“To owe 15 billion rubles and not pay back anything: the top 5 bankrupts of 2023” — Denis Khimilyayne for RBC Pro
In the first quarter of 2023, the arbitration courts of the Russian Federation completed 50.8 thousand bankruptcy cases of citizens who collectively owed creditors 193.7 billion rubles. RBC Pro has studied the largest cases in terms of the amount of debt and the amount of repaid obligations.
Top 5 cases by repayment amount
On average, debtors in the first quarter of 2023 returned to creditors by court almost 6 kopecks for each ruble of debt. This is a whole penny more than in the third and fourth quarters of 2022. But debtors from the top 50 in terms of the amount of liabilities were either in a more distressed situation, or they hid their assets better.: from them, creditors managed to get only 3.8 billion out of 100 billion rubles, that is, less than 4 kopecks. for a ruble of debt.
First place: 2.329 billion rubles out of 3.243 billion rubles — Maxim Finsky, Moscow
Maxim Finsky, the former deputy head of Norilsk Nickel and a top manager of the ONEXIM group, received a bankruptcy claim from the Virginia offshore company Leansa Ltd in 2019. The claim was based on a promissory note debt of 251 million rubles, recovered from the businessman by the decision of the Zamoskvoretsky district court. In the Moscow Arbitration Court, the representative of the Finnish supported the creditor regarding the inclusion of his claim in the register, so the court introduced a debt restructuring procedure and appointed a financial manager. Then with his demand for 1.6 billion rubles. Another Virginian offshore company, Daselina Ltd, entered the case, and neither the debtor nor the first creditor objected to it either. Then this second offshore company bought up claims against the debtor from several minority creditors, including, for example, the former head of the debtor Mikhail Prokhorov. And the first offshore company brought another claim, purchased from a third offshore company, Kirkland Ltd (also from the British Virgin Islands), for 213 million rubles. And no one objected to its inclusion in the register either. This parade of concessions ended with the inclusion in the register of the claim of Daselina Ltd for another 1 billion rubles, purchased from the offshore Onexim Group Management Ltd. The court refused to include only one creditor in the register — this is the Federal Tax Service of Russia, which tried to demand a tax debt of 1 million rubles from the bankrupt.
The debtor's financial manager auctioned off the Finsky Palace with an area of 2.5 thousand square meters on a plot of 2.5 hectares in Odintsovo (it was acquired by ONEXIM Group LLC for 2.313 billion rubles), and also gave Ferrari 360, Universal Loader Avant 528, Toyota Land Cruiser, Lexus and Maybach cars as compensation to the first offshore company, as well as insurance indemnity in the amount of 4 million rubles, paid in connection with the destruction of a Bentley Continental GTC car in an accident. As a result, the debtor was waiting for a happy ending in the form of release from further fulfillment of obligations.
Denis Khimilyayne, Senior Partner of the Prime Advice Consulting Group:
Most bankruptcy cases begin with the bitter realization that there is not enough for everyone. Receiving an average of 4-5 kopecks from the ruble is the best proof of this. Therefore, creditors and debtors often behave like in a chicken coop: everyone strives to climb higher, peck their neighbor, etc. However, if everyone is friends with each other, miracles happen. As in the case of Maxim Finsky. The record amount of debt repayment is the result of the obvious cooperation of the debtor and large creditors. The debtor did not become greedy and gave real estate and numerous cars as compensation. Large creditors did not "fight" with each other, and also bought out the claims of minority creditors in order to reduce the time of the procedure and unnecessary costs. One can, of course, wonder about the reasons for such a well-coordinated interaction between majority creditors and the debtor. However, the fact remains that this bankruptcy was initiated not just to get rid of debts, without actually paying creditors anything and spending a lot of time and money on the procedure itself, but to repay creditors at least in a reasonable amount.