Michael Calvi moved to Artyom Avetisyan queen

Bank "Vostochny" could withdraw assets.
24.06.2019
Kommersant
Origin source
One of the minority shareholders of Vostochny Bank has prepared a lawsuit against Artyom Avetisyan, a former shareholder of Uniastrum-Bank. The plaintiff speaks about the withdrawal of assets from this credit institution before the merger of Uniastrum-Bank to the bank "Vostochny" and demands compensation. Defendants insist that all transactions are legitimate. Lawyers see the prospects of the claim, although they note that it will be difficult to win.

The minority shareholder of Vostochny Bank, lawyer of Baring Vostok funds, Marina Ushakova, on June 20 sent the bank a notice of filing a claim to the Arbitration Court of the Amur Region to Artem Avetisyan and Alla Tsytovich. The first is the main shareholder of Vostochny Bank, and until 2017 was the majority shareholder (over 80%) in Uniastrum Bank. Ms. Tsytovich served as chairman of the board of Uniastrum Bank. “Kommersant” read both the notice of filing a lawsuit and the text of the document, which will be filed next week (this intention was confirmed by a lawyer representing Ms. Ushakov). The plaintiff alleges that shortly before joining Vostochniy, Uniastrum Bank made “one-type unprofitable transactions” for the acquisition of Artem Avetisyan’s minority stakes and interests in an option to increase its stake in their authorized capitals.

We are talking about 15 transactions in the period from June 23 to July 13, 2016, in the amount of 1.66 billion rubles. In the lawsuit, these transactions are referred to as "asset withdrawal." To substantiate its position, the claimant gives excerpts from the inspection report of Vostochny Bank drawn up by the Central Bank in August 2018. In this act, the regulator notes that prior to the merger, Uniastrum-Bank acquired shares and shares of a number of companies at a cost “significantly higher” than the price at which Bok Russia acquired them from the original holder. The company received the proceeds in its account at Deutsche Bank AG, which, according to the Central Bank, “may indicate signs of asset withdrawal.” Judging by the act of checking the Central Bank (available to Kommersant), in particular, in 2016, Bok Russia acquired a 4.99% stake in CJSC Poltava Canned Food, as well as an option to acquire 10% of this company’s shares for 50 thousand . rub. A few days later they were sold to Uniastrum Bank for 433.3 million rubles. The remaining transactions were conducted in a similar way and received a similar assessment of the regulator. The plaintiff demands to compensate the bank for 100% of the investment in transactions (1.66 billion rubles).

A Kommersant interlocutor close to the defendants explains that Bok Rush had a number of option agreements with a number of companies that allowed them to buy a share at a price lower than the market price. Before the merger of the bank, according to him, the revenue of all companies, the shares that Uniastrum-Bank acquired, was over 10 billion rubles, and the net profit was about 2 billion rubles. By the time the Central Bank checked in August 2018, their condition had worsened. Later, the bank provided the regulator with additional information; as a result, in the December prescription of the Central Bank, reserves for investments in securities of these companies amounted to only 700–800 million rubles, recalls the Kommersant source. Now, according to him, the fair value of securities is about 800 million rubles. The representative of Finvision (new name “Bok Rush”), answering the questions of “Kommersant”, advised the plaintiff to substantiate his position and “find for the bank proposals to get a minority share in companies with a total revenue of 11 billion rubles for the same nominal value. and a profit of about 2 billion rubles. " Another major shareholder of the bank - Baring Vostok funds - does not comment on the lawsuit.

Lawyers consider the suit promising, but difficult. According to the partner of the FMG Group Nikolay Kolenchuk, in addition to the reference to the Central Bank’s act, it is necessary to conduct a financial examination of the acquired assets in order to determine the extent of possible damage. “The results can serve as a basis for appealing to law enforcement agencies to initiate criminal proceedings,” Mr. Kolenchuk believes. “The text of the statement actually contains evidence of official elements of crimes, embezzlement.” The minority shareholder has to prove that the actions of the management were unlawful, to show a causal relationship between their actions and consequences, said Denis Frolov, head of commercial practice at BMS Law Firm. “It will be extremely difficult to do this,” he believes, “but this does not mean that the shareholder will not be able to win the trial.”

Following the publication of the article in print, the lawyer of Marina Ushakova, Anton Alexandrov, told Kommersant that his client continues to analyze the judicial prospects and the final decision on filing a lawsuit has not yet been made.

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