Shareholder Wins Suit against Gazprom
Sterlitamak resident Mikhail Renzhin has become the first Gazprom shareholder to be awarded compensation from the monopoly for losses. the sum of the award, 24 million rubles, is record-setting as well. Previously, the largest sum awarded in a case against a stock issuer was 11 million rubles, paid by Sibneft in 2005. The Moscow Arbitration ruled in favor of Renzhin on Friday in a case against Gazprom and SP-DRAGA, Gazprom's registrar, concerning the theft of 95,200 shares in Gazprom. Renzhin received the shares in 1994 in exchange for 68 vouchers. They were transferred from his account to ZAO IK Gorizont in 2000 using falsified documents.
Renzhin discovered the loss only in March of last year and a criminal case was initiated, but the guilty parties were not found and the case was discontinued. Renzhin filed suit in May of this year, demanding 401,700 rubles for lost dividends and 1 million rubles for moral losses. The court ruled not to compensate Renzhin for moral losses, but to compensate his losses, including lost profit.
The Supreme Arbitration Court allowed share issuers to be sued for losses in a decision of August 2, 2005. Rosgazifikatsia has filed a suit similar to Renzhin's against Gazprom for the loss of 50 million shares, worth 14.5 billion rubles. Gazprom lawyers called Renzhin's case “suspicious” and accused Renzhin of selling the shares in question himself. They also accused the judges of bias and unsuccessfully demanded two of the judges, one of whom they chose themselves, be dismissed. Judge Vyacheslav Lobko noted that Gorizont figured in a suit filed by a Ufa resident on June 19 over the loss of 14,000 shares of Gazprom. The Gazprom press service did not answer its telephone on Friday.
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All the Article in Russian as of Oct. 22, 2007
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