Nokia and Motorola believe they have identified a way to recoup the $3.4 billion (€2.29 billion) owed to them by Turkish billionaire family the Uzans.
The companies hope to use a World Bank arbitration case to recover their lost assets, Bloomberg reported.
The arbitration case has been initiated by Cypriot company Libananco Holdings, which Motorola and Nokia believe are a shell company owned by the Uzans.
Libananco has a $10 billion claim pending against the World Bank related to the seizure of two electricity companies. Now, Nokia and Motorola have asked US courts to seize assets resulting from those cases for use in repaying the settlement.
The sole shareholder of Libananco is a known Uzan family agent, the vendors allege.
US courts ordered the Uzan family to pay Nokia and Motorola a combined $4.8 billion in in 2002, of which $3.4 billion remains unpaid, Bloomberg said.
The family's telecom company, Teslim Mobil - then Turkey's second largest - had entered into $2.7 billion worth of loan agreements with the vendors for the purchase of infrastructure, phones and services. But they failed to repay the loan on schedule.
Nokia and Motorola said in a court filing last month that the Uzan family has never willingly paid a cent of their settlement. The vendors said they have managed to seize $125 million worth of Uzan assets, and collected $1.25 billion from the Turkish government after it seized Telsim's assets.
Motorola was awarded $3.1 billion of the $4.8 billion settlement, with Nokia awarded the remaining $1.7 billion.