MOSCOW, April 15 (RAPSI) – A commercial court in St. Petersburg has dismissed an application lodged by former executive of JFC Group Vladimir Kekhman seeking to prohibit conducting bidding for the sale of the company’s property, according to court records.

Kekhman sought to ban the company’s bankruptcy supervisor Igor Maslov from holding a tender until a court ruling in the dispute over procedure, terms and provisions of the sale of JFC assets comes into legal force.

Established in St. Petersburg in 1997, JFC Group comprises fruit production, procurement, storage, distribution, and sales companies. Its ultimate holding company is JFC (BVI) Limited, which operates through companies in Russia, the British Virgin Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Ecuador, Luxembourg and Panama.

In September 2015, JFC company was declared bankrupt. Kekhman has appealed the ruling but his complaint was dismissed.

JFC Group filed for bankruptcy in March 2012 and consequently entered a period of supervision. By that time its debt claims amounted to a total of 18 billion rubles ($271 million). A court has included on the creditors’ list of JFC a 3.2-billion ruble ($48 million) debt to Promsvyazbank and Uralsib, debt to Bank of Moscow and bank “St. Petersburg” totaling 5.8 billion rubles ($87 million) and a 4.5- billion ruble ($68 million) debt to Sberbank.

Interestingly, Kekhman was declared bankrupt by London's High Court in October 2012. By the time he presented a debtor's petition seeking a bankruptcy order his assets consisted of £200,000 in cash, land in St Petersburg valued at £4.3 million, a Mercedes-Benz in Russia and a Bentley in France. He had 19 unsecured creditors totaling about £316 million located in Russia and 23 bank accounts, three of which were arrested.