Senior Advocate Gourab Banerji has been appointed as Arbitrator in a landmark US$16 billion investment treaty arbitration initiated against the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.

The arbitration arises from a claim filed by Russian businessman Mikhail Fridman under the 1989 Bilateral Investment Treaty between Russia and Belgium–Luxembourg. The dispute centres on the freezing of Fridman’s assets in Luxembourg following his designation under the European Union’s sanctions regime.

An UNCITRAL tribunal has now been formally constituted, with Professor Joongi Kim of Yonsei Law School, Seoul, serving as presiding arbitrator. Mr Gourab Banerji has been appointed as the claimant’s arbitrator, while Luxembourg has nominated leading German arbitrator Klaus Sachs, partner at CMS Munich.

Fridman alleged that the sanctions led to the unlawful expropriation of his beneficial interests in ABH Holdings, which owns stakes in the Alfa Group, one of Russia’s largest privately held financial conglomerates. He maintains that the EU’s allegations regarding his connections to the Russian government are unsubstantiated.

The claim follows earlier litigation, including an April 2024 ruling of the EU General Court, which held that the sanctions imposed on Fridman between February 2022 and March 2023 were unjustified. However, subsequent EU sanctions remain in force and continue to affect his assets.