MOSCOW, July 21 (RAPSI) – A court in St. Petersburg dismissed a petition which had been lodged by former CEO of JFC Group Vladimir Kekhman seeking the recognition of a judgment of London’s High Court declaring him bankrupt, RAPSI learnt in the courtroom on Thursday.

In September 2015, JFC Group was declared bankrupt by a Russian court. Kekhman has appealed the ruling but his complaint was dismissed.  In October 2015, Sberbank filed with the Commercial Court of St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region a bankruptcy claim against Kekhman.

A Kekhman’s representative claimed that the former head of JFC had no obligations before Sberbank because he was already been declared bankrupt by The High Court of Justice of England in 2012 and Sberbank received its share from sales of Kekhman’s property. A Sberbank’s representative, on the other hand, claimed that the bank was not involved in the process and did not receive any compensation. According to the Sberbank’s representative, the bank had rulings of several Russian courts on debt recovery from Kekhman.

Nevertheless, the representative of Kekhman insisted that the ruling of The High Court of Justice of England had been recognized by Sberbank and was to be complied with in Russia.

In its ruling, the court pointed out that in the absence of international treaties, entered into by the Russian Federation, decisions on bankruptcies taken in foreign jurisdictions were to be recognized in Russia only on the reciprocity basis unless otherwise stipulated by federal laws. At present, the court stressed, the Russian Federation was not a party in any international treaty on bankruptcy issues.
The court ruled to set the date of the bankruptcy hearing on July 28.