News date: 2 May 2023
On 24 April 2023 the Commercial Court of Kyiv City closed the proceedings in the bankruptcy case against Serhii Tyshchenko, the beneficiary of the bankrupt Fortuna-Bank.
The decision of the Commercial Court of Kyiv City put an end to the bankruptcy case – the collection of funds from Serhii Tyshchenko will be carried out by creditors in full outside the bankruptcy procedure. The total amount of accounts payable exceeds UAH 1 billion.
In Ukraine, Serhii Tyshchenko is the first private individual to request bankruptcy proceedings. The relevant proceedings were commenced by the Commercial Court of Kyiv City in 2019, thereby imposing a moratorium on meeting creditors’ claims. The resolution of the first-instance court on the introduction of the assets sale procedure and the appointment of the sale manager into the case was appealed to the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal.
During the appeal hearing of the case, it was established that at the time of initiation of the bankruptcy case, Serhii Tyshchenko was within marriage, which was registered in 2016 in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Contrary to the requirements of the Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures Serhii Tyshchenko failed to include information about his wife in the property declaration and concealed it from the court, which was one of the grounds for returning the case to the stage of debt restructuring.
The Court of Appeal recognized the creditors’ arguments as justified, cancelled the resolution on the introduction of the procedure for the sale of property and appointment of the sale manager. By the same resolution, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal referred the case to the first-instance court for further consideration at the stage of debt restructuring and appointed Yevgen Solovyov, Partner at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm as the new restructuring manager.
Under the Motion of the restructuring manager, the Commercial Court of Kyiv City demanded a disclosure of several documents from Serhii Tyshchenko and other persons regarding his property and provision of assets to verify the completeness and reliability of the debtor’s declaration data and obtain comprehensive information about his property status. Apparently, not being able to provide the court with the required documents, Serhii Tyshchenko had the only option left – to file a claim to the Commercial Court of Kyiv City seeking to close the case on his bankruptcy.
“As a result of the efforts of Ilyashev & Partners, Serhii Tyshchenko was unable to agree to a debt restructuring on terms that were unfavorable to creditors. Now, creditors can sue the debtor separately and demand full repayment of debts,” – pointed out Vadym Kizlenko, Counsel at Ilyashev & Partners Law Firm.
Ilyashev & Partners’ project team led by Roman Marchenko, Senior Partner, included Partner Yevgen Solovyov, Counsels Andrii Konoplia and Vadym Kizlenko.
It was earlier reported that a bankruptcy case was initiated against Serhii Tyshchenko in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Currently, the assets of Tyshchenko and his ex-wife are under arrest imposed by the High Court of Justice in London.