support of canceling the decision to lift the provisional measures. But on February 7, 2023, the Supreme Court of the Eastern Caribbean (as the Court of Appeal) announced the dismissal of the appeal's arguments, upholding Judge Jack's decision to set aside the orders. The Court affirmed the validity of Judge Jack's decision to lift the provisional measures due to the appellant’s failure to disclose a number of significant facts during the urgent hearings without summoning the defendants in 2018. Another argument for the decision was that the application for the provisional measures was filed with an unacceptable delay and there was no real risk that assets could be diverted from the potential enforcement of the judgment. The Court of Appeal also dismissed the appeals challenging both the order which had established confidentiality regime for documents disclosed by the client pursuant to the freezing orders and the order to dismiss the application to reschedule the hearing on applications to set aside Judge Jack's decision.

The RGD team represented by Partner Ilya Rybalkin, Counsels Yan Kalish, Alexander Lazarev, Varvara Voynova, and Associate Vladislav Viryasov has conducted an extensive document discovery procedure concerning the client's assets and transactions. The team has also prepared a detailed statement on the transparency and good faith of all such transactions, which entirely excluded the grounds for imposing provisional measures.

Paul McGrath KC, supported by barristers Michael Balding and Andrew McLeod, and solicitors from DLA Piper (London) and Agon (BVI) acted on behalf of the client in the Court hearings.

The decisions issued within this case were recognised as precedent-setting for both BVI and other countries of the Eastern Caribbean. It is also one of the largest cases in terms of the size of frozen assets.

Freezing orders are often called the "nuclear weapon" of litigation. Receiving such an order often leads to a quick settlement of the dispute on favorable terms for the applicant. Meanwhile, obtaining provisional measures without summoning the defendant becomes possible even when the applicant provides incomplete or distorted information. In such cases, the defendant has a chance to challenge provisional measures, as well as to claim compensation for all losses and expenses caused by the imposed measures.

The RGD team has reaffirmed its unrivaled experience in both successfully imposing and lifting provisional measures in the form of asset freeze in a wide range of common law jurisdictions, including the UK, USA, BVI, Cyprus, etc.