THE SUPREME COURT HAS DETERMINED THE TERMS OF PAYMENT OF DEBTS ON BANKRUPTCY BY THIRD PARTIES

The key criterion in determining the legality of the transaction will now be the ownership of funds. The precedent decision was made within the framework of the bankruptcy proceedings against the son of former Prime Minister Vitaly Chernomyrdin.

The applicant can challenge the payment of the debt by a third party only if there is evidence that the money belonged to the bankrupt himself and was withdrawn from the bankruptcy estate. This also includes payments made against a third party's debt to bankruptcy.

The dispute arose after the bankruptcy manager in the insolvency case of Vitaly Chernomyrdin challenged the partial repayment of his ward's debt by Furkat Sattorov.

He previously paid 17.8 million rubles to Gazprombank with the transfer of the right to claim compensation, which, according to the manager, had an illegal preference for one of the debtor's creditors. The lower courts also considered the payment as made at the expense of the debtor.

The case got to the board for economic disputes of the Supreme Court as a result of an appeal by Gazprombank. Its representatives insisted that Sattorov paid off the debt from his own funds.

The court, in turn, drew attention to the fact that there was no evidence that the money belonged to Chernomyrdin, or that Sattorov had a debt to him. In this case, the fact of debiting funds from Sattorov's personal account is sufficient for the transaction to be considered completed at the expense of the bankruptcy estate. According to the Supreme Court, there is no question of illegal preference in this case.

The possibility of payment of debt in case of bankruptcy by third parties is regulated by Article 313 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation. Earlier, in a conversation with journalists of the Kommersant newspaper, the experts stated that disputes as a result of such payments arise quite often and a precedent decision of the Supreme Court is necessary to form a law enforcement practice in similar cases.