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A legal dispute over the return of $16 million stolen by a Russian fraudster has taken a new twist in Cyprus with allegations of document falsification. Valentin Vinogradov was convicted of fraud four years ago, and the Cypriot courts issued a $16 million worldwide freezing order covering the Russian businessman's assets, including his Cypriot companies.

One of these companies is Odemix Holding Ltd., whose director is Andreas Spyrides, a lawyer and corporate service provider who runs Goodgate Nominees Ltd. in Nicosia.

Odemix is now at the centre of a dispute over whether corporate documents linked to the company are fakes.

Eduard Shyfrin, a Ukrainian-born entrepreneur Vinogradov defrauded, is seeking to establish the authenticity of the Odemix documents.

Details Of The Case

At issue are contract documents presented by Andreas Spyrides as part of legal claims against Shyfrin. In a criminal complaint filed in Moscow, Spyrides complained that his signature on a contract, which he explained to the court, had been faked.

However, Spyrides submitted another Odemix contract to a court in Cyprus and confirmed that it was authentic, despite forensic analysis showing that the signature was also faked.

Shyfrin's legal team are trying to establish why Spyrides claimed the contract signature was authentic in Cyprus but fake in Russia.

This dispute is part of a broader battle between Shyfrin and Vinogradov, who was once an employee of Shyfrin's Midland Group, a metals and real estate conglomerate.

Valentin Vinogradov was the head of Midland's real estate development arm in Moscow, but he was fired in 2016, and the company began legal proceedings against him.

Vinogradov was accused of defrauding his employers of more than $15 million in real estate deals. Midland obtained evidence confirming the fraud after the High Court in London ruled that Vinogradov's bank accounts should be inspected.

The Case Deepens

Vinogradov was found guilty of fraud in 2020 by a Moscow court and sentenced to four years in jail. By then, Vinogradov had fled Russia and was controversially granted political asylum in Slovakia.

In 2021, the Cypriot courts granted Shyfrin a $16 million worldwide freezing order over Vinogradov's assets.

After Midland Group fired Vinogradov, the former employee retaliated, and his Cypriot company, Odemix, began litigation against Midland, claiming that some inter-company loans had not been repaid.

The case was rejected by an arbitration court in 2019, but Odemix and its director Andreas Spyrides persisted with it and brought it before the arbitration court of appeal in Moscow, which also rejected it in 2020. The Supreme Court of Russia finally dismissed it in August 2020.

Despite the litigation being dead for over three years, it has recently resurfaced in the Russian media, claiming that an arrest warrant has been issued for Eduard Shyfrin about this dispute. Media reports suggest that Vinogradov has encouraged the Kremlin to bring this revenge case against Shyfrin after his outspoken support for Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Shyfrin, who lives in London, is a noted philanthropist and musician who has donated money to the war effort and even posted his Russian passport back to the Russian embassy.

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Robin Madell is a contributor to FlexJobs.com, The Glass Hammer, and the Boston Real Estate Observer. Her work frequently appears on other top business sites including Business Insider, Harvard Business Review, Fortune.com, Forbes.com, Yahoo.com and Huffington Post.