“Trust” had difficulties with the return of funds collected from the ex-owners

The head of Trust, Alexander Sokolov, said RBCthat the bank had difficulties transferring to Russia funds received as a result of a lawsuit won abroad with the former owners of the credit institution – Ilya Yurov, Sergei Belyaev and Nikolai Fetisov. According to him, at the moment difficulties have arisen with the return of 2-3 million pounds sterling ($2.5-3.77 million) from the UK.

“Since February 2022, the bank of non-core assets has won several court hearings. We still do not feel any bias in either the English or Cypriot judicial systems, where we have our main disputes. Now there is no reason to predict that the situation will change for the worse. But questions arise with the collection of outstanding debts,” said Mr. Sokolov.

The head of Trust noted that the bank does not have a specific way to return the money. The organization is considering the option of using these funds to finance foreign litigation. He said that the amount that the Trust expects to receive will exceed 2-3 million pounds sterling, because legal proceedings are currently ongoing to enforce the decision of the London court, and the sale of property is underway. At the same time, according to him, the remaining property of the bank’s ex-owners is “at best” worth $30-40 million.

In 2016, Trust filed a claim in the High Court of London against Ilya Yurov, Sergei Belyaev, Nikolai Fetisov and their wives. The bank demanded the return of $830 million as compensation for non-performing loans issued to offshore companies controlled by it. In January 2020, the London High Court obliged former owners of the bank and their wives to pay Trust about $900 million. In April 2021, Mr. Sokolov said Forbesthat the bank expects to return $300 million from this amount.

Three former co-owners of Trust are now hiding abroad. In April 2022, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Ilya Yurov, who is on the international wanted list, to eight years in a general regime colony in the case of embezzling about 14.6 billion rubles from a bank. Earlier in this case already were convicted Chairman of the Board of Trust Oleg Dikusar and former financial director Evgeny Romakov, who received seven years and four years, respectively.

Erdni Kagaltynov