The High Court of Justice of England and Wales has decided to seize property of Ukrainian businessman Dmytro Firtash in the United Kingdom pursuing enforcement of a provisional measure under a request of Russia’s VTB Bank seeking to return loans in the amount of 2.5 billion Russian rubles, the Kommersant publication reported on Feb. 28, referring to the bank.
According to the sources of the publication, two mansions and other property of Firtash were seized in London. Their cost is estimated at over GBP 50 million.
In particular, a five-story mansion with a total area of more than 1,500 square meters in the prestigious Knightsbridge district near Hyde Park and a historic building of about 2,600 square meters, which was part of the former London Brompton Road Underground station, were seized.
According to Kommersant, in addition to the mansions, the court seized Firtash’s shares in the film company Via Film Ltd, the cost of which, according to the financial statements, is about GBP 2 million.
The publication said that the court upholding the decision of the District Court of the Cypriot city of Limassol also ordered the defendant to disclose all of his assets that could be seized.
As reported, in the middle of January 2019, the Cypriot court seized almost all of Firtash’s movable and immovable property for almost $46 million, while restrictive measures also affected the head company Group DF Holdings Limited. According to the newspaper, the reason was the claim of the Russian bank VTB, to which two structures of the Ukrainian businessman, namely PrJSC Ukrainian Chemical Products and Titanium Investments LLC that own a number of factories in Crimea, owe more than 2.5 billion rubles.
