MOSCOW, November 26 (RAPSI) – The Moscow Commercial Court has ruled in favor of VTB bank answering its claim to recover $873 million from company Otkrytye Promyshlennye Investitsii (OPI) under a loan agreement, the court materials read.

This May, Russia’s Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) reported that a suspicious deal concerning purchase of 100% of shares in AO AGD-Diamonds by AO Otrkitie Holding, acting through its 100% controlled company Otrkytye Promyshlennye Investitsii from PAO Lukoil was revealed by Russia’s Central Bank in the process of resolution of PAO Bank Finansovaya Korporatsiya Otrkritie (Otrkitie Bank) as the amount of the deal almost twice exceeded the value of the enterprise.

FAS found out that the deal violated a law regulating foreign investments in strategically important enterprises.

A governmental Commission on control over foreign investment in the Russian Federation established that Otrkritie Holding had failed to provide information that some of its beneficiaries were foreign nationals, what resulted in the fact that a Russian strategically important company got under control of foreign investors, FAS stated.

On the basis of this evidence, the antimonopoly watchdog turned to courts seeking invalidation of the transaction and its results.

In 2017, VTB bank issued a loan to OPI in the framework of the deal with AGD Diamonds shares; later OPI failed to service its debt, so VTB claimed the amount through courts.