MOSCOW, August 23 - RAPSI. Sodexim has appealed for cassation review of a Moscow Commercial Court decision dismissing its lawsuit to recover the remaining amount of its debt - $56.5 million - from the Finance Ministry, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency (RAPSI/rapsinews.com) Thursday. Sodexim was already awarded $43.4 million in debt compensation against the ministry on the same factual basis in 2010.

Earlier, Sodexim said the debt arose from an Algerian debt settlement with the Soviet Union.

In March, the court dismissed the claim due both to the plaintiff's failure to prove the existence of the debt and to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
The Ninth Commercial Court of Appeals upheld the first instance court's ruling in June. On cassation review, a federal arbitration court will check the legality of the lower courts decisions with a view of the correct application of substantive law and procedural requirements.

In 1996, Sodexim won a tender to sell Algerian goods as a part of the debt settlement program. Algeria was expected to pay its debt by selling goods in Russia via the plaintiff. However, Sodexim never received the goods, as Algeria cut off its supplies to the country.

The plaintiff said it accrued $80.8 million in liabilities. In response to Sodexim's initial filing of its debt claim against the Finance Ministry the Moscow Commercial Court held in November 2010 that the Finance Ministry must refund the $43.4 million that Sodexim had transferred as a guarantee payment, including $24.24 million in principal debt and interest. Sodexim filed this second claim in an effort to collect the remaining amount.

The defendant denied the claim. The ministry maintains that the sum in question is "not a debt per se," because the money transferred by Sodexim had already been paid back.

Former Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak managed the debt repayment to Sodexim. In November 2007, he was charged with organizing a group that sought to embezzle federal budget funds masking the losses as compensation for Sodexim. Investigators dropped the case in February 2011.