MOSCOW, October 9 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Evgeny Grafeyev seeking to recover 133 billion rubles (about $2.3 billion) of dividends from AFK Sistema and Sistema-Invest companies “for the period of illegal ownership of Bashneft,” the court’s ruling reads on Monday.
The court noted that Grafeyev is not a shareholder of Bashneft. It also stated that disputes between participants of economic partnerships, if at least one of the sides is not an individual entrepreneur, are not to be reviewed in commercial courts. According to the court, the only exception is the case when the disputes are related to business activity of the involved partnerships.
Grafeyev stated that conclusions and circumstances listed in the lawsuit are taken from rulings of commercial courts in several notorious proceedings involving Bashneft. These include a lawsuit of the Prosecutor General’s Office against Sistema in 2014, resulting in forfeiture of 71, 6% of Bahsneft stock to the state. The second one is a recent ruling to recover 136 billion rubles (about $2.3 billion) from Sistema in favor of Russia’s largest oil corporation Rosneft.
RAPSI has not yet obtained commentaries of the defendants in this case.
In 2013, the court granted a defamation lawsuit filed by Russian telecommunications operator MTS against Grafeyev. The latter claimed that in 2001 he gave up highly valued shares of the company after it threatened and blackmailed him.