The English High Court has allowed conspiracy proceedings
brought by two Russian banks against several Russian nationals to
proceed in England, despite there being "no doubt, and no
dispute, that [it] is a Russian case".1
The alleged conspiracy
The Claimants allege that the seven defendants conspired to
bring about transactions in which approximately US$800m of well
performing, secured loans, which had been made by the Claimants to
a company ultimately owned or controlled by the first four
defendants (the Mints), were repaid with the
Claimants' own money and replaced with illiquid, unsecured,
non-income producing long-term bonds worth a fraction of the price
the Claimants paid for them. At the time, the fifth to seventh
defendants (D5-D7) were Chairmen, CEOs
and/or shareholders of the Claimants. The Claimants allege that the
Mints dishonestly procured the transactions in conspiracy with the
banks' then controllers (D5-D7) to the benefit of the
Mints' company and
