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 the rights to the claim against Mr. Varshavsky. They made an agreement with him to repay the debt. Now the Khamovnichesky Court in Moscow, at the request of the Trust, has declared this agreement invalid. This may put the businessman at risk of losing real estate in Moscow, which he used as security for a disputed loan.
The Khamovnichesky District Court in Moscow has canceled the $8.5 million debt repayment agreement that Vadim Varshavsky and Skadinex Services Limited (Cyprus) reached in 2017. This decision was made at the request of the bank “Trust”.
“Trust” claimed the claim as the actual successor of Promsvyazbank, which provided Vadim Varshavsky with a dollar loan in 2009. In November 2017, the creditor made an agreement with Skadinex to transfer the claims to Vadim Varshavsky. A few days later, the businessman and the company reached an agreement to repay the debt, which included 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.
According to Trust, the temporary administration that had taken over Promsvyazbank by that time did this because the company didn't meet its contractual obligations (it had to pay the bank 480 million rubles).
Following this, Promsvyazbank appealed to the Moscow Arbitration Court to annul the agreement on the assignment of claims with Skadinex, but their attempt was unsuccessful.
In 2019, Trust itself, as the assignee of PSB, attempted to foreclose on Vadim Varshavsky's property, which is used as collateral for a disputed loan. This concerned non-residential real estate in Moscow, valued at 67 million rubles. The court also rejected this request.
The Trust filed a lawsuit to invalidate Vadim Varshavsky’s agreement with Skadinex to repay the debt in order to restore the businessman’s obligations to the bank, according to information from the credit institution.
Now, after the decision of the Khamovniki District Court, Vadim Varshavsky once again owes money 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 consider 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.
