UCP Foundation and Pavel Durov filed lawsuits against each other

The UCP fund of Ilya Scherbovich, who owns 48% of Vkontakte, filed a lawsuit against Pavel Durov, the Vedomosti newspaper writes . The UCP considers it a violation of its rights that Durov, being the general director of the company, simultaneously developed his own project - the Telegram messenger. The fund bought three companies related to Telegram, and now requires that the instant messenger be transferred to the ownership of "Vkontakte".

At the same time, Durov on his page in Vkontakte reported that he had filed a lawsuit with the London Arbitration on declaring last year’s transaction to acquire UCP 48% of Vkontakte from former partners of Durov - Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev.

UCP claims that since Pavel Durov directly participated in the development of Telegram and at the same time worked in Vkontakte, he violated his fiduciary duties. As explained by Vedomosti, in British law, this can mean the director’s duty to act in the interests of his company and avoid conflicts of interest.
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The Scherbovich Foundation also bought three companies related to the management of Telegram. According to Vedomosti, we are talking about companies Telegram LLC, Digital Fortress and Pictograph. These legal entities registered in the United States were acquired from Durov’s partner, Axel Neff, who was previously in charge of Vkontakte international business.

According to Durov, Axel Neff, on his instructions, was engaged in the transfer of these American companies with their trademarks to the non-profit organization Telegram. However, instead of fulfilling his obligations, he secretly sold these companies to the UCP fund. At the same time, Durov claims that the entire infrastructure of the project remains under his control: “The worst consequence of such a raider seizure is that the project will have to change its name in the United States.”

On April 1, Durov announced that he was leaving the post of general director of Vkontakte. Prior to this, at the beginning of the year, he sold his 12% of the company to Ivan Tavrin, who resold this package Mail.ru Group. However, on April 3, the founder of Vkontakte reported that he had changed his mind and that the resignation letter “was necessary for gathering information.” According to Vedomosti, Durov decided to stay after he learned that UCP had bought companies related to Telegram from Neff.

Now he decided to challenge last year's deal, as a result of which UCP became the owner of 48% of the shares in Vkontakte. In April 2013, the foundation bought this package from Durov’s former partners, Vyacheslav Mirilashvili and Lev Leviev. This transaction took place without coordination with other shareholders, although this is required by the Vkontakte shareholder agreement.

According to Durov, “having burst into the Russian Internet from less transparent spheres of the Russian economy, the foundation brought its dubious methods to the heart of Russian IT. Not having the strength to endure this, valuable specialists as a result began to leave the team. Protection from this activity has long distracted us from the struggle for the realization of our right violated almost a year ago. However, the situation has changed, and now there is hope for the restoration of justice. ”

In the event of a successful outcome of the claim, the founder of Vkontakte hopes to be able to return to the directors and co-owners of the company. In the UCP, they called it "no more than a clumsy attempt on the part of Durov to defend against our legitimate claims against him."