PROINVESTBANK PROTESTS AGAINST BANKRUPTCY AND REVOCATION OF LICENSE

On May 25, the arbitration court of the Perm Territory received an application from the Bank of Russia about the bankruptcy of Proinvestbank. A month earlier, the regulator revoked the license of the credit organization, which allowed it to be engaged in banking activities. However, now the former head of the bank, Alexander Vorontsov and the bank's shareholder Maxim Sorokin are trying to challenge the regulator's decision in court.

What is more, the complaint of Proinvestbank about the revocation of the license will be considered on July 19, and the hearing on the bankruptcy case was postponed to July 8.

The first thing the ex-head of the bank Vorontsov managed to do was to make the court refuse to satisfy the regulator's claim. Representatives of the Central Bank tried to exclude the former head of the board from the list of participants in the case (he was declared as a third party), since the bankruptcy law does not provide for this. According to Vorontsov, his participation in the process is obligatory, since the interests of the organization's employees and clients can be represented by him.

The revocation of the license did not just violate his rights as CEO, notes Vorontsov. In fact, the consequence was his professional disqualification for a period of ten years.

The former head also considers the bankruptcy process to be illegal.

In his opinion, this will only lead to a longer period for depositors to receive their savings back and increase in the cost of legal costs. The ability of the bankruptcy trustee to challenge the transactions concluded by the bank in an insolvency case is a direct way to ensure that Moscow lawyers are provided with the financial assets of the bank's depositors.

Representatives of the Central Bank defend their position, claiming that the Perm bank was justifiably deprived of its license, since it violated the legislation of the Russian Federation, having artificially lowered the amount of financial reserves, despite the risks of loan debts. Moreover, the Central Bank of Russia is confident that the bank will not have enough funds to settle with all depositors and creditors. Therefore, from all possible scenarios after the revocation of the license (liquidation or bankruptcy), the choice falls on the bankruptcy procedure.

According to the former management of Proinvestbank, the data on the state of affairs in the bank, provided by the interim administration, were openly falsified. Representatives of the administration first indicated that the bank's assets were insufficient to satisfy the interests of creditors in the amount of 25.7 million rubles.

Later, a lawyer of the Bank of Russia clarified the amount in court, indicating 81.2 million rubles as the difference between liabilities and assets.

Proinvestbank insists on challenging the amounts presented, but as it turns out, this requires time and familiarity with the new documents in the case. Considering that many commercial banks have been recently deprived of their licenses, having found themselves in a similar situation, the litigation may turn out to be significant for the Russian judicial system, where the balance was more often on the side of the Bank of Russia.