Member Info for Looed

Green Capital has been prohibited from trading / extracting oil from FRC fields. This is likely a creditor attempting to collect its dues for oil, perhaps kit, related to local operations before the courts shut Green Capital down.

Lifeishard - can't say for sure, but in the few interviews I came across he sounds forward thinking and very keen to develop the Georgian energy market, with an interest in renewables. Not sure the previous person had that same focus and enthusiasm. He has partnered with USAID in the past so I assume he maintains connections there.

Giorgi Chikovani, who had been the head of Georgian Energy Development Fund until recently, has been appointed as the General Director of Georgian Oil and Gas Corporation. He replaced Giorgi Bakhtadze on the position of the General Director.

Giorgi Chikovani has a long-term experience of working as an expert and manager in the field of energy both at national and international level. He had been the Deputy Chairman of the Supervisory Board of GOGC since 2020 until recently. In various periods of time, he had been the Deputy Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Deputy Minister of Energy, Executive Director of Georgian International Energy Corporation (GIEC), Deputy General Director of Georgian Gas International Corporation (GIC) etc.

Giorgi Chikovani holds the Master of Science degree in International Marketing (University of Groningen, The Netherlands) and the Bachelor of Science degree in International Economic Relations (Tbilisi State University)

Giorgi Chikovani has participated in a number of international programs. He speaks Russian, English and Spanish.
https://www.gogc.ge/en/article/giorgi-chikovani-will-head-gogc-/548

Phil_2018 – It’s frustrating I know, but I don’t think interested parties care that “It's been months since Zaza was found to have played a dodgy”. What they will want is the assurance that the potential for any legal challenge has been fully exhausted. The Appeal Court only dealt with the FRC appeal for arbitration earlier in June, not months ago.

The recent FRC motion, which was a success, is a very recent sign of action by the company and that events remain in motion.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote -

"Much earlier in the trial, two appeals (the ‘interlocutory appeals’) had been lodged with the First Court of Appeals (FCA). Interlocutory appeal #1 was an FRC motion to compel arbitration in relation to ZM’s employment contract, and interlocutory appeal #2 was a ZM motion to dismiss the T.I. Recently, FRC filed a Motion to Dismiss with the appeal court. The motion argued that, post Final Judgement, these appeals are moot."

This 'appeal dismissed' is in relation to appeal #2. The court has already dismissed appeal #1. As per FRC motion to dismiss, both appeals are found to be moot.

Couple of articles on evolving energy policy. No reference to FRR.

Georgia has “great potential” for strengthening global energy security with the prospect of acting as a bridge between the energy markets of Europe and Central Asia, David Songhulashvili, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Sectoral Economics and Economic Policy, said on Monday.

During a committee meeting in the western Georgian city of Zugdidi, Songhulashvii highlighted the potential of Georgia for becoming a Caucasus “power hub,” and stressed the importance of continuing construction of renewable energy facilities, saying it would allow the country to “make the most of domestic resources” and “minimise import commitments.”

The meeting involved the hearing of the report on the status of the fulfilment of commitments under the Association Agreement, signed with the European Union in 2014, and membership of the Energy Community.

The MP emphasised Georgian authorities were working to make a “significant contribution” to the development of the energy market in the five years of its membership, adding the country had made “great progress” in fulfilling its commitments.

Earlier in April, Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili announced the Government was in talks with “various investors” over projects to construct hydropower plants in the country.
https://agenda.ge/en/news/2022/2009

Also in english - https://parliament.ge/en/media/news/davit-songhulashvili-chvens-kveqanas-namdvilad-didi-shesadzleblobebi-akvs-globaluri-energetikuli-usafrtkhoebis-gadzlierebis-chrilshi

Yes WHamBoy - I agree, being personally ignored is not a good reflection on them.

Keep at it Lifeishard. It is frustrating that the various cases don't run to a more suitable timetable, but as far as we can see the company is prevailing in court. We are lucky ZM didn't appeal, that could have added years on to the litigation.

WHamBoy - I would add that the only person who truly didn't give a **** is our now departed CEO, with the current team we at least have a fighting chance.

WHamBoy - that is an active email address and its best to work on the assumption that just because they don't reply doesn't mean they don't read your messages.

I expect they think their strategy of radio silence has worked to their advantage so far. It doesn't excuse their silence, but I can see that what few updates we were getting pretty much ground to a halt when ZM got his only (and luckily symbolic) win in Texas. That happened when shareholders inadvertently gatecrashed Zoom / contacted the judge. I think that has made them extremely cautious about when and how they give out information. We haven't really had any messaging from them since they expressed their extreme displeasure about that event. Of course you can also argue that they could have warned us in advance about Zoom etc. and so prevented it from happening in the first place. Whilst they do understand there was no intent to harm the company, I do think it has made them wary on who they communicate with.

Not pleasant I know, but they are as good as saying "yes, shareholders are important, but let's be real, you are not as important in the short term as these other and more immediate concerns."

Dulwichman – I agree and hope we are both right that the recent win in Texas will encourage a rethink by all parties involved, and that extends to parties not directly involved in the Texas case (GOGC etc.)

We need to see how FRC can weaponize this decisive win in Texas to get clarity on their (our) position with the GOGC, the status of the PSA and the assignment of the asset to FRUS. The GG have previously stated that they were cooperating with the company and would respect the decisions of international courts. It would bed reassuring to see some evidence to that effect.

We know very little about the Georgian legal process other that ZM seems to be involved in a lot of hearings that we deduce are not going his way.

