Seladore Legal, LLC, the plaintiff’s lawyers, has instructed Tim Lord KC of Brick Court Chambers to act as lead counsel in these proceedings. The High Court conspiracy claim is one of the largest lawsuits ever brought in the English courts as Ziyavudin Magomedov strives for compensation for the business empire manoeuvred into Russian state hands.

The latest development follows a victory for the jailed businessman in the London Court of International Abritration earlier this year, when it found that TPG had illegally sold its stake in FESCO to Russian businessman Mikhail Rabinovich.

Ziyavudin Magomedov and his elder brother Magomed were held in pre-trial detention for 4.5 years from 2018 on charges relating to construction of a football stadium in St Petersburg for Russia’s hosting that year of the FIFA World Cup, and then handed custodial sentences of 19 and 18 years respectively in December 2022 after the case was brought to trial in Moscow – various reports here.

His new claim alleges theft of a controlling interest in FESCO, its key port asset in Russia’s biggest Pacific port, Vladivostok Commercial Sea Port and various land transportation assets, and his stake in the country’s biggest port, Novorossiysk Commercial Sea Port.

Texas Pacific Group (TPG), the US private equity giant, ports giant DP World, Rosatom and Transneft are the principal defendants.

The legal action, filed at the Commercial Court in London, details how the defendants have allegedly worked in concert with powerful interests within the Russian state to deprive Mr Magomedov systematically of both FESCO and NCSP, at the same time as depriving him of his liberty.

The legal claim conservatively estimates the value of the claimants’ interest in FESCO at US$8.8B, and their interest in NCSP at US$5.0B. The combined claim of $13.8B is the largest ever claim brought in the English High Court outside the collective redress regime

Beyond that, more claims relating to grain terminals, that were allegedly expropriated and are understood to have fallen into the hands of well-connected figures in the Russian establishment may follow.

US-based TPG, the long-term JV partners of Magomedov in FESCO, and led by his former partner David Bonderman, are amongst the defendants accused of conspiring in this fraud. The private equity company was contractually obliged to offer its FESCO shares to Magomedov when it quit the investment in the face of the campaign against him. Instead of fulfilling that contractual obligation, TPG engineered the sale of the stake to one of the alleged chief architects of the conspiracy, businessman Mikhail Rabinovich, whom Magomedov says is a proxy for Rosatom. 

Rabinovich is accused of acting on behalf of Rosatom, Russia’s state nuclear energy company, and DP World. Pipeline company Transneft, Russia’s state-owned oil pipeline company, is meanwhile accused of playing a key role in seizing Magomedov’s share in NCSP.

According to the claim, Magomedov was arrested the day after a meeting between Nikolai Tokarev, Transneft’s president, and Tokarev’s reported friend and former KGB colleague Vladimir Putin. OnceMagomedov was detained, Tokarev and his allies allegedly said they would speak to Putin to halt the prosecution if he sold his stake at a knock-down price.