EX-EMPLOYEES OF OTKRITIE BANK FORCED THE COP TO DOUBT THE NORMS OF THE BANKRUPTCY LAW

EX-EMPLOYEES OF OTKRITIE BANK FORCED THE COP TO DOUBT THE NORMS OF THE BANKRUPTCY LAW

EX-EMPLOYEES OF OTKRITIE BANK FORCED THE COP TO DOUBT THE NORMS OF THE BANKRUPTCY LAW
The Constitutional Court (CC) will check the constitutionality of a number of provisions of the law "On Insolvency (Bankruptcy)" and "On Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Russian Federation". The reason for the procedure was a case involving Otkritie Bank.

According to Vedomosti, with reference to the press service of the Constitutional Court, ex-employees of a financial organization appealed to the court with complaints that funds were irrevocably debited from their accounts. This happened in the period from 2017 to 2019, when a rehabilitation procedure was carried out in relation to the "Discovery". As it turned out, over 10 million rubles were withdrawn from the accounts of four employees in total.

The applicants asked the bank to recover the written-off funds, losses and interest for their use, but the courts refused the employees.

In the opinion of the authorities, the write-off is legal and justified, since it corresponds to the plan of implementation of measures to prevent the bankruptcy of the Bank of Russia. Subsequent cassation complaints of ex-employees were rejected, and the bank was reanimated.

The injured workers considered the actions of the courts unfair and filed a collective complaint with the Constitutional Court. In the paper, they insist on recognizing the mentioned rule of law as unconstitutional, since according to the provision, a financial organization can unilaterally turn employees' money into its property without conducting any internal investigation and establishing guilt.

According to the plaintiffs, the contested law uses the term "termination of the bank's obligations to managing employees", and not the write-off of funds from accounts. But in fact, in their opinion, during the rehabilitation, the bank is given the right to unilaterally withdraw funds from accounts, turn them into its own property and without establishing violations and cause-and-effect relationships in the actions of citizens. The complaint emphasizes that this infringes on the applicants' claims for refund and compensation and violates Articles 19, 35, 45, 46, 54 and 55 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

The case is scheduled for November 8, the chairman of the supreme judicial instance Valery Zorkin has been appointed as a judge. Oleg Permyakov, partner of the law firm Rustam Kurmaev and Partners, believes that applicants rarely manage to prove the illegality of the Central Bank's decision in court.


08.11.2022