MOSCOW, December 19 (RAPSI, Vladimir Yaduta) – Russian billionaire Sergei Pugachev failed to overturn a world-wide freezing order of the London's High Court made against him in July, according to the court documents obtained by RAPSI on Friday.
The freezing order is linked to insolvency of Russian bank Mezhprombank.
The Moscow Commercial Court declared Mezhprombank bankrupt in November 2010 after the bank defaulted on its debts and received a 40-billion-ruble ($1.2 billion) bailout from Russia’s Central Bank. The Deposit Insurance Agency was appointed as liquidator to Mezhprombank.
An investigation into the bankruptcy was launched in January 2011 on suspicion of “illegal operations in the process of bankruptcy filing and deliberate bankruptcy.”
Pugachev was eventually charged with embezzlement and arrested in absentia. In November 2014 he was put on an international wanted list.
In July, London's High Court granted an application which had been filed by the Deposit Insurance Agency seeking to freeze assets of Pugachev. The agency believes that he was the owner of the bank and should be responsible for its insolvency.
Pugachev challenged the order in September on four main grounds. Specifically, he claimed that there was no risk of his assets being removed or dissipated. Moreover, he doubted the integrity of the Deposit Insurance Agency, accusing the agency of corruption.
The agency denied the allegations, saying that it was acting in the interests of creditors of Mezhprombank.