30.09.2024
PCB Byrne struck victory for its client, Andrey Guriev, in one of the Lawyer Top 20 Cases of 2024 which centred on a dispute between Russian businessmen about interests in major industrial assets acquired in the post-Soviet era.
Following a six week trial in April and May this year, HHJ Pelling KC has dismissed in its entirety the claim brought by Alexander Gorbachev against Andrey Guriev to the effect that he was entitled to a 24.75% interest in Mr Guriev’s shares in a Russian fertilizer company, PJSC PhosAgro, worth billions of dollars.
The case, which traversed facts going back over 30 years, unravelled at trial, with the judge finding that there were “simply too many unexplained and unexplainable inconsistencies and inherent implausibilities about what the claimant has alleged over time to enable any other conclusion to be reached”.
This finally brings to an end a long campaign by Mr Gorbachev, which also involved multiple proceedings in Cyprus (including private criminal prosecutions). We are delighted that Mr Guriev has now been vindicated by this judgment.
NEIL MICKLETHWAITE AND OLGA BISCHOF LED THE TEAM AT PCB BYRNE INSTRUCTING HELEN DAVIES KC OF BRICK COURT CHAMBERS, TOGETHER WITH TOM WEISSELBERG KC, DANIEL CASHMAN AND ROWAN STENNETT OF BLACKSTONE CHAMBERS.
The judgment is available to read here.
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