Court rules to expropriate controlling stake in TGK-2 genco

YAROSLAVL. July 14 (Interfax) - The Leninsky District Court in Yaroslavl has granted a petition by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office to expropriate a controlling stake in the TGK-2 generating company, an Interfax correspondent reported from the court.

"Petition granted. One month to appeal," the judge said.

The judge said during the hearing that the Prosecutor General's Office's lawsuit referred to the expropriation of shares held by Kostroma Kogeneratsiya Limited, Janan Holdings Limited, Raltaka Enterprises Ltd., Litim Trading Limited, LLC Kores Invest, Leonid Lebedev and LLC Debt Agency. Their combined stake is 81.39% of TGK-2 and is in the trusteeship of LLC Sovlink. The prosecutor did not specify what stake was at issue during the hearing.

The prosecutor said during the heating that Kores Invest was controlled by Lebedev, who, while a former senator from Chuvashia, received illegal income, which was used to buy shares in TGK-2.

The shares should be seized for the public good since they were acquired as a result of a corruption case, the prosecutor said.

A lawyer for Kores Invest said the shares were acquired by the company with a loan of 16 billion rubles from Sberbank and that he was ready to provide copies of the loan agreement.

A Debt Agency lawyer said the agency would lose 2.4 billion rubles if the shares were seized. A TGK-2 layer said the damage to the generating company would amount to 3.5 billion rubles.

The Kores lawyer also asked for the case to be put back, arguing that not all respondents were notified on time, but the judge rejected this. "The court views the request as a means of protracting the case," he said.