Kirill Belskiy

Experience

Kirill Belskiy is the founder and managing partner of Belskiy & Partners. Kirill’s legal practice focuses on criminal defense and victim representation in criminal cases of an economic or official nature, or relating to corruption, as well as complex, large-scale litigation and corporate and shareholder conflict resolution.

Kirill has defended clients accused of corporate and bank embezzlement, fraud, bribery, abuse of authority, and tax crimes in dozens of high-profile cases. He has also represented major Russian and international companies as victims on numerous occasions, including organizing internal investigations (forensic) and developing strategies to trace and return stolen assets. His expertise also covers the development and implementation of legal strategies to resolve a large number of economic disputes, shareholder and corporate conflicts, and bankruptcy proceedings.

Chambers

An excellent lawyer with an impeccable knowledge of the criminal justice system.

Kirill is a recognized leader in the field of criminal law and dispute resolution, receiving top ratings and recommendations from leading professional publications in the Russian Federation, the UK, and the USA every year.

Thanks to his wealth of experience and extensive knowledge, Kirill has repeatedly acted as an expert on Russian criminal law and procedure at dispute hearings in foreign courts.

His clients include Russian entrepreneurs and companies at the top of the Forbes list. Kirill also advises and defends the interests of major international companies on issues related to doing business in Russia.

Kirill’s work has spanned the USA, the UK, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain, Israel, Poland, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Ghana, Indonesia, Thailand, and the United Arab Emirates.

Kirill is a member of the Moscow Bar Association and speaks fluent English.

Biography Facts

All-Russian State Tax Academy. Criminal Law (2008).
College of Management and Law. Economics, Accounting and Control (2003).
Kirill teaches, and is the author of several publications in academic journals and the media on criminal law, advocacy, and bankruptcy.
He is the Deputy Chairman of the Council of Young Lawyers of the Moscow Bar Association.
He is also the Vice President of the Moscow Lawyers Club.
Prior to founding Belskiy & Partners, Kirill was a senior partner at Koblev & Partners.

Practice Areas

Criminal cases of an economic nature, extradition procedures
Dispute Resolution
Bankruptcy
Reputation Protection
Legal Project Management and Conflict Management

Industry Experience

Banking and Finance
Construction and Development
Energy and Natural Resources
Industry, Logistics, Transport
IT and System Integration
Trade
Media

Selected Cases

Criminal defence

Advising the deputy head of a federal ministry on a criminal case in which his subordinates were accused of involvement in numerous instances of malfeasance, economic crimes, and corruption.

Defending the deputy head of a Russian region against numerous charges of malfeasance, including economic crimes and corruption.

Defending a high-ranking official accused of receiving a multi-million-ruble bribe and abusing his authority.

Defending the head of the Russian branch of an international holding company on charges of tax evasion amounting to more than USD 20 million.

Defending the former CEO of a major Russian bank against charges of embezzlement of more than USD 1 billion.

Defending the owner of a large construction company against charges of embezzlement of more than USD 500 million in credit funds.

Defending several top managers of a major energy company who were accused in Russia of committing a crime on the territory of a foreign state.

Defending an entrepreneur accused of embezzling around USD 4 million in VAT.

Advising a major natural resources company on a criminal case regarding an industrial accident that resulted in loss of life.

Defending the CEO of a large Russian company against charges of illegally receiving state subsidies.

Defending a foreign citizen accused of smuggling drugs into the Russian Federation.

Defending an entrepreneur involved in a fatal road accident.

Advising a large international transport company regarding a criminal case involving customs evasion of more than USD 25 million.

Victim representation

Representing the shareholders of a large holding company in the services industry in a complex project involving corporate embezzlement and an attempt by senior management to seize a business.

Representing the shareholders of a large holding company in the energy sector as victims in a case of fraud involving a loss of more than USD 1.5 billion. Work on the project also included consulting in foreign jurisdictions (the UK, Germany, Cyprus, and the British Virgin Islands).

Representing a large international technology company in a case involving the theft and illegal use of information constituting a trade secret.

Representing an FMCG company in a fraud case in an amount exceeding USD 100 million.

Dispute resolution and bankruptcy

Settling a dispute between a Russian energy company and a foreign equipment manufacturer regarding payment of RUB 200 million in compensation for breaching the terms of a contract on the quality of goods.

Representing a contractor in a dispute worth more than RUB 9 billion over the recovery of a payment for the construction of a large industrial facility.

Representing a large trading company in challenging a tax authority decision on additional tax charges of over RUB 900 million.

Representing a large Russian company in arbitration courts at all levels, including the Intellectual Property Court, in a dispute over the rights to audiovisual works.

Representing several top managers of large Russian companies in dozens of separate disputes regarding the recovery of losses and subsidiary liability in bankruptcy cases.

Mediation of a dispute between shareholders of a large Russian holding company following an unfriendly business split.

Representing members of the governing bodies of a large bank in a separate dispute at the request of the Deposit Insurance Agency of Russia for the recovery of losses incurred due to the issuance of deliberately non-performing loans.

Representing the top managers of a large construction holding company declared bankrupt by a court in a suit to establish their subsidiary liability and collect losses, as well as in criminal cases of deliberate bankruptcy and the theft of assets and credit funds.

Comprehensive representation of the beneficiaries of high-value real estate within a corporate dispute, including criminal defense, handling of the bankruptcy case in the interest of the creditor, challenging a large number of suspicious transactions, bringing the debtor’s beneficiaries to subsidiary liability, and proving the affiliation of several creditors with the debtor in order to exclude their claims from the list of creditors and restore the legitimate rights of bona fide creditors.

Representing the majority creditor in bankruptcy cases relating to a film company and the personal bankruptcy of its beneficiary, which involved challenging transactions, tracing withdrawn assets, and returning them to the bankruptcy estate.

Comprehensive representation of a creditor’s interests in the bankruptcy case of the owner of a business in the energy sector, which involved challenging court orders handed down earlier by regional general jurisdiction courts on the basis of fictitious loan agreements and initially allowing the debtor to establish control over the personal bankruptcy procedure; restoring the rights of a bona fide creditor, challenging transactions involving the alienation of assets and returning them to the bankruptcy estate, and recovery from persons affiliated with the debtor of the real value of the debtor’s assets alienated in their favor.

Representing the insolvency officer in a bankruptcy case, including disputing creditors' petitions to exclude the insolvency officer and recover losses from them and invalidation of decisions made by the creditors' meeting/committee, challenging transactions, tracing the debtor’s assets, and establishing the criminal and subsidiary liability of representatives of the debtor’s governing bodies.

Representing the chairman of the board of a major commercial bank in Russia’s first court case involving the recovery from the bank’s controlling persons of losses incurred by the Bank of Russia during a financial recovery procedure. This was also a record-breaking case in terms of the size of the claims: over RUB 280 billion.

Professional Recognition

+7 (499) 110-37-00

office@belskiy.partners

119435, Russia, Moscow, Bolshoy Savinskiy Ln, 11

OGRN: 1227700017071

Moscow Bar Association registry no. 77/2-458

Managing Partner – Kirill Belskiy