The order was reported by The Wall Street Journal. The defendants, according to the plaintiff, earned the frozen funds from the sale of Russian energy resources.
Soglayev is a former Deutsche Bank employee in Russia, a former vice-president of Rosneft and a former adviser to the head of the company, Igor Sechin.
The defendants are linked to the Coral network, which brings together traders from the former dedicated company CoralEnergy. According to WSJ, after the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine, Rosneft approached them to replace fuel distributors from Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
The Coral network concluded a secret deal with Rosneft on oil exports in the first months of the war, WSJ writes. Since then it has annually supplied tens of billions of dollars' worth of oil through Russia's shadow fleet, and the publication names Brazil as its main sales market. Eyub and Garayev and dozens of companies linked to them are subject to European Union and UK sanctions.
In the lawsuit, Soglayev said he set up a company, DIA33, in Dubai to resell Russian oil abroad, mainly to Brazil. He rented warehouses at local ports and planned to act as an intermediary between Russian exporters and buyers. At the end of 2023, DIA33 bought Russian diesel from a small Dubai firm, Serene Resources.
A tanker carrying that fuel was refused entry by a Brazilian port because of the vessel's age. The ship sat idle for several weeks until another port accepted it. Eyub and Garayev, whom Soglayev links to Serene Resources, won $42 million (more than 37.5 million euros) in compensation from DIA33 through an arbitration court.
Serene Resources director Andrei Romanovsky denies his company's connection to Eyub and Garayev. Soglayev insists that Romanovsky told him about the use of shell companies by Coral to circumvent sanctions.
In the lawsuit, Soglayev said the Coral network caused him damage of more than $500 million (more than 446 million euros). According to him, representatives of the network approached his clients directly and offered fuel at reduced prices. The businessman believes the partnership was a ruse to obtain DIA33's client base and inside information. In a comment to WSJ, he said he had been deceived and that he had received death threats. In particular, he said, Eyub said in one call that he had discussed their conflict with a certain Chechen field commander.
After the asset freeze ruling, the judge concluded that the case did not fall within his jurisdiction, so the lawsuit may be dismissed. Soglayev's lawyer, David McCoy, said the businessman has filed an appeal and is seeking to continue the proceedings at the Dubai International Financial Centre. The freeze remains in force until the appeal is decided. Garayev's lawyer said he was unaware of any litigation with Soglayev. Proceedings are also continuing in Brazil.