The failure to fix the “simple admin error” regarding the assignment in the Georgian registry remains a concern. But, we found out that the company hadn’t in fact returned the undeveloped lands despite ZM saying they had done so. The GOGC were furious that the company had breached force majeure and extracted oil. It was only after the event that FRC advised GOGC that it was ZM, not the company.

Now, with the Texas win and with Texas recognizing the assignment, with the undeveloped lands now handed back to GOGC, with lots of pats on the back from the US political machine for Georgia regarding relations, and supposing the company have an attractive financing package, then it is likely as good as its going to get as far as FRC’s chances of getting the green light to restart operations and extend the PSA.

We don’t really know what is going on with Hope. The Texas case revealed that, at the time, he didn’t have the finances for more Cayman related action. Perhaps he saw the company had outmaneuvered him and left him with an empty shell.

All parties are happy to kick the ball way down the road with regard to further litigation. If we get some clarity on the FRC – GOGC relationship, and crucially the assignment, then I would hope further litigation falls by the wayside. If anything, we might now see a combination of FRC / Hope / FTI going after ZM.

It seems these cases move at a glacial pace. The FRC interlocutory appeal to compel arbitration was launched in Feb 2021 and has only just been resolved. That said, If FRC do now have the initiative then we might see settlements in these cases sooner rather than later. Even better if the operational side of the business can now just get on and operate irrespective of these civil cases.

Thanks cymro1864. As Arsenal221 says, it looks like they are being chased by the tax people. This might indicate that the recent flurry of court hearings in Georgia have ended badly for for GC (and therefore ZM) They may now be left with debts they cannot not be able to pay and no way to service them due to the seizures / prohibitions placed against Green Capital and ZM.

This is one of the two interlocutory appeals that FRC argued are now moot in support of the Motion to Dismiss which the court has granted. See my post of a fee days ago for the sequence of events.

Thanks Lifeishard - as I said I mis-read your message so no problem at all. Sleuthing can be an exhausting business :)

Thanks for sharing the earlier message you got and glad you are trying to engage again. At some point they will have to reply in one way or another. Keep at it.

Lifeishard – Thanks. I didn’t read it as you asking me to contact the company, I read your “reads well, but..” as being a tad dismissive of the time and energy some people spend in finding and sharing information about the company. I likely mis-read it.

I totally agree that we would all like a message / regular messaging from the company, but simply moaning on here isn’t going to get you one. Being proactive might at least get you something. It would take you no time at all to copy the 'wish-list' you mentioned in your earlier post into an email to them and hit send. Can't hurt to try.

And of course I will let folks know if I get anything.

Thats great WHamBoy - they have to speak at some point. Hopefully others will do the same.

Lifeishard - then perhaps you should ask them yourself. Email address is on the website.

Fibber – the one thing I genuinely know is that, for a time, we were casually discarded, left as shareholders in an empty shell of a company as well as being victims of fraud. At least now we have a chance of something.

Arsenal221 is right about the importance of resolving the Hope issue (though recall that in court the company brushed Hope off as an irrelevance). However, the Texas case was the case they had to win. Forget all the noise of the trial, this was all about the asset.

Anything other than a comprehensive win could have made it easier for ZM to leave us in a legal quagmire, muddy the waters over who was right and who was wrong. Now the picture from Texas is crystal clear.

You can see that relations between Georgia / USA / EU are probably at an all time high. The decisive win in Texas hopefully makes it both easier for the GG to support FRC and (I hope) harder for them to renege on past messages that they will cooperate with FRC in support of broader US relations.

It’s hard to say when more news will drop. We have to hope that events can now move at a more rapid pace.

So, while it would be reckless for me to say to you don’t worry and that I “genuinely believe it will come good” (as per your post), I can see that we are now in a much better place considering the all-too-real alternative that was meant to seal our fate. The company are trying to turn this around, the Texas win should surely help, but now we need the other actors in this saga to play their part.

In the ZM case, the window to appeal the Final Judgement has closed. Judge Weems ruling is now final and unappealable.

Much earlier in the trial, two appeals (the ‘interlocutory appeals’) had been lodged with the First Court of Appeals (FCA). Interlocutory appeal #1 was an FRC motion to compel arbitration in relation to ZM’s employment contract, and interlocutory appeal #2 was a ZM motion to dismiss the T.I.

Recently, FRC filed a Motion to Dismiss with the appeal court. The motion argued that, post Final Judgement, these appeals are moot.

On May 5th the FCA wrote to ZM giving him a deadline of May 16th to demonstrate “by citation to the law and to the record why, in light of the trial court’s Final Judgment issued on March 4, 2022, this Court has jurisdiction over his interlocutory appeal.”

The FCA deadline has passed without a reply, and the FCA has now granted the FRC Motion to Dismiss.

As ordered by the Final Judgement, “ZM...takes nothing of and from Defendants…and his claims are dismissed with prejudice”.

In the FIC v SN case, SN has filed a motion asking the Texas civil court to delay the case pending the outcome of similar cases at the federal level (the Hope case). The court has now set a date of 20/7/22 to hear arguments related to that motion. We already know that the federal case has itself been rescheduled to 2023.

Also in the FIC case, the court has granted a procedural motion for 3 out-of-town lawyers to join the SN legal team.

In the Mourant v SN, ZM case (non-payment of legal fees) the Texas court has set a date for trial on merits for 28/11/22.

With ZM now fully out of the way, at least as far as the main Texas case is concerned, the company can hopefully concentrate on more important, and productive, matters.

Chesh / don5 - here is the link to the agenda. PH had the 12:30-12:40 slot discussing "upcoming projects" https://ceecsg.org/54th-ceec-meeting-friday-13-may-2022-tbilisiceecmeeting-fasduobclyxfuefcbasibhdlab/