Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska praises UK Courts after dodging jail sentence
- The metals mogul was accused of putting shares out of reach by transferring them back to Russia but the judge said there’s no proof of contempt of court
- He is ‘glad to see that this time, despite the ongoing frenzy, the UK courts demonstrate independence and choose to rule cases on their merits’, spokesman says
Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska praised the fairness of London’s courts after he fended off an attempt by a former business partner to have him jailed in the UK.
Deripaska was accused by Vladimir Chernukhin of deliberately putting shares in his holding company out of reach by transferring them back to Russia. But Judge Mark Pelling said that Chernukhin had failed to prove that the transfer was a contempt of court.
“Chernukhin’s case collapsed like a house of cards under the scrutiny of the trial”, Deripaska’s spokesman said in a statement. “Mr. Deripaska is glad to see that this time, despite the ongoing frenzy, the UK courts demonstrate independence and choose to rule cases on their merits”.
The metals tycoon, who was separately sanctioned by the UK in March last year for his connections with the Kremlin, was questioned via video link from Moscow after his lawyers warned that he would have been unable to pay expenses including his hotel bill if he flew to London to give evidence in person.
He denied that he had deliberately breached any agreements over the movement of shares in En+ Group International PJSC, one of the largest Russian conglomerates and the holding company for the top aluminium producer.