UK Subsidiary of Russian State Bank VTB Reported to Serious Fraud Office Over Vivacom Sale
GLOBE NEWSWIRE, 09 February 2016
Empreno Ventures, the owner of the largest Bulgarian telecommunications company Vivacom has reported VTB Capital, the UK arm of the state owned Russian bank, to the Serious Fraud Office for the alleged illegal seizure and sale of the company to a connected party.
The criminal complaint was filed with the Serious Fraud Office last week by lawyers representing InterV and its owner Dmitry Kosarev, who is the principle shareholder in Vivacom.
In a separate legal action Mr Kosarev is suing VTB Capital in London for damages in excess of 143m euros for allegedly selling Vivacom for a price that significantly under represented the true value of the company.
According to the SFO complaint, VTB Capital dishonestly seized InterV’s shareholding in Vivacom by conspiring with a third party to block the owners’ access to the company. Individuals named in the SFO complaint include Mr Nick Hutt (CEO of VTB Capital plc), Mr Alexei Yakovitsky (Global CEO of VTB Capital and CEO of VTB Capital Holding (Russia)) and Mr Yuri Soloviev (Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of JSC VTB Bank and Chairman of the Board of Directors of VTB Capital Holding (Russia)).
