Nice to hear a little from KRY's lawyer in the case:

However, Markus Koehnen of Mc-Millan in Toronto, who represents Crystallex, says the suit has no merit.

"The bondholders are complaining that the company pursued the Venezuelan opportunity for too long, and that amounts to an attack on the business judgment of the directors," Mr. Koehnen says. "But it's fairly standard black-letter law that this kind of decision is one for the board to make, and just because the bondholders think the opportunity should not be pursued further doesn't make it so."

Here is some of Mr Koehnen's history:

Professional Experience

Markus Koehnen is a litigation partner with McMillan. Markus is listed in Chambers Global: The World's Leading Lawyers for Business under Dispute Resolution and Who's Who: Commercial Litigation. He has appeared before all levels of courts in Canada, including the Supreme Court of Canada as well as before domestic and international arbitral tribunals. His practice concentrates on complex commercial litigation with the following particular areas of focus:

Shareholder Rights/Corporate Governance
Markus is the author of Oppression and Related Remedies, a leading text on shareholder rights and directors liabilities published by Thomson/Carswell. He has also prepared the “Oppression Manual” for the Corporations Directorate of Industry Canada to assist that Ministry in deciding to investigate or intervene in shareholder disputes. He speaks and publishes widely in the area and teaches at the Institute of Corporate Directors.

He has acted for shareholders, fund managers, directors and corporate officers as both plaintiff’s and defendant’s counsel. In recent cases, he has acted for a group of institutional bondholders in challenging the leveraged buyout of BCE; for a controlling shareholder of a publicly traded company facing allegations of appropriation of corporate opportunities and has obtained an order replacing the board of directors of a publicly traded company. In addition Markus has represented shareholders in a wide variety of disputes that have led to the buy out of one or more shareholder groups.

International Law
Markus has extensive experience with international legal issues including arbitration, jurisdiction, conflicts of laws, sovereign immunity, act of state and trade law. He has co-ordinated multi-jurisdictional litigation between a broad range of legal cultures including the United States, Switzerland, Germany, Hungary, Nigeria and Iran.

In addition to litigating before courts and administrative tribunals of all levels, he has acted as counsel in numerous domestic and international arbitrations and has a depth of expertise in the recognition and enforcement in Canada of foreign judgments and arbitral awards.

In recent cases, he has successfully resisted efforts of the US Department of Justice to assert RICO forfeiture claims in Canada; has acted for a state owned Iranian oil company in challenging the jurisdiction of Ontario courts to deal with a $400 million claim involving issues of sovereign immunity, act of state and expropriation of property; and has defended a large financial institution against allegations that it was adhering to Helms Burton and other American legislation enforcing the Cuban trade embargo which is prohibited by Canadian law.


Markus teaches advocacy skills to younger lawyers and is a regular speaker on business litigation issues to organizations such as the International Bar Association, the Canadian Bar Association and the Canadian Corporate Counsel Association. Markus also speaks French and German.