The Commercial Climate in Cyprus
Christos has been with Argyrou and Konstantinou LLC. for 9 years. During this period, he has been involved in a number of notable cases for domestic and foreign clients. In the process of interim proceedings, he has obtained worldwide freezing orders for hundreds of millions (RUR, USD), obtained disclosure orders, appointed interim receivers, and, recently, annulled worldwide freezing order coupled with a disclosure orders issued against client of his firm. He speaks with us about his interim proceedings, his extensive experience in cross-border litigation and what his firm offers.
In the process of interim proceedings, you have obtained worldwide freezing orders for hundreds of millions; what do you think are the key aspects to ensure the best results during interim proceedings?
Freezing orders are a very powerful element and as such, they are subject to very strict requirements and safeguards, and those affected by an order must act with the utmost care in ensuring its terms are observed.
An application is usually made on a without notice basis and therefore any applicant is under a duty to make full and frank disclosure of all material facts – whether they support or adversely affect their case – to the Court. Any failure in this regard may lead the freezing order to be set aside. For a successful result, the applicant must prove that there is a good arguable case, there must be a real risk of dissipation of assets which is often difficult to prove, and it must be just and convenient to grant the freezing order.
To ensure the effectiveness of a freezing order, a lawyer should examine whether they could also seek other orders to support the case. For individuals or companies whose accounts or assets have been ordered frozen, the order may result in adverse financial and personal consequences in connection with disposal of assets, living expenses, negative publicity, and asset disclosure. For example, a disclosure order is generally essential, as it requires a respondent to disclose its assets and to produce a list detailing assets. This short timeframe puts the subjected party under pressure to disclose all assets, their value, and location eliminating every kind of privacy. Commercial litigators working on either side of a case should be able to practically approach a case which involves the freezing of assets. For the petitioner, they should be able to act rapidly and guide the clients through, often thousands of pages, of materials that need to be disclosed and presented appropriately to the court to justify the issuance of the requested orders. For the respondents, the legal team must be able to rapidly peruse the evidence submitted by the other side and efficiently and effectively present the shortfalls of the petitioner’s case. Cross-border litigation experience is always significant, as most cases where a worldwide freezing order is sought, have an international element.
You have extensive experience in cross-border litigation. What are the key aspects of a cross-border dispute that you and your firm manage?
Disputes are part of doing business. Transactions do not run perfectly and we recognise the difficulties that often arise. Our team swiftly identifies the issues that are at stake in every jurisdiction involved and has a legal team analysing them in a matter of hours. We coordinate the work of all the law firms that are representing our clients in the various jurisdictions that the dispute spans, in a vast array of legal disciplines. Our clients thus deal only with our firm, and we manage the dispute and ensure that all legal work streams are managed efficiently and no discrepancies appear in the presentation of the case in different jurisdictions, which is often the downside of cross-border disputes. Our high mobility and swift response ensures that any cross-border dispute, irrespective of the jurisdictions involved, is manageable.
The global landscape is changing in the provision of corporate and administrative services. What do you feel sets a law firm or a fiduciary services provider apart from others in an increasingly saturated market such as Cyprus?
Efficiency, expediency and precision. The Cyprus corporate services industry suffers from the shortcomings of poorly managing growth. Several service providers, striving to manage rapid growth, hire individuals who are neither academically, nor by experience, able to cater for the clients needs and protect their interests. Our firm’s benefit is that we only hire lawyers and chartered accountants to administer corporate entities who have the expertise and knowledge to review the clients’ corporate transactions in depth, reviewing the financial statements and transactions of the companies we administer understanding the legal and/ or tax consequences that ensue. We focus on the outcome and provide practical input to the clients even when that is not requested without increasing their costs.
Christos Konstantinou, Director
Email: ck@akfirm.law.
Contact number: +357 24665035
Fax number: +357 24655405
In the process of corporate fraud and other commercial cases, Christos has cooperated with lawyers from the USA, Russia, Germany, United Kingdom, Moldova, Romania, Hong Kong, Japan, Netherlands, Greece, France, Dominican Republic, BVI, Cayman Islands and Switzerland and has coordinated litigation and extrajudicial action.
Argyrou and Konstantinou LLC is co-managed by Miss Argyrou and Mr. Konstantinou. It consists of a number of UK and Cyprus qualified lawyers, legal advisors and administrative personnel. The Corporate Department is managed by Mrs. Rodoula Konstantinou a UK-qualified Chartered Accountant who gained several years of experience working with large multinationals and the public sector for KPMG. At a time of significant change in the legal industry in Cyprus and internationally Argyrou and Konstantinou LLC strive to ensure they always think outside the box when addressing the complex legal issues their clients face. The idea is for the clients to have a one-stop-shop for all their legal needs, which will also cater for their international legal needs with skill, efficiency and professionalism.
