Court orders Alfa-Bank and Telegram Open Network investor to pay $126.5 million

The Gagarinsky Court in Moscow granted the Prosecutor General’s Office’s claim to recover $126.5 million from former Open Government Coordination Minister Mikhail Abyzov and Alfa-Bank linked to investments in the Telegram Open Network project (TON). About this, сообщает ТАСС со ссылкой на пресс-службу суда.

The court recovered $104.5 million from Alfa-Bank and $22 million from Abyzov.

According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, Abyzov placed in Alfa-Bank $126.5 million obtained through corrupt means. He invested this money in the Telegram messenger’s TON blockchain platform and transferred it to Alfa-Bank when the project closed.

Out of this amount, the bank appropriated $104.5 million for its own use. Media reports suggested that this was done to cover debts of Abyzov-owned company E4. Abyzov directed $22 million to accounts controlled by individuals under his influence, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office.

In court, Abyzov and his lawyer insisted that these individuals have no relation to the former minister. Alfa-Bank said that they did not understand “the essence of the claims”. Both Abyzov and the bank intend to appeal the court’s decision.

Abyzov was detained in 2019. He was charged with fraud and the creation of a criminal group. According to investigators, the former minister and his accomplices embezzled 4 billion rubles and moved them abroad.

Separately, criminal cases were opened against Abyzov for money laundering on a particularly large scale and illegal entrepreneurial activity. In the latter, in 2020 a court, at the Prosecutor General’s Office’s suit, recovered 32 billion rubles from the former official.

As reported, in two rounds of a closed ICO in February and March 2018, TON raised $1.7 billion in the US and abroad.

Details of Abyzov’s investments in the project emerged from court documents published in the proceedings between TON and [simple_tooltip content=’Комиссия по ценным бумагам и биржам США’]SEC[/simple_tooltip]. The Commission asserted that he invested $15 million through the offshore Batios Holdings Limited.

In April 2020, Pavel Durov announced that the launch would not take place. He offered investors either to receive 72% of the funds immediately, or 110% by April 30, 2021.

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