On March 21, 2023, the Appeals Chamber of the Court of England and Wales upheld the judgment of July 25, 2022, which charged businessman Mr Irakli Rukhadze, his business-partners Mr Benjamin Marson and Mr Igor Alexeev to pay multimillion-dollar compensation to the companies Revoker and Recovery Partners. According to the liability trial of the proceedings taking place in 2021, part of Rukhadze's assets were confiscated.
The total amount of the charged compensation exceeds USD 170 million, which includes compensation, as well as accrued interest and reimbursement of legal costs.
The case concerns to the verdict taken in November 2018. According to the verdict, Rukhadze and his business partners committed a "commercial conspiracy", as a result of which the companies, Recovery Partners GP Limited and Revoker LLP lost the opportunity to implement the "billion-dollar project".
The case concerns to Badri Patarkatsishvili's multibillion-dollar assets, which were managed by Patarkatsishvili's chief financier Eugene Jaffe and Salford Capital Partners International before the businessman's death. Irakli Rukhadze worked for this investment company for years and had fiduciary obligations toward it as a high-level manager. The companies Recovery Partners GP Limited and Revoker LLP were founded by Salford Capital Partners International, and these companies lost the opportunity to lead the recovery of the assets of billionaire Badri Patarkatsishvili after his death.
Badri Patarkatsishvili died in February 2008. Salford's task was to find his various properties and assets and return them to his family. For asset recovery/tracing, Salford established Recovery Partners GP Limited and Revoker LLP, where Rukhadze and his business partners also held managerial positions.
According to the 2018 court decision, after the death of Badri Patarkatsishvili, Irakli Rukhadze and his business partners Benjamin Marson and Igor Alexeev took deliberate steps, as a result of which the Salford-based companies withdrew from the scheme to return assets to the billionaire's family.
Instead, Hunnewell Partners, founded by them, appropriated and implemented this project. As a result, Rukhadze Holding received significant financial income and assets.
According to the court verdict, after removing Salford, Irakli Rukhadze; Benjamin Marson and Igor Alexeev completed the search/collection of Patarkatsishvili's assets through Hunnewell Partners, a company they established specifically for this purpose. In addition, over the years they have made a number of serious investments in Georgia, including under the name of Hunnewell. Among the investments were the purchase of shares of "Liberty Bank", "Rustavi Metallurgical Plant", "Magticom" and "Heidelberg Cement". After the death of the billionaire, the Patarkatsishvili family received a total of more than USD 2 billion worth property, and in the said process the defendants accumulated significant property as a reward.
Irakli Rukhadze and his partners appealed the initial decision to the Court of Appeal, but in March 2019 the court upheld the verdict.
In 2019, the form of compensation was also determined - the plaintiffs chose the value of the property appropriated by the defendants in breach of fiduciary duty and the compensation of the additional profit after the use of the mentioned capital (Account for profits).
Irakli Rukhadze and his investment holding Hunnewell Partners own and manage a number of large companies in Georgia. The holding owns the country's third largest bank - "Liberty Bank", as well as "Rustavi Metallurgical Plant", "Georgian Media Production Group", which in turn owns 100% of the shares of "Imedi" and GDS TV companies. Also, Irakli Rukhadze and his business partners own a 22% share in the largest Georgian cement producer "Heidelbergcement", which is Bidzina Ivanishvili's business partner. Irakli Rukhadze and his business partners also own a 10% share in the country's largest mobile operator "Magti".
