FILE PHOTO: Soccer Football - Serie A - U.S. Sassuolo v AC Milan - Mapei Stadium - Citta del Tricolore, Reggio Emilia, Italy - April 14, 2024 AC Milan's Noah Okafor scores their third goal REUTERS/Jennifer Lorenzini
MILAN (Reuters) - A Luxembourg court rejected a claim filed by U.S. fund Elliott against Blue Skye, a minority investor in AC Milan, which has been challenging the 1.2 billion euro ($1.31 billion) sale of the Italian soccer club, court documents seen by Reuters showed.
Bringing a writ of private criminal prosecution, called "citation directe", in Luxembourg last September, Elliott accused Blue Skye Financial Partners and its representatives of offences including blackmail, extortion and fraudulent misrepresentation to support its legal actions against the sale.
But the Luxembourg court ruled that the claim "failed to meet the requirements of precision and clarity", the documents showed.
"The direct plaintiffs do not specify which legal actions would constitute blackmail or extortion ... nor what the threats and/or violence deployed have consisted of", the court said.
According to Luxembourg law, a person who believes they have sufficient evidence can sue someone directly before a criminal court, without the public prosecutor's office opening an investigation. It is then up to a judge to decide directly on the merits of the case.
"The Luxembourg court has guided that Elliott's citation directe needs to be more precisely drafted before it can consider the merits of the allegations that Elliott has made against BlueSkye", an Elliott spokesperson said.
"Elliott intends to take that guidance into account, re-draft and re-issue the citation directe", the spokesperson added.
"This very clear and definitive judgement comforts Blue Skye in its legitimate rights", Blue Skye said in a statement, adding that "further destabilisation attempts by Elliott can only be seen as other vexatious and unjustified and will not discourage Blue Skye to continue to pursue its rights".
Elliott in 2022 sold the seven-time European Cup winners AC Milan to U.S. investment firm RedBird Capital Partners.
Minority investor Blue Skye, holding an indirect stake of 4% in AC Milan, initiated court action to block the sale or obtain damages in United States, Italy and Luxembourg, where the vehicles owning the club were based.
($1 = 0.9184 euros)
(Reporting by Elvira Pollina and Emilio Parodi; Editing by Kim Coghill)
