“Game” for elimination – Newspaper Kommersant No. 51 (7496) of 03/27/2023

In the bankruptcy case of the once large Russian game developer Game Insight, indirect evidence appeared that already in the pre-bankruptcy state, attempts were made to withdraw key employees, financial flows and main developments from the company. The manager of the LLC has already applied to the court to bring the persons controlling the debtor to subsidiary liability. But proving violations will not be easy, say lawyers who have studied the case.

The bankruptcy trustee of Game Insight LLC (once a major Russian developer of mobile video games, which was declared bankrupt) Denis Kachura filed an application with the arbitration court for bringing the controlling persons of the debtor to subsidiary liability, the corresponding message was published in the EFRSB. There is no data on the amount of claims in the database. Mr. Kachura declined to comment.

The list of persons whom the manager wants to hold accountable includes ten companies and several citizens. The interlocutor of Kommersant, who is familiar with the course of bankruptcy, suggests that Game Insight Group UAB, Game Insight UAB (Lithuania), Game Insight Holdings LTD (Cyprus), etc., listed in the statement, were, in fact, part of the group that controlled Game Insight, with Mikhail Vinchel, Grigory Finger (co-founders of Mail.ru Group; withdrew from the co-owners in 2012) and Igor Matsanyuk as its ultimate beneficiaries. All of them did not answer “b”.

The second group includes Russian Data-Code LLC, Magic Craft LLC and Tsogen (Uzbekistan), Kommersant’s interlocutor says: “Shortly before the bankruptcy of Game Insight, the first two legal entities began to hire employees of the company. The people who moved there were engaged in the development and support of those games that were published by the bankrupt. Tsogen was used to transfer payments to Russian structures, a Kommersant source said.

This information was confirmed to Kommersant by a former Game Insight employee: “In the summer of 2022, shortly before the announcement of the liquidation of the company, we received anonymous email offers to move to Data-Code in order to continue working. 171 employees accepted the offer, but in September they were fired.” He adds that after that, some of the employees were offered to move to Uzbekistan and get a job at Tsogen to support games developed by Game Insight.

Judicial practice knows cases when the bankruptcy of one company from the group was accompanied by the transfer of financial flows to other participants by transferring employees, transferring property and renewing contracts with counterparties on behalf of a new person, says Nikita Sattarov, a lawyer at the Delcredere Bar Association. “A bankrupt company is harmed, since the redirected financial flows would have a positive effect on the repayment of creditors’ claims,” he notes.

The probability of bringing to subsidiary liability most of these persons looks low, believes Veronika Litvinenko, head of the legal department at Yusticom. According to open sources, she explains, there are no legal ties that judges most often pay attention to in this case. “After checking the connections of Game Insight LLC with the indicated individuals and legal entities, we found out that only Magic Craft LLC has the characteristics of a controlling debtor,” Ms. Litvinenko specified, “because previously the companies had one general director.”

Nikita Korolev, Ekaterina Volkova