Defending the interests of a Russian entrepreneur, a creditor under debt obligations issued by a foreign company and secured by a personal guarantee of the owner of a large financial institution (the debtor), who, following an inspection of that institution by the Central Bank of Russia, moved to Cyprus and is evading the claims of its numerous creditors. We conducted an initial analysis of publicly available information and, after identifying the range of jurisdictions in which the guarantor’s assets (and possible ownership structures) might be located, we engaged international specialised firms to search for the assets. The firm selected at the end of the tender analysed and identified both the assets and their ownership structures. Arbitration proceedings to recover the debt are currently underway.

Represented an individual, a citizen of the Russian Federation, in preparation for a legal dispute on divorce and division of joint property of spouses with a wealthy Russian entrepreneur. We established the ownership structure of the key assets and profit centres of the business and ensured documentation of the chain of corporate control up to the top-level holding companies established in the BVI. Our chosen BVI law firm brought an action on behalf of the client seeking a court order for compulsory disclosure of the ultimate beneficiary (a so-called Norwich order). The court granted the claim and ordered the provider to disclose all information from their files, including the identity of the ultimate beneficiary, and not to disclose the disclosure (and the litigation itself) to the beneficiary.

Defending the interests of an individual in an asset disclosure dispute about the corporate ownership structure of a business in a US litigation. The client, a Russian individual, was involved in divorce proceedings and a dispute over the division of the spouses’ joint property in a Russian court. In the course of the dispute, the plaintiff’s representatives claimed that she was awarded shares in foreign companies that did not belong to the client, claiming that he was allegedly their ultimate beneficiary, which was not true (the client was related to these companies, but in a different role than the ultimate beneficiary; their beneficiary was the client’s business partner). Having selected and hired a US law firm for the client, we organised the protection of the client’s interests in the process, including the provision of correct information and documents by the service provider’s employees during the disclosure.