Rusal founder not guilty of contempt of court

Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska was cleared of contempt of court by London’s high court on Wednesday in a long-running legal battle with his former business partner.

The founder of aluminium giant Rusal was alleged to have breached an undertaking to the court in a lawsuit brought by former Russian finance minister Vladimir Chernukhin over a joint venture to develop real estate in Moscow.

But judge Mark Pelling ruled on Wednesday that Chernukhin had not proved his case against Deripaska, who is subject to Western sanctions imposed due to his perceived links to the Kremlin.

A spokesperson for Deripaska said in a statement: “Mr Chernukhin’s case collapsed like a house of cards under the scrutiny of the trial.

“The ridiculous accusations raised by Chernukhin were nothing but shameless lies driven by animosity, gall, and petty grudges. Mr Deripaska is glad to see that this time, despite the ongoing frenzy, the UK courts demonstrate independence and choose to rule cases on their merits.”

Lawyers for Chernukhin did not reply immediately to a request for comment.

Chernukhin had said Deripaska was in contempt by allowing EN+ Group, which owns a 57% stake in Rusal, to relocate from Jersey to Russia.

Contempt of court can be punished by up to two years in prison and an unlimited fine.

Chernukhin — whose wife Lubov Chernukhin has given more than £2m to Britain’s ruling Conservative party and its MPs since 2012 — alleged Deripaska breached an undertaking to preserve 45.5-million EN+ shares in Jersey to meet a $95m debt, which has since been paid in full.

His lawyer, Jonathan Crow, argued at a hearing last month that the shares were rendered “worthless” because of the difficulty in enforcing debts against Deripaska in Russia.

Deripaska gave evidence by video link from Moscow, which his lawyer said was in part because of concern that US charges for allegedly violating sanctions could have prompted US authorities to seek Deripaska’s extradition from London.

He told the court the shares would have been worthless if EN+ was not redomiciled, as the company would have been bankrupted due to US sanctions imposed on EN+ because of his control.

Pelling said in his written ruling that the “central premise” of Chernukhin’s case was that the EN+ shares were effectively cancelled when the company was relocated to Russia, which was “simply wrong”.

Chernukhin sought permission to appeal against Pelling’s ruling on Wednesday, which was refused.

Deripaska and Chernukhin have been engaged in a bitter dispute since 2010, which saw Deripaska bring a private criminal prosecution against Chernukhin in 2019. The case was taken over by British prosecutors and dropped the next  year.

Reuters