THE SUPREME COURT WILL SORT OUT THE CHALLENGE OF THE TRANSACTION TO REPAY THE FICTITIOUS DEBT

The debtor's creditor filed an application to the court challenging the transaction – the debt transfer agreement concluded between the debtor and two companies (case no. A40-274335/19). An agreement was concluded between these companies, under the terms of which the contractor undertook to provide services to ensure the participation of the customer in the auction.

As a result of the provision of services, the customer had a debt that was transferred to the debtor in accordance with the above-mentioned debt transfer agreement.

The contract was concluded due to the fulfillment of the debtor's obligations to the customer under the service agreement, since the debtor was in contractual legal relations with him, within the framework of which he had a debt to the customer.

Thus, the disputed debt transfer agreement was concluded for the purpose of paying off the debtor's own debt to the customer by paying off the latter's debt to the contractor.

The courts of three instances refused to satisfy the claim, justifying such a decision by the fact that the reality of contractual legal relations was confirmed by the documents submitted to the case file.

The Supreme Court of the Russian Federation, referring the case to the board, drew attention to the arguments of the cassator that the debt transfer agreement was concluded solely to create an artificial debt to give legitimacy to the withdrawal of the debtor's funds to an affiliated organization. The circumstances of the illegal transaction, established by the court of first instance, were not subsequently refuted when considering the dispute in the courts of higher instances.

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