The Luxembourg Times | 14 November 2025

Tribunal members named in €14bn Fridman claim against Luxembourg

by Aaron Grunwald

All three members have been named to the arbitration panel in Mikhail Fridman’s $16 billion (€13.8 billion) claim against Luxembourg.

The panel will be led by the international legal scholar Joongi Kim, who was appointed president of the arbitration tribunal on 5 November, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Luc Frieden told the Luxembourg Times this week.

The EU slapped sanctions on Fridman in February 2022 following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Luxembourg’s government froze his assets in the Grand Duchy, but the EU General Court ruled in April 2024 that there was insufficient evidence that Fridman, one of Russia’s wealthiest financiers, supported the Kremlin’s war against Kyiv and ordered him removed him from the sanctions list.

In August 2024, Fridman filed a legal claim under a 1989 international investor protection agreement, arguing that Luxembourg’s government had breached his rights. The $16 billion arbitration claim covers the value of his frozen assets and compensation for financial damage to his business.

It is the first and only case against the Luxembourg state listed in the UN’s Uctad investor dispute database.

The billionaire remained on the EU’s sanctions list because the decision of the court only applied to the period between February 2022 and mid-March 2023.

Joongi Kim to preside over arbitration panel

Kim is a professor at Yonsei Law School in Seoul, according to the university’s website. He is a member of the International Court of Arbitration, which is headquartered in Paris, an arbitration panel member at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes in Washington, and co-chairs the International Bar Association’s International Arbitration Committee.

“He has published widely on international dispute resolution, international trade and investment, corporate governance and corruption,” according to Georgetown Law School, where he is a visiting professor.

Kim declined to comment for this article.

The arbitration tribunal includes two other members, one nominated by Fridman, the claimant, and one nominated by the Luxembourg government, the respondent.

Fridman named Gourab Banerji at Essex Court Chambers in London and Luxembourg named Klaus Sachs at the CMS law firm in Munich, according to trade publication Global Arbitration Review, which also first named Kim as the head of the panel. At the time of publication, Banerji had not responded to separate requests for comment. CMS declined to comment, but did not dispute the article.

Hearings potentially in Hong Kong

The arbitration tribunal was initially set to sit at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre (HKIAC), however the venue could change. “No decision has yet been taken” on where the arbitration will take place, Frieden’s spokesperson said.

It “is difficult to assess” when arbitration hearings will start and conclude and when the tribunal’s decision will be rendered “as we are still at the early stage of the proceedings,” the spokesperson said.

The HKIAC did not respond to the Luxembourg Times’ request for comment.

Fridman is represented by Cherie Blair at Omnia Strategy in London, Roger Gherson at Gherson Solicitors in London, Thierry Marembert at Kiejman & Marembert in Paris and Baiju Vasani at the Twenty Essex law firm in London. At the time of publication, Blair and Gherson had not replied to the Luxembourg Times’ requests for comment. Marembert and Vasani declined to comment.

Luxembourg’s government is represented by Jennifer Younan at A&O Shearman in Paris, according to the prime minister’s office. The law firm declined to comment.

Filings in the case are not publicly available.

Original EU court case continues

Lithuania and Estonia have appealed the April 2024 European court decision, which had annulled the European Council’s sanctions against Fridman. In a preliminary opinion on 30 October 2025, an advocate general at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) recommended that the 2024 ruling be upheld. Andrea Biondi wrote that due process had not been followed and Fridman should be removed from the sanctions list.

That opinion is not binding and the case will now be reviewed by a panel of ECJ judges. In the vast majority of cases, judges reach the same conclusions as advocate generals’ preliminary opinions. Typically the panel of judges issue a final ruling within six months.

Separately the EU placed Fridman on a fresh sanctions list and the assets remain frozen. Fridman has repeatedly stated that he does not have close links with the Kremlin.