On February 20, 2019, the Rostov Region Commercial Court decided on the case № А53-33498/2018 as follows: to recognize the client as a bankrupt and include the offshore company into the register of creditors with 1.5 billion RUB. On May 24, 2019, the Fifteenth Commercial Appeal Court canceled the above decision and dismissed the offshore company’s petition. The offshore company filed a cassation complaint against the appeal ruling into the Commercial Court of the North-Caucasus District.

By means of circumstantial evidence ABY’s lawyers were able to prove the court of cassation instance that the offshore company was still under control of the client’s former owners. Our lawyers also proved that the debt had a corporate nature, thus, the court could not include the offshore company into the register of creditors. ABY’s lawyers also proved that at time the offshore company received right of claim of 1.5 billion RUB, it had no legal capacity as it had been excluded from the BVI Companies Registry.

The Commercial Court of the North-Caucasus District recognized our reasons. On July 16, 2019, it dismissed the cassation complaint of the offshore company and upheld the appeal ruling.

Senior associate Sergey Radchenko, associates Zakhar Khrebtov and Ekaterina Fedenko represented the client’s interests on the case.