The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has filed a lawsuit to nationalize the assets of the Khortitsa producer

The Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation filed a lawsuit with the Leninsky District Court of Kursk against the assets of the alcohol holding company Global Spirits (vodka brands Khortitsa, Morosha and Pervak), owned by Ukrainian businessman Yevgeny Chernyak.

As reported on May 14 by the joint press service of the judicial system of the Kursk region, the prosecutor's office filed a lawsuit "to ban the activities of the association in connection with the implementation of extremist activities and the transfer of property belonging to members of the extremist association to the state."

The following are named as administrative defendants in the lawsuit: Russkiy Sever LLC, Standard Kachestva LLC, Rodnik i K LLC, Brand Group Corporation Limited, and four individuals, the court said in a statement. The names of the individuals are not specified, but according to RIA Novosti, they are Global Spirits founder Evgeny Chernyak, as well as Alexander Bespalov , Ivan Kurbakov , and Andrey Lazutin .

The court's press service stated that the interested parties in the case are JSC Feodosia Cognac and Wine Factory, LLC Crimean Wine House, LLC Traditsii Uspekha, and LLC Novy Uroven.

During the consideration of the case, the court satisfied the prosecutor's demand and imposed interim measures on the claim, the press service added. Earlier, on May 14, RBC reported that on May 6, the court had arrested seven legal entities previously associated with Yevgeny Chernyak. We are talking about the Feodosia Cognac and Wine Factory, the Crimean Wine House, the Russky Sever liquor and vodka factories in Vologda and Rodnik i K in Mytishchi near Moscow, as well as distributors Traditsii Uspekha, Standard Kachestva, and Novy Uroven.

Companies were prohibited from reorganizing, changing the terms of employees’ employment contracts, providing loans, and distributing profits, the Kommersant newspaper reported .

According to Kommersant, the Prosecutor General's Office is asking the court to convert shares and stakes in the authorized capital of the companies to state revenue and to prohibit their real beneficiaries and nominal owners from operating in the Russian Federation "in connection with the implementation of extremist activities."

According to the prosecutor's office, shortly after the start of a full-scale war in Ukraine, in April 2022, the companies, following fictitious transactions at a reduced price, were transferred to trusted persons of Yevhen Chernyak in order to "preserve financial flows." In a statement from the prosecutor's office, Yevhen Chernyak is named as a major sponsor of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

• Global Spirits Holding is one of the world's largest alcohol producers. Among the holding's most famous brands are Khortitsa, Morosha, Pervak, and Shustov.
• In July 2023, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case against Yevgeny Chernyak under the article on financing terrorism because he donated money to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The businessman was put on the wanted list. Rosfinmonitoring added Chernyak to its list of terrorists and extremists.
• In December 2023, the Security Service of Ukraine announced that it suspected Yevgeny Chernyak of financing Russia's armed aggression due to the fact that Chernyak's companies continued to do business in the Russian Federation.