Unexpected turn occurred in the process of investigating the circumstances of the bankruptcy LLC "Distant Steppe", which was the general director of the Moscow representative of the fund Hermitage Capital, William Browder. As the "Kommersant", London's High Court recognized the legitimacy of the bankruptcy of the company under English law, as well as the powers of the bankruptcy trustee Cyril Nogotkova. Using the new features, one intends to achieve the return of assets worth more than 3 billion rubles., Retired from the company. Summons for questioning by the English court were sent to the directors of the first "Long steppe" - Mr Browder and Ivan Cherkasov, who are wanted by the law enforcement agencies of Russia within the framework of the case, under investigation in Russia.

Order of recognition Cyril Nogotkova powers Court of Justice for legal entities of the High Court in London issued July 8. The preparation of this document means that the court recognizes the legitimacy of the procedure bankruptcy "Long steppe" in English law, and its bankruptcy trustee received in England and Wales all the powers to search for the company's assets, including the spareDew financial documents, subpoena witnesses, and so on. n. The decision of the English Court is unprecedented for the Russian side, said "Kommersant" Ivan Smirnov, partner of law firm "Egorov, Puginsky, Afanasiev and Partners".

In turn, Kirill Marigold told "Kommersant" that the recognition of his authority English court is necessary to search for assets withdrawn shortly before the bankruptcy "Long steppe". "The founders of the company is a foreign company, its directors - foreign citizens or persons who are currently outside of Russia, so the court's decision is fully justified", - he stressed. Now the manager is going to get an explanation for the "two large and suspicious transactions," the company, which took Mr. Marigold transactions passed through HSBC Bank in 2004-2005. The first of them is related to the payment of dividends Cypriot company Cerasus Investments Ltd and OOO "Oasis M" in the amount of more than 2.6 billion rubles, the second -. Transfer of 650 million rubles. United Bank in small business and is located in Blagoveshchensk Far Eastern Regional Bank, whose licenses were withdrawn in 2008 and 2009, respectively. The reason, by the way, served including repeated violations of the law on countering money laundering of proceeds of crime, as well as the order and terms of the direction in the Federal Financial Monitoring Service of information on transactions subject to mandatory control.

Meanwhile, the bankruptcy trustee Marigold intends soon to question the High Court in London of ex-directors of "Long steppe" William Browder and Ivan Cherkasov, who has sent subpoenas.

It is worth noting that the two operations mentioned by Mr. Marigold, appear in the criminal investigation into the circumstances of deliberate bankruptcy "Distant Steppe", which is the investigative department of the Ministry of Interior. Investigators believe that with the help of transactions has been implemented Browder plan for the withdrawal of assets from the company before its bankruptcy. "The official income of the company during a record dividend payout was less than 1.4 billion rubles, which eliminates the possibility of the payment of such dividends.", - Explained his interest in these transactions Cyril Feetlescents. A payment orders, which were presented by HSBC to these transactions, he said, "it is difficult to perceive how the financial instrument". Some of them, said the manager, "are almost a blank sheet of paper" on which no printing "Long steppe" and the signature of its Director-General, in other cases, the payment order is not printing company, "but for some reason it bears the signature of an unauthorized person."

As it has been repeatedly reported by "Kommersant", recorded in 1998 in Elista company "Distant Steppe" owned fund Hermitage Capital, and its CEO is William Browder, and then his business partner Ivan Cherkasov. The company, according to the materials of the case, received tax breaks, it has become a center of buying up shares of "Gazprom", at a time when Russia was acting in a ban on such operations to foreign companies and investment funds. In 2004, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kalmykia has opened a criminal case on non-payment of company income tax. In 2013, Mr Browder was convicted in absentia in Moscow Tverskoy District Court to nine years for tax evasion "Long Step". The developer of the scheme inloneniya tax, according to law enforcement officers, was Sergei Magnitsky, who died during the investigation into the detention center. His prosecution was therefore dropped.

Note that the "Distant Steppe" appears in other criminal cases. Last year, the Department of Investigation Ministry of Internal Affairs launched an investigation into the bankruptcy of the company. As a result of the investigation to characterize the actions of its former arbitration manager Alexander Dolzhenko as "aiding in the deliberate bankruptcy of the company" (Art. 5, Art. 33 and Art. 196 of the Criminal Code). As follows from the text of the charges brought against the final version of Mr Dolzhenko, investigators believe that crime is organized by William Browder, who in 2004, fearing that in the course of a criminal investigation in Kalmykia is proved that the company underpaid taxes, developed a "deliberate plan bringing the company into bankruptcy, "the details of which are also dedicated to Ivan Cherkasov. Plan including, according to the investigation, included the withdrawal from the balance of society its main asset - shares of "Gazprom", as well as Denetighteners funds, including under the guise of payment of dividends, and, finally, the concealment of these actions by means of the supervised control.