Trust Bank is seeking to restore the obligations of businessman and ex-State Duma deputy Vadim Varshavsky on a $8.5 million loan. The loan was issued by Promsvyazbank (now Trust is its successor) back in 2009.
A few years later, the offshore company Skadinex bought out the rights of claim against Mr. Varshavsky and entered into an agreement with him to repay the debt. Now the Khamovnichesky Court of Moscow, at the request of the Trust, has declared this agreement invalid, which may threaten the businessman with the loss of real estate in Moscow, which is a pledge for a disputed loan.
The Khamovnichesky District Court of Moscow invalidated the $8.5 million debt repayment agreement concluded in 2017 between Vadim Varshavsky and Skadinex Services Limited (Cyprus). The corresponding court decision was made at the request of the bank “Trust”.
“Trust” claimed the claim as the actual successor of Promsvyazbank, which in 2009 provided Vadim Varshavsky with a dollar loan. In November 2017, the creditor entered into an agreement with Skadinex on the assignment of claims to Vadim Varshavsky. A few days later, the businessman and the company reached an agreement to repay the debt, which involved the settlement of promissory notes of the Tkachev Agrocomplex Firm JSC with a nominal value of 500 million rubles.
However, in 2018, Promsvyazbank unilaterally terminated the agreement on the assignment of claims with Skadinex.
As explained to Kommersant in Trust, the temporary administration that had come to Promsvyazbank by that time did this because the company did not fulfill its contractual obligations (it had to pay the bank 480 million rubles).
After that, Promsvyazbank appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court with a demand to invalidate the agreement on the assignment of claims with Skadinex, but to no avail.
In 2019, Trust itself, as the assignee of PSB, tried to foreclose on the property of Vadim Varshavsky, which is collateral for a disputed loan. It was about non-residential real estate in Moscow, estimated at 67 million rubles. The court also denied this request.
The Trust’s lawsuit to invalidate Vadim Varshavsky’s agreement with Skadinex to repay the debt was filed in order to restore the businessman’s obligations to the bank, Kommersant was told at the credit institution.
Now, after the decision of the Khamovniki District Court, Vadim Varshavsky again has a debt to the creditor, says Pavel Ikkert, managing partner of the Ickert and Partners law firm. “But here it’s actually not very clear which one. If we proceed from the fact that only the debt settlement deal between him and Skadinex was disputed, then for Trust this does not mean anything, including from the point of view of foreclosure on the pledge, ”the lawyer believes.
Meanwhile, on March 23, the Khamovnichesky District Court is scheduled to consider an application from the prosecutor’s office to recover 490 million rubles from Vadim Varshavsky. The supervisory agency stated that the said amount should be recovered as compensation for damages to the state from non-payment of taxes. In 2019, the businessman was found guilty of concealing the income tax of the Rostov Metallurgical Plant, for which he received three and a half years in prison.
In September 2021, after serving this term, Vadim Varshavsky received a new one. The Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow sentenced him to seven years in a penal colony for embezzling 2.8 billion rubles from Petrocommerce Bank in 2012. credit funds issued for the development of OJSC Zlatoust Metallurgical Plant, of which he was a co-owner.