Pugachev for the FT: The Russian Government had abused the London court proceedings

Catherine Belton of the Financial Times reported:

“Moscow’s arbitration court ruled on Thursday that Sergei Pugachev should pay Rbs75.6bn ($1.5bn) for his role in the bankruptcy of Mezhprombank, the Russian bank he co-founded.”

“The ruling could open the way for the London lawyers of the DIA, Russia’s state deposit insurance agency, which is acting as the bank’s liquidator, to seek to enforce the claim by seizing the international assets of Mr Pugachev.”

“The former oligarch says the $1.5bn asset gap at the bank was instead caused by a politically motivated state takeover of his empire, led by the sale at a knockdown price of his multibillion-dollar shipyard business, shares in which had been pledged as collateral for $1.15bn in loans from the central bank.”

“One of Russia’s richest men until he fell out of favour with the Russian president and a forced state takeover was launched of his multibillion-dollar business empire, Mr Pugachev called Thursday’s decision “unprecedented and illegal”.

“He said he would appeal against the ruling, which found three of Mezhprombank’s former senior executives jointly responsible, with Mr Pugachev, for the bankruptcy.”

“Mr Pugachev said it seemed clear that the DIA had abused the London court proceedings as “an instrument for obtaining information” for the Russian court case.”

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