The London High Court will begin hearing a $1.13 billion compensation claim on Monday filed by Mikhail Chernoy, a former shareholder in Russian aluminum giant RusAl, against its CEO Oleg Deripaska, for a 13.2 percent stake in the firm, Kommersant business daily said.
Chernoy will try to prove Deripaska was his business partner in 1990’s and 2000’s, based on two agreements signed in March 2001. The first agreement stipulates Deripaska is obliged to pay $100 million to Chernoy for assets included in RusAl, and $150 million for covering debts.
Under the second agreement, Deripaska was allegedly obliged to sell these assets to third parties within three to five years after the purchase, and pay the cash back to Chernoy minus $250 million, Kommersant says.
On Friday, the value of 13.2 percent of RusAl’s shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange amounted to $1.13 billion.
Deripaska claims Chernoy was not his business partner, but a criminal who used gangster contacts to extort protection payments from Deripaska.
The aluminum business was a battleground for mafia-like structures in Russia in the 1990’s, with several plant managers and stakeholders in the business meeting violent deaths.
Chernoy will testify through a video link from Israel, as he is a subject of European arrest warrant following a Spanish money-laundering investigation from January 2010.