The court of the British Virgin Islands on May 27, 2014 under a claim of VTB Bank arrested companies registered in the jurisdiction and belonged to Head of Donetsk Regional Administration and the co-owner of ISD Corporation Serhiy Taruta worth over $30 million, the Russian Kommersant newspaper reported on June 2.
The publication said that the court obliged the Donetsk governor to disclose all information on all of his assets all over the world that are worth over $50,000.
Referring to the claim, a copy of which was sent to the newspaper, Kommersant said that the claim was filed to Higher Court of Justice of British Virgin Islands on May 23, 2014 and the bank’s lawyers ask to declare valid the ruling of a court of Moscow which established that Taruta covered debt liabilities worth $30 million for VTB.
The court issued a ruling to freeze the assets of Taruta and his Russian partner Oleksandr Katunin, whom the Ukrainian businessman bailed, in the jurisdiction of British Virgin Islands and disclose information on his other assets.
The publication said that eight companies that belonged to Taruta directly and indirectly, among which are Ukrainian Mining and Metallurgical Company (UGMK)m New Engineer Technologies and Kyiv’s Hyatt, as well as Energomashspetsstal and ISD Corporation, in which his holds a minority stake.
In addition, the court has frozen eight companies of Katunin and three of his bank accounts – two in Cypriot banks and one in a Swiss bank, and banned any transactions with assets of another eight companies and their subsidiaries, which the partners are related to, reads the article.
According to representatives of VTB, the bank will achieve returning the debt in the future, suing all available methods in line with law.
As reported, on May 20, 2014, Nicosia district court upheld the request of VTB and seized some assets of oligarch Serhiy Taruta. VTB lawsuit filed to the Nicosia district court is related to a loan to Yenisei plywood complex, which was initiated and co-invested by Russian businessman Alexander Katunin.
In 2008-2011 VTB loaned the company a total of $203.1 million and now the debt amounts to $181.3 million without penalties and percents. In 2011 Katunin and Taruta, his partner at the time, were guarantors on a number of the company’s loans exceeding $30 million jointly and severally.
In November 2013 Krasnoyarsk appeals court opened a bankruptcy case on Yenisei plywood complex, VTB filed a lawsuit to collect $30 million from the guarantors – Katunin and Taruta and the court fully upheld the bank’s demands in February 2013.
