By Andrei Skvarsky.
Receivers and creditors in Russia often come up against legal and other hurdles in trying to seize assets that insolvent debtors have abroad, according to a senior manager at Russia’s biggest lender Sberbank.
About 5 per cent of Russia’s businesspeople own money or property abroad, mainly in the United States, France and Spain, Yevgeny Akimov, head of Sberbank’s debt recovery and bankruptcy department, said during a panel session at the St Petersburg International Legal Forum.
Far from all wealthy Russians who go broke are open about what they may own abroad. Yet Akimov said there had been “quite many” instances of assets held in foreign countries being located in the course of bankruptcy proceedings.
But finding such assets is generally easier than seizing them, Akimov told the session, which was entitled “The Bankruptcy of Wealthy Individuals: The Mysteries of Foreign Assets” and organised by Sberbank.
One hindrance is the legislation of host countries, according to Akimov.
Another is that wealthier debtors sometimes hire lawyers abroad who help them hide their assets or defend them against claims from Russia. “Our practice shows that it takes five times more resources to breach than to build defences of this kind,” Akimov said.
The points raised at the session included the issue of who should finance looking for and seizing assets hidden abroad, a problem that obviously stems from the absence in Russia of legislation on cross-border insolvency.
One more subject were means of seizing digital assets such as cryptocurrency from distressed debtors. “We will definitely discuss methods of seizing digital assets at other conferences,” Akimov said.
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