You're reading: Abramovich defeats ‘unreliable’ Berezovsky in court

LONDON - Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich emerged victorious on Friday from a long and hugely expensive legal battle with his former friend Boris Berezovsky that laid bare the murky dealings behind the post-Soviet carve-up of Russia's vast natural resources.

Judge Elizabeth Gloster told a packed London courtroom that
she had found Berezovsky to be an “unimpressive and inherently
unreliable witness” who would say “almost anything to support
his case”.

In comparison, Abramovich – a businessman known in Britain
for his ownership of Chelsea soccer club – was described as a
“truthful and on the whole reliable witness”.

Berezovsky, a fast-talking former mathematician who became a
Kremlin powerbroker under the late President Boris Yeltsin only
to fall foul of Vladimir Putin, had accused Abramovich of using
the threat of Kremlin retribution to intimidate him into selling
assets at a knockdown price.

Abramovich, the world’s 68th richest man with a $12.1
billion fortune, had denied the accusations and said he merely
paid Berezovsky for political cover and protection – known in
Russian slang as “krysha” or “roof”.

“There was a marked contrast between the manner in which Mr
Berezovsky gave his evidence and that in which Mr Abramovich did
so,” the judge said as she delivered her ruling to an
expressionless Berezovsky.

Berezovsky told Reuters his confidence in English justice
had been undermined by the judge’s decision and said he was
considering whether to appeal.

Berezovsky later told reporters that he sometimes had the
impression that Putin himself had written the judgement.

The ruling follows a legal odyssey that stretched from the
gilded corridors of the Kremlin via the offshore enclaves
favoured by Russia’s richest tycoons and then to a modern, glass
courtroom in central London crowded with lawyers, bodyguards and
journalists.

The titanic legal battle had provided rich media pickings
ever since a tussle broke out between the two tycoons and their
retinues of bodyguards in a Hermes luxury boutique in London in
2007, when Berezovsky served Abramovich with a writ.

That gave an early glimpse of what was to come, with the
hearings revealing the extravagant lifestyles of Russia’s
super-rich: helicopter flights to luxury ski resorts in the
Alps, Caribbean cruises, English country estates and French
chateaux.

The case captivated the legal industry in Britain, whose
globally respected, tradition-bound courts where barristers
still wear powdered wigs have become the venue of choice for
rich Russians to sue each other.

Many Russian companies, especially those with foreign
involvement, include in contracts a clause that any litigation
must be heard London. Underlying this is a deep distrust of the
Russian judicial system.

The case also threw a powerful spotlight on the conduct of
businessmen in Russia in the decade following the collapse of
the Soviet Union, when opaque deals to sell off state assets
turned a handful of insiders into the owners of multi-billion
dollar natural resources companies.

A Kremlin insider in the 1990s under Yeltsin, Berezovsky
left Russia in 2000 after falling out with Yeltsin’s hand-picked
successor, Putin.

Berezovsky says he gave up his stake in oil firm Sibneft
because he feared that if he refused, Abramovich would ensure
Putin had the shares expropriated. Abramovich later sold Sibneft
to Russia’s state gas monopoly Gazprom for $13 billion
in 2005. Abramovich denies any threats were made.

“My conclusion in relation to the Sibneft intimidation issue
is that Mr Abramovich did not make either express or implied
threats,” judge Gloster said.

Berezovsky also claimed Abramovich sold Berezovskly’s shares
in RUSAL Plc, the world’s top aluminium producer, without
permission. Berezovsky was seeking over $5 billion for his
claimed losses over Sibneft and over $564 million for RUSAL.

Abramovich’s many lawyers had used the trial to cast
Berezovsky as an obsessive man angry at Abramovich’s success.

The two key witnesses traded insults during the 43 days of
hearings, with the publicity seeking former oligarch Berezovsky
dismissing his one-time ally as “not smart” while Abramovich
described his former mentor as “something of a megalomaniac”.

Abramovich was not in court to hear the verdict and his team
of lawyers merely smiled as the judge read out her lengthy
statement.