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A Finstar Financial Group affiliate is seeking to enforce a multimillion-dollar London arbitration award in federal court in Florida, targeting a Miami-based businessman over an unpaid fintech loan tied to operations in Eastern Europe.

Seychelles-incorporated Lenka Investments Ltd. filed a petition in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida to confirm and enforce a roughly $5 million award issued by the London Court of International Arbitration against Emmanuil Grinshpun. The award stems from a loan agreement connected to SmartOne Software Engineering Ltd., an Irish fintech company focused on payment processing and financial technology services.

Lenka is affiliated with private equity group Finstar, led by Russian billionaire Oleg Viktorovich Boyko. According to the arbitration award issued in August 2024, Grinshpun and his partners Pavel Voloshin and Armen Zurabian formed Spain-based E21 Partners Technology SL, which acts as SmartOne’s parent company. E21 entered into a $5 million loan agreement with Lenka to support SmartOne’s payment processing expansion in several countries, including Albania, Azerbaijan, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

The dispute arose after the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which E21 argued severely disrupted SmartOne’s business plans. In the arbitration proceedings, E21 and its partners contended that geopolitical events and related sanctions had a direct and damaging impact on their operations, particularly given SmartOne’s development footprint in Ukraine.

In July 2023, Lenka issued formal notice alleging breaches of the loan agreement and related guarantees. After the loan matured in August 2023 without repayment, Lenka initiated arbitration before the London Court of International Arbitration. A sole arbitrator, Gregory Fullelove, was appointed in April 2024.

The arbitrator concluded that E21 and its individual guarantors had failed to repay sums due under both the loan agreement and a deed of guarantee and indemnity. The final award ordered payment of $5 million, along with more than £185,000 in arbitration costs and over £150,000 in legal fees, plus $23,000 in additional costs. Post-award interest was set at 7% annually.

In its Florida petition, Lenka seeks recognition and enforcement of the award under the Federal Arbitration Act and the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards. The company stated that no proceedings have been initiated in the United Kingdom to challenge the validity of the arbitral decision.

During the arbitration, E21 and its partners argued that enforcing repayment would cause severe harm, asserting that Lenka and its owner were aware of the importance of the Ukrainian market to SmartOne’s business model. The arbitrator rejected those arguments, finding that the respondents remained liable under the terms of the agreement.

The award also references sanctions imposed on Boyko by Ukraine, Poland and Australia, and earlier measures by Canada. It notes that the United States, the European Union and the United Kingdom have not sanctioned him personally, though a Russian bank affiliated with Finstar was subjected to U.S. sanctions in November 2024.

George Benaur of Benaur Law LLC, counsel for Lenka, said in a statement: “We are merely seeking to enforce an arbitration award against Mr. Grinshpun and hope that he settles his debt without further complicating the matter.”

Grinshpun did not provide comment. Counsel information for him was not listed in the court docket at the time of filing.

The case, Lenka Investments Ltd. v. Grinshpun, is pending before Judge Darrin P. Gayles in the Southern District of Florida.