Russia’s Supreme Court dismisses appeal over Bashneft stock forfeiture

Russia’s Supreme Court has turned down the appeal against the ruling ordering AFK Sistema to forfeit oil producer Bashneft’s stock, according to the statement posted on the court’s website on Thursday. The appeal was turned down without reviewing it, citing procedural violations and missing paperwork to validate the appeal . Earlier, an unnamed individual appealed the Moscow Commercial Court ruling, that ordered AFK Sistema to forfeit its accumulated stock of oil producer Bashneft to the state. The court’s statement reads that the applicant, starting in 2012, filed more than four dozen cassation appeals in economic and civil trials. They all have been returned without review. In most cases, the court based the dismissals on the applicant’s inability to prove his stake in any given case. Bashneft was privatized in 2009. It was controlled by the government of Russia’s Bashkortostan region until 2003, when a major stake was sold to companies affiliated with Ural Rakhimov, son of the former head of Bashkortostan Murtaza Rakhimov. In 2009, Russian oil-to-telecoms conglomerate AFK Sistema gained control of the company. Investigators opened a criminal case last April linked to deals with Bashneft shares in 2002 to 2009. Rakhimov and billionaire Vladimir Yevtushenkov were implicated in the sale of Bashneft stock in 2009. Rakhimov was charged in absentia with embezzlement and money laundering, put on the international wanted list. Yevtushenkov, the board chairman and largest beneficiary of AFK Sistema, stands charged with money laundering.

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