LONDON, (Reuters) – Aluminium magnate Oleg Deripaska gave a helping hand to fellow Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich yesterday in a London court battle involving three of Russia’s best-known businessmen.
Deripaska, whose Basic Element conglomerate owns the world’s top aluminium producer RUSAL Plc, gave evidence via a video link from New York as Abramovich’s witness.
Abramovich, owner of London’s Chelsea soccer club – who, like Deripaska, is one of the 10 richest people in Russia – is accused by former protector Boris Berezovsky of selling, without permission, his shares in RUSAL, which Berezovsky says Abramovich held for him in a trust agreement.
Abramovich denies there was a trust arrangement.
The case, which started in early October, is being followed closely by Russia watchers for any new clues into the murky world of the country’s business and politics.
Abramovich and Berezovsky were close while making their fortunes in Russia in the 1990s, when a small group of businessmen snapped up shares in former state firms sold off after the collapse of the Soviet Union. They fell out a decade ago.
Much of the hearing, in a courtroom packed with bodyguards and armies of lawyers and aides, focused on a crucial meeting between Deripaska, Abramovich, Berezovsky and two associates in London’s luxury Dorchester Hotel in March 2000.
“We did not discuss the combining by Mr Abramovich and me of various of our aluminium assets; that had already been agreed by the two of us,” Deripaska wrote in his witness statement.
