Yugraneft of Shalva Chigirinsky, on the photo, has failed to win the London High Court’s agreement to consider on merits the claim to Roman Abramovich, Millhouse Capital and Boris Berezovsky.
Photo: Yury Martyanov
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Chigirinsky’s Lawsuit Back to Russia
Yugraneft of Shalva Chigirinsky has failed to win the London High Court’s agreement to consider on merits the claim to Roman Abramovich, Millhouse Capital and Boris Berezovsky. Judge Christopher Clark that had agreed to try the case of Mikhail Cherny to Oleg Deripaska in July ruled that Yugraneft’s claim wouldn't be the concern of Britain and called the mere recourse to the court the abuse of legal proceedings. According to Clark, such cases are to be tried in Russia, which can provide fair adjudication the certain examples of corrupt practice notwithstanding.
Russia’s Yugraneft that currently goes through bankruptcy proceedings went November 14, 2007 to the London High Court against Roman Abramovich, Millhouse Capital UK Ltd and Boris Berezovsky. Far back in 2000, the subsidiary of Sibir Energy Plc (principally co-owned by Shalva Chigirinsky and Igor Kesaev), Yugraneft and Sibirneft (then co-owned by Roman Abramovich and Boris Berezovsky) set up a joint venture, Sibneft-Yugra. Each party owned 50 percent in the undertaking.
In 2004, however, Sibir Energy found out that Yugraneft’s stake narrowed to 0.96 percent in the wake of a few issues of new stocks. Roughly 50 trials in Russia’s courts as well as a trial in the court of British Virgin Islands were to no avail for the company, and Yugraneft brought a lawsuit to Britain’s court, seeking indemnity of $5 billion. Most of the claims were lodged against Roman Abramovich.
The lawsuit was heard in July and Judge Christopher Clark voiced the judgment October 29, refusing to extend Britain’s jurisdiction to the case. The court didn’t uphold the assumption, whereby Abramovich resides in Britain, and ultimately resolved that Russia should be the venue of the trial. The court ruled that Russia’s laws should be applied to the claims about caused damage and unjustified enrichment, and the limitation period for them had expired long ago.
What’s more, the court ruled that the claim to Roman Abramovich would have been disallowed even under the British laws, reasoning that Mr Abramovich had received no assets owned by Yugraneft. The judicial recourse was the abuse of judicial proceedings, the court ultimately concluded.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 31, 2008
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