On 27 October 2023, Mr Justice Butcher, sitting in the Commercial Court, rejected an application against multiple respondents for freezing orders and notification injunctions, following a three-day on notice hearing.
In Ziyavudin Magomedov and others v TPG Group Holdings (SBS), LP and others, the Claimants allege wide-ranging conspiracies against a total of 22 defendants, who are said to have colluded with each other and with other persons acting, or purporting to act, on behalf of the Russian State. The object of the alleged conspiracy is said to be to wrest assets from Mr Magomedov, including the FESCO Group, which controls, among other assets, the commercial port of Vladivostock. Mr Magomedov is currently serving a 19-year sentence for organised crime and embezzlement, and has had his assets confiscated by orders of the Russian courts.
The Claimants applied for notification injunctions against companies including ROSATOM, the Russian state atomic energy company. An application for a similar injunction against Transneft has been adjourned to a later date. The Claimants also sought freezing orders against four individuals and two companies.
Butcher J considered the applications for freezing orders against each respondent separately. As regards the Eleventh and Twelfth Defendants, said by the Claimants to be central protagonists in the alleged conspiracy, he concluded that no injunction should be ordered as a real risk of dissipation had not been shown by solid evidence, the Claimants did not genuinely consider there to be such a risk, and it would not be just and convenient to make the order that had been sought. Butcher J reached the same conclusion as regards the Seventeenth Defendant. As regards the Thirteenth, Twenty-First and Twenty-Second Defendants, he also concluded that there was no good arguable case against them.
As regards the applications for notification injunctions, Butcher J again found that there was no real risk of dissipation against any of the respondents he was considering, and dismissed the application.
The Eleventh and Twelfth Defendants were represented by Simon Colton KC and David Caplan with Patrick Harty and Veena Srirangam also acting, instructed by Daniel Hayward and Rebecca McKee at Fieldfisher LLP.
A copy of Butcher J’s judgment can be found below.
View Judgment