By Sam Tobin
LONDON (Reuters) – A prominent Russian businessman can take his bid to pause an $850 million fraud lawsuit brought by two Russian banks to the United Kingdom’s Supreme Court, his lawyers said in court filings on Friday.
Boris Mints and his sons Dmitry, Alexander and Igor are being sued by National Bank Trust, which is 99% owned by the Central Bank of Russia, on behalf of Otkritie Bank, once Russia’s largest private lender before it collapsed in 2017.
Lawyers representing the Mints family – who deny the banks’ fraud allegations – had said the lawsuit should be indefinitely put on hold because, if the banks win at trial, any damages could not be paid as Otkritie Bank is under British sanctions.
Their application was rejected by the High Court in London in January 2023 and an appeal against that decision was dismissed in October.
However, lawyers representing the Mints family said in court filings for a preliminary hearing that the UK Supreme Court had granted permission to appeal. Permission was granted last month but only became known publicly on Friday.
“The timing of the appeal hearing is presently unknown, but it is expected to be listed for later this year,” they said.
The Mints’ application to put the lawsuit on hold will be the first time the Supreme Court has considered Britain’s sanctions regime in relation to Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.
(Reporting by Sam Tobin; Editing by Ros Russell)
