He was a mentor and long-standing business partner, but for the last three months, exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovsky battled old friend Roman Abramovich in the largest private court battle in history — and lost.
When British High Court judge Elizabeth Gloster sat down in the commercial court Friday morning she said, almost from the outset, that she was dismissing Berezovsky’s $5.6 billion lawsuit against younger oligarch Abramovich, and his claims of cheating “in their entirety.”
Berezovsky, who is 65 and has been living in the U.K. since he won asylum here in 2003, had been an “unimpressive, and inherently unreliable, witness” during court proceedings, she said. “I gained the impression that he was not necessarily being deliberately dishonest, but had deluded himself into believing his own version of events.”
Berezovsky, who sat in a large court room lit by rows of halogen lights, put his head in his hands after he heard the verdict. For the next hour as Gloster read out her judgement, he remained almost expressionless, occasionally sipping from a glass of water or speaking quietly to his lawyer. He wore a grey suit and white shirt, with no tie.
When the court adjourned, the normally media-friendly Berezovsky met a large group of photographers and dozens of journalists outside the High Court to give his reaction, saying he was “absolutely amazed” by the decision to dismiss his case. “I’m surprised completely, particularly because Lady Gloster took responsibility for rewriting Russian history,” he said, adding that he would consider appealing.
Abramovich, 45, wasn’t present at the hearing, with reports saying he was in Monte Carlo to watch a Friday-night match by the English soccer team he owns, Chesea Football Club. But he did release a statement through his spokesman, saying he was “pleased and grateful for today’s outcome.”
Russian tycoon Boris Berezovsky in London, on October 4, 2011. (Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
In contrast to Berezovsky, Judge Gloster had mostly praise for Abramovich’s appearances in the courtroom, calling him a “truthful” and “reliable witness.” While Berezovsky would depart from his previous statements, sometimes “within minutes” of giving it, Abramovich “gave careful and thoughtful answers.”
The London-based trial, which has reportedly cost millions of dollars in legal fees, has laid bare a string of details about the life of a billionaire Russian oligarch, revealing the details about the yachts, planes and expensive estates in France that Berezovsky was alleged to have been given as protection payments from Abramovich.
Berezovsky had brought two claims against Abramovich, whose formulation, the judge said, had “changed over time”:
1) He said that Abramovich had coerced him into selling a stake in the Russian oil behemoth Sibneft for $1.3 billion — an enormous sum for mere mortals but not enough for Berezovsky, who claimed it was undervalued and that he had been cheated out of $5 billion.
2) That Abramovich had reneged on oral agreements made over the ownership and division of aluminium giant RusAl. Berezovsky claimed that his loss in relation to RusAl was at least $564 million.
sourced from Forbes.com
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