By Gareth Vaughan
A failed Russian bank, an oligarch who fell out of favour with President Vladimir Putin, a descendant of War and Peace author Leo Tolstoy, five New Zealand trusts, a series of NZ companies and an Auckland lawyer.
These are among the key ingredients in a British court judgment that concludes the NZ trusts were used by the oligarch to retain control of assets and hide his control of them.
The failed bank is Mezhprom Bank. The out of favour oligarch is Sergei Pugachev. Leo Tolstoy’s descendant is Alexandra Tolstoy, whose paternal grandfather fled the Russian revolution settling in England.
Mezhprom Bank was the court case’s first claimant and Russia’s Deposit Insurance Agency (DIA), its liquidator, the secon…
Read the full article at: https://www.interest.co.nz/business/90419/nz-trusts-and-companies-failed-russian-bank-out-favour-oligarch-descendant-leo