Bankruptcy and Anti-Сrisis Protection of Business
Projects
Pepeliaev Group’s lawyers protected the interests of a major Latvian bank within the framework of a comprehensive project to collect bad debt. Having initiated bankruptcy proceedings of borrowing companies and the bank’s sureties, we succeeded in: including claims of USD 8 million in the register of creditors; cancelling the decision of the arbitration tribunal on which an affiliated creditor’s claim was based; and in preventing the withdrawal of the debtor’s key assets that had been pledged as security for its loan obligations. We managed to initiate the proceedings under a simplified procedure based on an application filed by a foreign bank with respect to persons other than the principal debtors. This serves as grounds for these projects to be viewed as important and setting a precedent in terms of judicial decisions resulting from a check of whether bankruptcy applications are grounded.
Pepeliaev Group’s specialists provided comprehensive support in a bankruptcy case representing former executives and the founder of the debtor. Thanks to the efforts of our lawyers the debtor was liquidated, the executives and the founder were released from secondary liability of RUB 650 million despite the fact that they had been found criminally liable for tax evasion.
Pepeliaev Group's specialists successfully challenged a fiscal authority's assessment that the interest under credit agreements entered into with borrowers constituted additional income of the client bank when bankruptcy proceedings were under way involving such borrowers, over the period between the supervision procedure being initiated and the receivership proceedings being initiated. Moreover, our lawyers managed to prove that: there were no grounds for the tax authority to deny the bank a set-off of the profit tax withheld when the income was paid that had been received abroad; and there were no grounds to assess VAT on the value of the sold vehicles the bank received by foreclosing on the pledged property of borrowers who were individuals.
The lawyers from Pepeliaev Group’s bankruptcy practice have prepared an opinion for the subsidiary of a major national oil and gas corporation with an assessment of the risks relating to the set off of the counter claims of the potentially bankrupt company. The legal analysis of the situation, as well as of legislation and case law, has revealed significant risks that the assets will be lost even if the debt of the insolvent contractor is settled by way of set off. Based on the recommendations prepared by our specialists the client took a business decision that ruled out financial losses.
As part of a bankruptcy case, Pepeliaev Group's lawyers represented major telecommunications company Sitronics as a creditor, a former shareholder and a counterparty of the debtor, as well as acted for other companies within the group. Our lawyers successfully defended the client in nine proceedings in which transactions were contested. This made it possible to retain the group's assets worth RUB 2 billion. Moreover, our specialists managed to have a claim denied for secondary liability to be imposed on the client and on the debtor's director. The project is interesting because it involves multiple aspects and it forms case law relating to the regulations on secondary liability being applied over time.