Overview
- On January 27, the Arbitration Court of Sverdlovsk Oblast opened insolvency monitoring for Fox Group, which owns 98% of BitRiver, after En+ subsidiary Infrastructure of Siberia sought recovery of more than 700 million rubles advanced for equipment that was not delivered.
- Court rulings tied to the dispute froze or restricted multiple BitRiver-linked bank accounts and installed a temporary administrator to review assets, liabilities and possible restructuring steps.
- Founder Igor Runets was detained late last week and placed under house arrest by the Zamoskvoretsky Court of Moscow on tax evasion charges, with his legal team granted a short window to appeal.
- Power suppliers have filed electricity debt claims totaling roughly 940 million rubles, including 133 million from En+ Sbyt, 640 million from the Irkutsk Electric Grid Company, and 168.7 million already awarded to NTEK, with some utilities limiting or suspending power to facilities.
- Several mining sites have shut down or reduced operations, and discussions are underway on potential ownership changes or asset transfers under court oversight, with any significant sales subject to administrator approval.