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A long-running multi-million-pound employment dispute involving a Jersey-based mining company, its aggrieved former boss, and the firm’s Chinese owner is close to ending.
All appeal avenues have been exhausted and final costs are being decided in the case of Oleg Sheyko – who was previously head of Consolidated Minerals Limited – and his former employer.
In a recently published judgment, the Royal Court has ordered Mr Sheyko to pay his former employer’s legal costs after he dropped a claim to recover a bonus, insurance and other costs which he argued he was contractually entitled to.
However, this sum – with the exact amount yet to be determined – will be a fraction of the $13.5m which the court has previously awarded to Mr Sheyko.
Pictured: The case has been heard by Jersey's Royal Court.
Ukrainian-born Mr Sheyko was head of Consolidated Minerals from July 2017, when he moved to the island.
However, he resigned less than a year later, and initiated court proceedings in July 2018, claiming that CML’s new Chinese owner, which had bought the business in May 2017, had undermined his authority.
CML, however, argued that Mr Sheyko was incompetent and difficult, and resigned because he had not got rich from an anticipated public listing.
What followed was a protracted court battle, which has involved the Royal Court trying to access documents and correspondence sent between key players, including Chinese senior executives of the parent company, which could prove or disprove the claims.
This process of ‘discovery’, which appeared to involve the Chinese State, frustrated the court so much that it decided that CML’s defence against the civil claim could not continue, therefore Mr Sheyko’s claim was successful.
Pictured: In an earlier judgment, the Royal Court said that CML had failed to provide details of text conversations that had taken place via the Chinese WeChat messaging service.
In a rare occurrence, the Court struck out the case in January 2021 before CML had an opportunity to defend its position on the basis that CML had not provided requested documents.
That decision was upheld by the Royal Court on appeal in October 2021, and leave to appeal that judgement was refused by a Court of Appeal judge last year.
Mr Sheyko has received the $13.5m, which is the money he would have been paid had he worked the entirety of his five-year contract.
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