Sanctioned Russian billionaire files London bankruptcy petition against former associate | masr356.com

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A sanctioned Russian billionaire has filed a bankruptcy petition in London against a former associate over authorized prices stemming from a dispute a few stake price tons of of tens of millions of {dollars} in one of many world’s largest fertiliser producers.

Andrey Guryev has introduced the bankruptcy motion against Alexander Gorbachev, who unsuccessfully sued Guryev final 12 months over claims that he reneged on a verbal promise — made partly in a sauna and on the road exterior a pub — to grant him a considerable curiosity in PhosAgro.

Gorbachev, who is not any relation of the late Soviet chief Mikhail Gorbachev, misplaced the lawsuit after a Excessive Court docket choose in September discovered there have been “unexplained and unexplainable inconsistencies” in his claims.

He was ordered to pay Guryev’s authorized prices, amounting to £12mn. Gorbachev had litigation insurance coverage in place for £10mn, in accordance with a court docket order in October, leaving a shortfall of £2mn.

The court docket order added that Guryev needed to apply to the Workplace of Monetary Sanctions Implementation, an arm of the UK Treasury, for a licence “to allow the receipt by him of the sums payable”.

Authorized information present Guryev filed a bankruptcy petition — an software for property to be taken and offered to pay money owed — on the Excessive Court docket in December against Gorbachev, who attended an preliminary listening to in central London this week.

Daniel Cashman​, the barrister representing Guryev, informed the court docket that his shopper was owed monies “within the tens of millions” arising from Gorbachev’s failed court docket motion.

James Culverwell, the barrister for Gorbachev, stated that the bankruptcy petition was being contested. The proceedings have been adjourned to a later date.

The dispute over the stake in PhosAgro was one in every of a number of clashes between Russian businessmen in London’s courts over contested possession of companies created within the buccaneering period that adopted the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Gorbachev was a longtime senior supervisor at PhosAgro however fled Russia to assert asylum within the UK in 2004. He claimed he was entitled to 25 per cent of Guryev’s shares within the fertiliser enterprise, estimated to be price a number of hundred million {dollars}.

In assist of the lawsuit, Gorbachev cited conversations he and Guryev purportedly had round London years in the past, together with in a sauna, exterior a pub and in eating places.

Guryev stated that Gorbachev’s assertions had “no factual foundation” and described the authorized proceedings as a “shakedown”.

A six-week trial was heard final 12 months, by which Choose Mark Pelling KC travelled to Dubai to listen to Guryev’s testimony given sanctions imposed on the billionaire.

In his ruling, the choose discovered that there have been “just too many unexplained and unexplainable inconsistencies and inherent implausibilities” in Gorbachev’s claims. Gorbachev stated on the time that the judgment was “extraordinarily disappointing”.