National lottery company Tipos will appeal against a Supreme Court ruling from November 2010 calling for it to pay out over EUR 14 million in compensation to Cypriot company Lemikon.
The management of Tipos feels that the justification of the Supreme Court’s judgement was inadequate and unsubstantiated, and so it should file an official appeal this week on grounds that the company’s rights to a fair trial and to judicial protection as afforded by the Constitution have been violated.
In an earlier out-of-court settlement, Tipos actually paid EUR 16 million to Lemikon, and so even if it loses the case it expects the difference to be paid back, as the Supreme Court award was almost EUR 2 million less (EUR 14.122 million).
The case has been dragging on for years, and it all started when the Czech betting company Sportka tried to sue Tipos over know-how and trademark infringement. Since then the claim was assigned to the company Lemikon. There were also allegations that renowned lawyer Ernest Valko was murdered last year because of his involvement in the case.
Tipos recently tried to dodge the court case ruling by filing for restructuring, but as the request was rejected last week, it has lodged a new request. If granted, the restructuring would protect the company from creditors, meaning also from the company Lemikon.
Finance minister Ivan Miklos said the whole affair was aimed at extorting tens of millions of euro from Slovakia, and that his predecessor from Smer-SD, Jan Pociatek, had not acted in the public interest. Miklos says his ministry and the company would do everything in their power to prevent any payout to the company Lemikon.