October 20, 2022 – The High Court heard that a Russian oligarch under EU sanctions, along with his companies—including one registered in Dublin—engaged in a prolonged and deliberate act of contempt of court as part of a scheme to seize full control of a rival company. Billionaire Dmitry Mazepin, a known associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is at the center of legal action in Dublin, where the owners of the rival firm accuse him of unlawfully taking over €2 billion worth of shares in the company in Russia.
Mazepin is the principal of United Chemical Company Uralchem (UCCU) and was previously a minority shareholder in the Russian ammonia producer Togliattiazot (ToAZ). His acquisition of ToAZ has made him one of Russia’s largest ammonia producers. The owners of ToAZ—Caribbean-registered firms Trafalgar Developments, Instantania Holdings, Kamara, and Bairiki Inc.—have sued Mazepin, several individuals, and associated companies, including Dublin-based Eurotoaz.
It is alleged that Eurotoaz played a key role in Mazepin’s scheme to take control of ToAZ through improper means, with the assistance of other defendants. While the case is pending in Dublin, the ToAZ owners have asked the High Court to find UCCU and Mazepin guilty of contempt for violating a 2019 agreement not to enforce a Russian court ruling against them or their agents until the Dublin proceedings are resolved.
The UCCU defendants reject these claims, arguing that a bankruptcy action they initiated in Russia against former ToAZ chairman and shareholder Sergi Makhlai did not breach the agreement. However, the ToAZ owners contend that this bankruptcy process led to the sale of ToAZ shares—held in a Russian bank—to another Mazepin-controlled company, Kai, at a significantly reduced price.
They further argue that the issue of share ownership is merely a distraction, as the enforcement of the 2019 Russian court ruling—valued at €1.2 billion—was already a breach of the High Court’s undertakings. Senior Counsel Eoin McCullough, representing the ToAZ owners, claimed that Mazepin orchestrated the takeover by leveraging his minority stake to launch improper civil and criminal lawsuits against ToAZ and its majority shareholders. This alleged campaign aimed to devalue the company and involved pressuring Russian judicial authorities to initiate prosecutions, ultimately allowing Mazepin and UCCU to seize control of ToAZ.
Read more at: Oligarch Dmitry Mazepin is behind ‘deliberate contempt’, High Court hears, Irish Independent, 20 October 2022.
