District court allowed control of creditors over the debtor's expenses

The Arbitration Court of the Northwestern District considered the issue of the manager's obligation to convene a meeting of creditors.  The applicants demanded consideration of the issue of the anti-crisis manager's report on his financial activities and approval of the cost estimate.  In their opinion, the bankruptcy trustee was abusing his right, and the lack of a current estimate of expenses impeded the control over the funds spending.

The court of first instance established that the creditors' committee was formed from representatives of the tax service, which was the main creditor of the debtor.  At the same time, it was in no hurry to take an active part in voting on the approval of the disputed cost estimate.

In such a situation, the court considered it possible to transfer the issue of approving the estimates to the meeting of the debtor's creditors.

However, later this decision was canceled by the court of appeal, which indicated that the number of creditors' votes was insufficient.  The judicial board designated the right to apply to court and to the bankruptcy trustee to resolve the disagreements that had arisen.

The district court, in turn, noted that the spending of the debtor's funds should not be random.  At the same time, earlier, the courts had already established the fact of violation of the procedure for approving the estimate of current costs.

In the circumstances under consideration, the district court concluded that the creditors had no other method of protection, canceled the decision of the court of appeal and upheld the judicial act of first instance (decision in case No. A56-52798 / 2016 of September 7, 2021).