SOVCOMBANK WAS ORDERED TO RETURN 314.5 MILLION to the BANKRUPT CORPORATION

The appeal supported the bankruptcy trustee of the Russian Communications Corporation (RCC), obliging the credit institution to restore the organization's debt to the bank by returning 314,691,780.87 rubles to its accounts. This is reported on the "Fedresource".

The ruling of the Moscow Arbitration Court issued in this case (No. A40-163731/19) in February 2023 was canceled. The operative part of the resolution of the Ninth AAC was published on May 18.

CJSC "RKSS" was established in 2007. The organization became a joint project of the company "Gollard", owned by Evgeny Melnik (74.9% share), and the company "Roselectronics", part of the Rostec Group of Companies (25.1%). The specialization of RKSS was the development of high-tech solutions in the field of cybersecurity for civilian needs.

However, by 2019, the company's financial position had become precarious. Several cases in the amount of 230 million rubles were brought against the company in the courts. As a result, one of the counterparties decided to initiate the bankruptcy procedure of RKSS. The main owner of the company, CJSC "Gollard", was also involved in the insolvency case at the request of the tax authorities. By the end of the observation phase, RKSS owed over 1.9 billion rubles.

On August 20, 2021, the company received the status of bankruptcy. The court approved Viktor Malakhov as the bankruptcy trustee (KU), who applied to arbitration with a petition for invalidation of the contract between RKSS and Sovcombank. It was about a loan of 314.69 million transferred by the company to the bank.

The bankruptcy case of the corporation began on July 1, 2019. The contract with the bank was executed on July 23, and the disputed payment was transferred on August 21. The money was needed to pay off the debt that arose in April 2018.

The Metropolitan Arbitration Court, which considered the petition of the KU, refused to recognize the loan agreement as invalid. According to the judge, the law was not violated, since the bank could not have known about the serious condition of RKSS. The court considered the transaction itself as a restructuring of the company's debt to the bank.

However, the appeal, where Malakhov filed a complaint, was supported by KU. The Court considered this transaction committed with preference and violating the provisions of Article 61.3 of the relevant law. The court considered the bank's actions an attempt to gain an advantage in satisfying its claims over other creditors. The court estimated its size at least 223.3 million.

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