Motorola Inc. lost a battle in its war against Turkish mobile operator Telsim as a Swiss court Thursday ruled the owners’ assets there can be unfrozen. In addition, Cem and Hakan Uzan, two brothers within the Uzan family, which controls Telsim, resigned from the company’s board to protect the operator.
Uzan assets have been frozen in several countries as a result of lawsuits filed by Motorola and Nokia Corp. against Telsim and the Uzans, alleging that the operator borrowed funds from the vendors through vendor financing with no plans to repay the money.
Last month, a New York federal judge ordered the Uzans to pay Motorola $4.3 billion.
Motorola said in a statement that the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruled July 31 to enforce the July 2002 U.K. worldwide freezing orders against the Uzan family.
“Today’s decision by a lower Swiss court is not only contrary to a recent ruling by Switzerland’s highest court, but also largely irrelevant since up to $800 million of the Uzans’ assets in Switzerland remain frozen under the Swiss Federal Supreme Court ruling,” Motorola said. “We will appeal today’s decision to the Supreme Court of the Canton of Zurich-the same court that reversed a previous ruling in favor of the Uzans by the District Court of Zurich.”
According to international press reports, Turkish government officials have seized several other companies owned by the Uzan group, and the brothers stepped down from Telsim, which is highly profitable, to avoid potential financial and political effects on the carrier.
