PRESS: Court orders Promsvyazbank to keep $251 mln in foreign banks

MOSCOW, Feb 8 (PRIME) -- The Limassol District Court of Cyprus has banned Russia’s Promsvyazbank, bailed out under control of the central bank, from holding less than U.S. $251 million at correspondent accounts with foreign banks like Deutsche Âank, JPMorgan Chase, Credit Suisse, and others, Vedomosti business daily reported on Thursday.

The court issued the order under a claim from Fintailor Investments Limited, one of the 10 foreign companies with which Promsvyazbank is litigating in the Moscow Arbitration Court. The bank, which called Fintailor Investments’ suit “illegal and ungrounded” saying that its goal is in protracting the court proceedings in Russia, demands the Moscow Arbitration Court court acknowledge the sales of its shares carried out by the companies a day before a temporary administration was imposed on it, illegal.

In January, a Russian court arrested 60.8 billion rubles on accounts of these companies in the Cyprus subsidiary of Promsvyazbank as well as a 38% stake of four of the Cyprus companies in Bank Vozrozhdenie, the business daily reported.

The Limassol court also prohibited Promsvyazbank from making transitions from accounts of Fintailor Investments outside the country’s jurisdiction without approval of the company.

Konstantin Astafyev, a lawyer representing Fintailor Investments, said that the measures were introduced to protect interests of the company, and it will work on lifting the provisional measures of the Moscow Arbitration Court as they “violate the rights of the company and its clients.”

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