Billionaire Vasily Anisimov Agreed on Amicable Settlement with V.V. Yakovlev-Owned Companies

According to the joint statement of the parties, V. Yakovlev repaid the loan in full to Vasily Anisimov. As a result, the client of the BIEL law firm retrieve his funds, while a 38% package of Kristall distillery equities used as collateral remained at the disposal of their owner. The disputable funds amounted to $22m, said to the mass media Filipp Ryabchenko, Senior Partner of the BIEL law firm, which defended Vasily Anisimov’s interests in court.

The conflict which ended up with litigation in court comes down to the fact that in 2015 VEDK, a distribution company selling spirits, took a loan at a rate of 9.5% p.a. from Addison Investments Ltd, a Cyprus-based offshore company associated with Vasily Anisimov's Coalco, a developer. The loan was extended against a 38% equity package of the Kristall distillery, Russia’s once largest vodka producer currently owned by Valery Yakovlev. As the loan was not repaid in full by January 2016, Vasily Anisimov filed a lawsuit to enforce the pledge.

However, at that moment VEDK was at the stage of liquidation and Valery Yakovlev demanded in court to recognize the pledge as invalid. For that purpose, his companies filed ten lawsuits with various courts. However, two of those lawsuits were lost and Valery Yakovlev gave up the fight and repaid the debt to Vasily Anisimov.