THE CYPRUS COMPANY OF THE EX-OWNERS OF THE "TRUST" WAS DECLARED BANKRUPT

On September 26, 2023, the Moscow arbitration court ruled on the insolvency of a foreign company Retail Chain Properties Ltd. The initiator of the bankruptcy of a company registered in Cyprus was the tax authorities (Interregional Inspectorate of the Federal Tax Service No. 47).

The amount of claims specified in the register of creditors is 208 million rubles (case no. A40-112325/2023).

The tax authorities filed a claim for insolvency with the court (the Arbitration Court of Moscow) on May 19, 2023. The argument in favor of the recognition of the company as insolvent was the activity that the organization conducted in Russia.

The company did not register a subsidiary in the Russian Federation, having only a representative office. The Moscow Arbitration Court considered that the norms of Russian bankruptcy legislation could not be applied to it and returned the claim to the applicant.

After that, the tax authorities filed a complaint with the Court of Appeal (the Ninth Arbitration Court of Appeal), which supported the Federal Tax Service. The case was returned to the Arbitration Court of the city of Moscow for a new review. During the appeal process, it turned out that the Cyprus company did not operate at the place of registration, and in Russia it has been engaged in economic activities since 2015. The company opened accounts in banks, received borrowed funds, participated in the establishment of a number of companies and lawsuits.

In addition, as the applicants pointed out, the head of the company, as well as its owners, were citizens of Russia.

According to RBC, the organization is owned by the ex-owners of the bank "Trust" Ilya Yurov, Nikolai Fetisov and Sergey Belyaev. In Moscow, the company managed commercial real estate, which it leased to tenants.

In the courts, a representative of the tax service said that a foreign company owed the treasury a large sum. However, it turned out to be problematic to recover the funds, since none of the enforcement proceedings allowed to repay the existing obligations. Given that the firm continues to own several buildings in the capital and has recently moved its assets abroad, it is advisable to recognize a private company as insolvent.

An additional argument in favor of bankruptcy was the sanctions of the European Union. According to experts, it would be difficult to start the bankruptcy process of the company at the place of registration in these conditions. It would be almost impossible to find the company's property to recover the existing debts. As a result, according to the appeal, the refusal of bankruptcy could lead to a violation of the creditor's rights.