Sovcomflot Bribery Case Opens

London – A long-awaited legal case over bribery at Russia’s biggest shipping company opened Oct. 1 at the High Court in London with lawyers for Sovcomflot accusing several former executives of conspiring in a massive fraud running into hundreds of millions of dollars.

The lead attorney for state-owned Sovcomflot, Andrew Popplewell, alleged the company’s former chief executive and executive vice president had a “corrupt relationship” with Russian businessman Yuri Nitkin.

Popplewell said the former Sovcomflot executives agreed to deals with Nitkin that were clearly detrimental to the tanker owner and beneficial to companies controlled by Nitkin.

In return, Nitkin paid the executives, Dmitry Skarga and Yuri Privalov, tens of millions of dollars in bribes and “showered [them] with largesse,” including luxury vacations for their families.

The total loss to Sovcomflot is estimated at around $800 million, according to court documents.

The civil trial covers the period 2001 to 2005 and centers on Sovcomflot’s allegations that several tanker chartering, sale and purchase and lease back deals and the transfer of new-building options were corrupt and procured through bribes.

Around 30 witnesses are expected to give evidence and over 100,000 documents will feature in the case which is scheduled to last six months.

Contact Bruce Barnard at brucebarnard47@hotmail.com.