Antrix Corporation, a commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), has said In a filing before a US federal court It has little assets in the US, even as foreign investors in Bengaluru-based startup Devas Multimedia moved a US federal court to allow a nationwide search of Antrix’s US assets.
Three Mauritius-based investors in Devas Multimedia are attempting to identify Antrix’s assets in order to recover compensation of $111 million over a year. The 2005 Dewas-Antrix satellite deal failed.
The US federal court for the Western District of Washington, through an August 16, 2021 order, allowed Dewas investors to search Antrix’s assets in the area. Foreign investors are now trying to get orders to make it a nationwide search for property instead of the Washington area.
Dewas Multimedia, which is set for liquidation in India following a May 25 order of the National Company Law Tribunal, also opposed the US federal court’s decision to search by Mauritius investors in Dewas Multimedia, in a court filing on November 29. . Antrix Corp.’s assets are applicable throughout the United States.
Mauritius-based investors in Dewas Multimedia – CC/Devas Mauritius, Telecom Devas Mauritius and Dewas Employees Mauritius Pvt Ltd – have moved the US Federal Court for the Western District of Washington to file the court’s August 16 order – allowing investors to Has received permission to search Antrix’s properties in Washington – across the US.
In response to the Devas Multimedia investors’ petition, Antrix Corporation and Dewas Multimedia said in a November 29 filing that the investors cannot claim a portion of the $1.2 billion compensation awarded to Dewas Multimedia by an international tribunal.
“Given that the interventionists have identified no assets in the state of Washington, they cannot rely on this court’s decision on Washington state law to support their motion to file judgments in those jurisdictions.” where Washington state law would not apply,” Antrix has said in a courtroom. filing.
Antrix has said that only two US companies – Intelsat Service and Equipment LLC and Yazmi USA LLC – the commercial arm of ISRO – have any dues that would be of interest to Devas investors.
Intelsat owes Antrix less than $150,000. Intelsat filed for bankruptcy in May 2020, and those bankruptcy proceedings are pending in the US Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Yazmi owes Antrix less than $40,000. In addition to the $186,304 owed on these two companies, records show that Antrix does not have any assets in the United States,” Antrix has said.
“Antrix submitted months ago that it does not have substantial assets anywhere in the United States, and the intervenors have not presented any evidence to refute that claim. Therefore, this court has been referred to this court for nationwide registration of the interventionists. The proposal should be rejected,” the commercial arm of ISRO has said.
Investors do not have the authority to implement the decision of Dewas. The Antrix petition states that both the judgment and the impugned judgment were recorded in the name of Dewas and not the intervenor.
Dewas Multimedia, opposed to investors’ move to search Antrix’s assets across the US, said the investors were “attempting to seize Devas’ exclusive right to adjudication” issued by the court and “to circumvent the right”. for “court-appointed liquidator”.
Meanwhile, in a separate development in another US federal court in the Southern District of New York, Indian public sector aircraft carrier Air India – which is being bought by the Tata Group – has filed a move by Dewas Multimedia investors to accelerate recognition. has opposed. Due to the privatization of Air India, Air India as the alter ego of the Government of India. Dewas investors are seeking to identify Air India as the alter ego of the Indian government for enforcing the compensation awarded by an international tribunal for its failure in the 2005 Antrix-Devas deal.
Under the failed 2005 deal, ISRO was to lease two communication satellites to Devas Multimedia for 12 years for Rs 167 crore. The startup firm was to provide multimedia services on mobile platforms in India using space band or S-band spectrum transponders on ISRO’s GSAT 6 and 6A satellites built by ISRO for Rs 766 crore.
The deal was scrapped by the UPA government in February 2011 amid the 2G crisis, citing the need for S-band spectrum for the country’s security needs. The CBI and the ED were asked to probe the deal after the NDA government came to power in 2014.
Following the cancellation of the deal, foreign investors in Dewas Multimedia – German telecommunications major Deutsche Telekom, three Mauritius-based investors and Dewas Multimedia – approached various international tribunals seeking damages for the failed deal.
Deutsche Telekom was awarded $101 million in compensation by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in Geneva, Mauritius investors were awarded $111 million by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Tribunal and Dewas Multimedia was awarded an International Chamber of Commerce report in September. $1.2 billion was awarded by the tribunal. 14, 2017.
The $1.2 billion compensation award to Devas Multimedia was confirmed by the US Federal Court for the Western District of Washington on October 27, 2020. Antrix Corporation has gone to appeal against this order in a US court and the Supreme Court of India has asked for it. The ICC Tribunal Award will be put on hold vide order dated 4th November, 2020.
The Enforcement Directorate and the Central Bureau of Investigation in India are probing cases of money laundering and corruption against Dewas in the country. The National Company Law Tribunal had on May 25 this year ordered the winding up of Dewas Multimedia citing fraud in its manufacturing.
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