An expert report filed by VTB in the long-running dispute over a private jet held in Moscow has been ruled inadmissible by the Isle of Man High Court, Isle of Man Today has reported.
Deemster Andrew Corlett concluded that the report was an attempt to reopen findings of fact he had made in an earlier judgment, and that relying on it would be an abuse of the court’s process, according to the outlet.
The Russian bank secured a worldwide freezing order in 2019 against the Manx company Campino and Russian businessman Dmitry Petrovich Mazurov. Campino’s principal asset is a Bombardier aircraft that has been in Moscow since before the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out, Isle of Man Today said.
Mazurov, who formerly owned an oil refinery, was convicted in Russia of fraud and embezzlement in 2023 and is now serving a 10-year sentence in a penal colony there, the outlet reported.
VTB had claimed that Mazurov was Campino’s beneficial owner. In a judgment delivered in May, the Deemster threw out all of the bank’s claims, finding nothing to support either that allegation or its claim of a conspiracy to hide the true position.
Campino is now asking the court to assess the damages flowing from the freezing order.
VTB’s response included a report by a specialist in aircraft airworthiness. He argued that the jet ought to have been kept maintained and serviced while it was held in Moscow. He also contended that after the freezing order’s restrictions ended in February 2022, there were 22 days in which the aircraft could have been removed from Russia before a decree issued by President Putin in March stopped assets leaving the country.
Campino told the court that the specialist had strayed beyond his field and was seeking to reargue matters the court had already decided. The Deemster accepted that argument.
He said VTB may still put forward expert evidence on what the aircraft is worth now, but that this must be done promptly to avoid “yet further delays in this long-running saga”, Isle of Man Today reported.
Isle of Man Today did not report a date for the damages assessment.
