Reuters reported that billionaire Mr Oleg Deripaska was successful and established by the time he met rival oligarch Mr Michael Cherney in 1994 at 26 his lawyers told a London court arguing the magnate would not have needed his rival's support to build his aluminium empire.
Lawyers delved into the early career of one of Russia's richest men on Thursday, in a case that has shone a spotlight on the often lawless 1990s after the collapse of the Soviet Union, as well connected Russians jostled for privatized state assets and organized crime and protection groups became influential.
Mr Deripaska is fighting a claim from Mr Cherney, an Israeli based billionaire who says the two were partners and alleges he is owed 13.2% stake in the now listed RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer of which Mr Deripaska controls the largest stake.
Mr Deripaska accuses his opponent of links to criminal gangs but with this week's opening statements drawing to a close before the case is adjourned until September he is facing allegations made to prosecutors abroad that he himself was involved in bribery and murder.
Mr Deripaska who is expected to call compatriot and Chelsea football club owner Mr Roman Abramovich as one of his witnesses in the latest High Court battle between billionaires from Russia and the former Soviet Union denies he and Mr Cherney were allies.
He said that he was forced into a protection racket or krysha in Russian from the word for roof orchestrated by Mr Cherney and supported by some of the country's most powerful criminal gangs in the mid 1990s after receiving threats.
In opening statements to the court from the defence on Wednesday, his legal team argued Mr Deripaska had no need for the contacts and financing that Mr Cherney says he provided to build an aluminium empire. Mr Cherney had, Mr Deripaska's side alleges in fact fled Russia in late 1993 or early 1994 to escape a fraud probe.
Mr Deripaska's legal team said that the entrepreneur used profits from his trading business established as far back as 1991 when he was a still a physics student to invest in assets including Sayansk Aluminium Plant.
Lawyer Thomas Beazley acting for Mr Deripaska said that "The idea that he was some sort of struggling student with summer jobs is just wrong. Mr Deripaska was in fact an established and successful businessman at the time of their first meeting, albeit young."
Mr Cherney said he and Mr Deripaska met at a London Metals Exchange reception in October 1993. Like most details in this case even that is disputed. Mr Deripaska says they met months later at a dinner in May 1994.
Mr Deripaska explained that his attendance at social events related to Cherney as one of the rituals of krysha, where victims are expected to socialise and attend meetings celebrate events and give presents in a public display of loyalty to give the krysha a veneer of commercial and social respectability.
Source - Reuters
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