PROCEDURE FOR MOVING OUT THE ASSETS THROUGH RELATIVES WILL BECOME MORE COMPLICATED

The situation when the assets of a bankrupt organization are moved out in advance through friends and relatives is not new. However, this practice may become less popular in the near future. It could be changed by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, which allowed creditors to request information about the relatives of the beneficiaries.

The highest court considered the case of Segezha Network. In the case under consideration, the liquidator had serious grounds to believe that the company's assets were transferred to the accounts of affiliated persons. However, neither the court of first instance, nor the court of appeal made it possible to legally obtain the relevant information. In this case, the courts referred to the fact that private life was inviolable.

The Supreme Court pointed out the misuse of the rules of law by the judges and allowed the liquidator to demand that the relevant information should be obtained from the registry office.

Without full information about the relatives of the debtor (former or current), it is practically impossible to establish all those persons who control him by contacting them with a property claim.

In the Segezha network’s case, the shares of the authorized capital were divided into three parts. By requesting information about parents, siblings, husbands and wives (former and current), the manager received more real information about whom exactly the owners of the company could transfer assets before the insolvency proceedings began. Now the manager has real opportunities to bring those persons responsible for the withdrawal of assets to subsidiary liability. In other words, money and other property will have to be transferred to creditors.

At the same time, lawyers specializing in bankruptcy cases talk about common cases when the beneficiaries of companies enter into similar transactions with distant relatives, including non-blooded ones (father-in-law and mother-in-law, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law, second cousins). This prevents the discovery of actual links, thereby preventing the return of assets to the bankruptcy estate.

Often this situation is observed in the work of state and municipal employees who register assets for other persons.

Earlier, a bill has already been submitted to the Parliament, which, as the Government of the Russian Federation hopes, will allow the withdrawal of funds from bank accounts of employees, if they turn out to be amounts that exceed the official three-year income of an official.