Exiled Russian media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky owns properties all over the world, but he chose to spend his summer in the gallery of a courtroom in lower Manhattan. Almost three years earlier, Gusinsky sued fellow Russian mogul Konstantin Kagalovsky in Manhattan Supreme Court, alleging that Kagalovsky had schemed to grab control of a Ukrainian TV network the two men jointly owned. The claims finally climaxed in a five-month bench trial before Justice Charles Ramos (See Profile) earlier this year, and Gusinsky did not want to miss the action.
His patience was rewarded last week, when Ramos ruled that Kagalovsky is liable to Gusinsky’s company for $28.6 million in damages, plus interest, in their ownership dispute over the Ukrainian network TVi. Ramos found that Kagalovsky secretly diluted Gusinsky’s interest in the network from 50 percent to less than 1 percent, breaching contractual and fiduciary duties. The judge’s 108-page decision in New Media Holding v. Kogalovsky, 603742/09, was issued on Aug. 16.
