At the end of April, the Arbitration Court of the Moscow Region declared the transfer abroad of 12.9 billion rubles by the legal entity IKEA LLC Torg invalid due to a rarely used basis, and the transaction was “contrary to the foundations of public order or morality.” Previously, the details of the trial were not revealed and have only become known now. And on May 16, the court ordered Torg LLC (the Russian structure of IKEA) to return the specified amount to the revenue of the Russian Federation. Lawyers fear such decisions could set a precedent.
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Kommersant drew attention to the case materials that became available. The publication recalled the progress of the process: after IKEA left the Russian Federation, the company’s reserves were purchased by Yandex, represented by Market.Trade LLC, paying the amount to the Irish company Fami Limited, to which Torg owed 8.1 billion rubles since 2020.
The Federal Tax Service considered this an illegal withdrawal of funds “bypassing the presidential decree” on special economic measures and filed a lawsuit to “protect the public interest” from “dubious financial transactions” in the form of “insignificant” transactions ” with rarely used. reasons, and on April 25 he was satisfied.
The court’s decision, in turn, made it possible to demand that the defendant “acted intentionally” repay funds to the country’s budget (this is allowed “in cases provided for by law”).
And although Torg insists that the 12.9 billion ruble payment “was not used to repay the loan agreement with Fami,” the decision was still made against the company. This worries lawyers, as the spread of such judicial tactics could lead to the seizure of funds for virtually any transaction if they are found to be void.
“This decision could become a dangerous precedent, which will allow the widespread use of references to the anti-social nature of transactions as a basis for the withdrawal of funds in favor of the state,” the managing partner of Bartolius Bank, Yulia Tay, is quoted by Kommersant. .
The expert also recalled that the civil chamber of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation obliges the court, when withdrawing funds from the state for an anti-social transaction, to indicate a specific law on which it is based, and such an indication does not exist in the decision in the case. IKEA. For this reason, Tai hopes that the SC will reverse the decision.
IKEA confirmed the judicial process and clarified that the company has the right to file an appeal against the decision of the court of first instance within one month. The Federal Tax Service and Yandex Market do not comment on the situation.
Author:
Ekaterina Alipova
Source: RB
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