The trial between famous Russian businessman and philanthropist Oleg Deripaska and the former head of VEB Vladimir Chernukhin, has been going on for more than a year. The amount of the dispute is 95 million dollars.
The court of Appeal in the capital of England ruled in favor of the former deputy finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin. From the materials of case it became known that the previous debt of the chairman of the supervisory board and the sole beneficial owner of the “Basic Element” company Oleg Vladimirovich to the ex-chairman of “Vnesheconombank” were confirmed by the previous courts.
The reason of the disputes
According to “Forbes”, the “Bazel” company - company of Deripaska, acquired a controlling stake in “Trekhgornaya” manufactory about 17 years ago . The purchase was held with the participation of the Cyprus company “NavioHoldings”. Textile production was taken out of the production premises after the purchase. The vacated premises were given over to the offices, various cafes, and coffee houses. The total area of the building is 12 hectares in the center of the capital, in one of the most sought-after areas - on Presnya. All the processes and the activities were coordinated by Lolita Danilina, who was the civil wife of the defendant at that time. Two years ago, Vladimir Anatolyevich filed a lawsuit, in which he indicated that he was a partner of Deripaska on equal terms and a co-owner of “NavioHoldings”. A controversial case was considered by the International Arbitration Court in the capital of England. At the same time, Chernukhin accused Deripaska of an improper acquisition of the manufactory.
Ex-official Chernukhin claimed that since the very beginning of cooperation (since 2002), he has been in partnership with Deripaska. Moreover, for the period of civil service (from 2000 to 2002 and from 2002 to 2004), Lolita Danilina was his representative.
In 2005, Deripaska and Chernukhin secured equal rights to manage and own the “tri-hill” in the agreement. The nominal rights of the holder of the part of the stake, owned by Vladimir Chernukhin, were passed to Danilina. Two years later, Chernukhin and Danilina ended their relationship. Later in 2010, Deripaska made promises to Chernukhin, who has already been living in London, about his readiness to redeem a partner’s stake in the management company for one hundred million dollars. Chernukhin claims that Deripaska launched the process of capturing the factory at that moment. Deripaska presented evidence of real ownership of the factory by Lolita Danilina.
The decision of the court
In 2017, the International Arbitration Court in London assigned a compensation payment of $ 95 million to Deripaska. Russian ex-official made an attempt to challenge the court decision, but, in early 2019, the High Court of London ruled not in his favor. The final decision of the Arbitration Court was the resolution of a multi-year dispute in favor of Vladimir Chernukhin.