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In December 2004, Vegas-Lex attorneys prevailed on appeal in the Federal Arbitration Court for the Central District on behalf of OAO Voronezhenergo, a subsidiary of OAO RAO Russian Unified Energy System.  The litigation against our client was initiated by a commercial bank representing the Russian Ministry of Finance in order to collect from our client about 150 million rubles in loan indebtedness.  This is one of many cases against representatives of the Ministry of Finance involving the repayment of government loans and credits that Vegas-Lex is handling in various appellate courts for subsidiaries of RAO Russian Unified Energy System.  So far, the legal position taken by Vegas-Lex has been adopted by three federal arbitration courts in Russia.

History of the issue:  The handling of the first disputes over government loans and credits was made more difficult by the fact that, in addition to the negative decisions received by clients at the trial or appellate level when they represented themselves, there was a dangerous precedent in a decision by the court in the Povolzhskiy Federal District, which was affirmed by the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation, upholding the position of the Ministry of Finance.  When attorneys from Vegas-Lex became involved in the case, the negative trend was reversed.  Decisions by the Federal Arbitration Courts in the Volgo-Vyatskiy and Central Districts have created the opportunity to defend the interests of other energy companies and subsidiaries of RAO Unified Energy System in similar situations by taking a careful and systematic approach to the lawsuits filed against them by the Ministry of Finance.