MOSCOW, January 15 - RAPSI. The Universal Trading & Investment Co. (UTICo) has asked a U.S. federal court to review the $18.3 million lawsuit against former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko, according to documents obtained by the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) on Tuesday.

According to UTICo, a New York district court denied the company's claims, because it failed to take into account the bulk of the evidence supplied by the company.

The company said it can provide the court with further evidence obtained in the criminal investigation abroad and adjust its claims based on the court's ruling.

The court supported Tymoshenkos motion to dismiss the company's claims in December. The company claimed that Tymoshenko fraudulently transferred United Energy Systems of Ukraine's (UESU) assets to offshore tax havens such as Cyprus via subsidiaries in the British Virgin Islands, Guernsey, and the Isle of Man.

UTICo has been trying in vain for several years to recover $18.3 million from UESU, which Tymoshenko headed in the 1990s before becoming prime minister.

According to UTICo, UESU's market advance was aided by former Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko, who was subsequently convicted in the United States, sentenced to nine years in prison, and fined $10 million.

Lazarenko expected "a 50-percent interest in UESU's ultimate illegal profits, to be directed by Tymoshenko to his offshore accounts," according to the plaintiff.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts awarded UTICo $18.3 million in its dispute with UESU in 2005. However, UTICo has so far failed to have the judgment enforced. Early that year, UTICo made several unsuccessful attempts to recover the money after UESU's assets had been unfrozen.

UTICo filed the complaint after the court denied its motion to intervene in Tymoshenko's case against RosUkrEnergo and its co-owner Dmytro Firtash.

Tymoshenko brought a putative class-action lawsuit against RosUkrEnergo and Firtash in April, claiming that they conspired with "Gazprom to wrongfully appropriate approximately $1.7 billion worth of natural gas."

She alleged that in doing so they violated several federal laws, such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.

In October 2011, Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison for abuse of power based on a 2009 gas contract that she signed with Russia.