A team from the Litigation Practice at EPAM in St. Petersburg, representing the interests of a client in the Commercial Court of the North-Western Federal District, secured a new hearing in a case involving a RUB 2.5 billion subsidiary liability claim against a former shareholder in Energocapital, the largest brokerage firm in north-western Russia.

With Energocapital having declared bankruptcy, the company’s scheduled creditors filed a subsidiary liability claim against former director and shareholder Alexander Kashin, a St. Petersburg billionaire and director of one of the city’s largest defence industry holdings. The claimants allege that Kashin’s actions resulted in the stripping of assets worth RUB 2.5 bn and in the firm’s bankruptcy. In order to cover up his actions, the creditors claim that Kashin completely renounced legal control of Energocapital back in 2012. Both the court of first instance and the appeal court failed to uphold the creditors’ position, however.
 
The Firm’s lawyers persuaded the court of cassation that the lower courts had withdrawn from consideration of the case and had not established who actually controlled the company when the suspicious asset stripping transactions occurred. The case was sent to be reconsidered by the St. Petersburg and Leningrad Region Commercial Court.
 
The Firm’s work on this case was led by Managing Partner of the St. Petersburg office Ivan Smirnov, with support from senior associates Evgeny Gurchenko and Artem Magunov, and associate Alexander Svashenko.