Sergei Bakeshin has provided his comments to Pravo.ru on directors incurring subsidiary responsibility

According to Fedresurs, a record number of  directors incurred subsidiary liability in 2018.  The mechanism may be used against a director of a company on the grounds of dishonesty or unreasonable performance of his/her duties, refusal to hand over financial documentation to an bankrupty manager or following the late filing a insolvency petition. In these cases, the director can be liable, even if he acted with the support of under the direction of the shareholders of the company.

The Moscow City Commercial Court brought Maria Starikova, ahead of Offprice, to subsidiary liability. After the bankruptcy proceedings against the company were terminated, the Deposit Insurance Agency filed a respective application on behalf of its creditor, Finprombank.  The court ordered Starikova to pay 49.4 million roubles, stating that the director had signed an agreement that resulted in the transfer of about 50% of all company assets but she did not have the required experience to enter into the contract.

Sergei Bakeshin, Head of the Dispute Resolution and Insolvency Practice at Maxima Legal, explained to Pravo.ru that the court’s arguments, combined with the refusal to demand evidence from the Deposit Insurance Agency, was not convincing.  “Starikova was declared bankrupt in March. Other creditors of Offprice did not join the dispute on bringing her to subsidiary liability and it is not clear whether they were offered to join the dispute in accordance with the law. At the same time, Finprombank filed a new claim against Offprice for more than 100 million roubles at the end of June,” explained Sergei.

You can read the article (in Russian) on the website Pravo.ru >>>>