Uralchem will appeal against the decision of the High Court of Ireland

The High Court of Ireland has stated that they intend to confirm jurisdiction on the claim of four offshore companies: Trafalgar Developments, Bairiki, Kamara, Instantania Holdings against Uralchem. On this occasion, Uralchem made an official declaration.

As follows from the company’s statement, the taken decision does not prejudge the outcome of the case. It is a matter of procedure and means that the Court will consider the validity of the claims of the above companies. The final decision on the case may be reached only after the main proceedings which the High Court of Ireland has not yet initiated. After the issue of the jurisdiction of Uralchem, the Court will consider its appeal.

The trial in Ireland was initiated on the claim of four offshore companies claiming to be the majority shareholders of Togliattiazot. However, the Court of Togliatti established that these companies received about 70% of Togliattiazot’s shares in trust. The claimants do not disclose to Ireland’s Court in whose interests they have filed the claim and who is the ultimate beneficiary of these shares. Nevertheless, the Court of Togliatti determined that these offshore companies were used by convicted Vladimir and Sergey Makhlai and Andrew Zivy as a place of storage of Togliattiazot’s shares to conceal information about the owners of the shares from other shareholders.

In July 2019, the Court of Togliatti issued a guilty verdict against the beneficial owners of Togliattiazot. Vladimir and Sergey Makhlai and the owner of the affiliated Swiss company Ameropa Andrew Zivy were convicted of large-scale fraud committed by a group of persons by a prior agreement. The Court sentenced them to 8.5-9 years in prison and ordered them to compensate for the damage caused in the amount of 77.3 billion rubles (approximately $1.06 billion) to Togliattiazot and 10.3 billion rubles (approximately $141.4 million) to Uralchem (minority shareholder of Togliattiazot owning 10% of its shares).

The trustees of Togliattiazot’s shares filed a claim against Uralchem in November 2016 at the final stage of the investigation of fraud. The lawsuit says that Uralchem is responsible for the supposed conspiration aimed at harming the claimants by depriving them of their block of shares or benefits from participation in the share capital of Togliattiazot and/or causing damage to the value of their block of shares.

Uralchem denies all the claims and intends to prove their groundlessness in the High Court of Ireland.

To enforce the statement, the Court decreed to recover the damage from the Tomet enterprise controlled by Andrew Zivy, where bankruptcy proceedings began in April 2021. And in August 2021, the Court also declared Sergey Makhlai bankrupt and foreclosed on his property.