A federal commercial court has upheld the dismissal of an iron and steel works' lawsuit to recover USD 19.2 million from former Maxi Group top managers.

The Moscow Commercial Court held against the Novolipetsk Iron and Steel Works' lawsuit against Mr Nikolai Maximov and Mr Alexander Loginovskikh on May 23rd 2011. An appeals court supported the judgment, which then entered into force in September.

According to NLMK, its lawsuit stemmed from a contract between Maxi Group and Alfa Bank, in which the bank agreed to provide equity sale consultation services to then President Mr Maximov.

The defendants contested the argument, maintaining that the services were rendered to Mr Maximov in his capacity as Maxi Group president and caused no losses to the company.

In addition, the defendants argued that NLMK was not a Maxi-Group shareholder on the date when Alfa Bank's contract was signed, and therefore the lawsuit was groundless. The court judgment also referred to the expired statute of limitations.

Alfa Bank acted as a third party in the case.

A commercial court dismissed in July 2011 another RUB 235.026 million lawsuit against the defendants. The decision went into force in October 2011.

The Moscow Commercial Court declared Maxi Group bankrupt in August and put it into bankruptcy administration.

(Sourced from www.rapsinews.com)