Russian Oligarch Wants Court Nemesis’ Litigation Funding Details

A sanctioned Russian billionaire is asking a Florida court for details about a Miami litigation funder that bankrolled an overseas case against him.

Andrey Guriev claimed in a filing on Wednesday that 777 Partners was among a group of funders financing cases filed against him by former friend Alexander Gorbachev claiming he owned 24% of Guriev’s company. 777 and subsidiary Sphinx Funding LLC paid Gorbachev’s litigation costs, after-the-event insurance and living expenses to the tune of over £‎11 million ($13.9 million), according to court documents.

Gorbachev now owes Guriev at least £‎12 million ($15.2 million) in court costs after losing his case against him last year in the United Kingdom, which has a universal fee-shifting system. Gorbachev claims he doesn’t have the funds.

Guriev now seeks discovery from Gorbachev’s funders asking for documents relating to 777 Partners’ general funding standards and policies, an organization chart of 777, corporate meeting minutes, and documents and communication relevant to Sphinx’s agreement with Gorbachev. He also seeks to depose a representative of 777.

“Mr. Guriev hopes to discover information relevant to the identities and ultimate sources of the funds provided by the third-party funders who financed Mr. Gorbachev’s failed, frivolous, and potentially fraudulent claims, as well as the true motives and objectives in bringing those claims,” counsel for Guriev from Boies Schiller Flexner wrote in the memorandum of law supporting the discovery application.

Representatives for 777 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Putin Associate

Guriev is a founder of Russian phosphate fertilizer company PhosAgro and a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the UK Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation. He was sanctioned by the US Office of Foreign Assets Control in 2022 for operating within the Russian Federation economy.

He’s known Gorbachev since the 1980s, according to the filings, and Gorbachev served as PhosAgro’s vice president and director. Guriev claims he supported him with millions of dollars both before and after Gorbachev fled Russia in 2003.

In 2018, Gorbachev initiated litigation in the UK claiming that approximately 20 years earlier, Guriev had promised in a conversation to give him a 24.75% ownership interest in PhosAgro, worth approximately £1 billion ($1.27 billion). In April, the UK court held a six-week trial and then dismissed the case, concluding Gorbachev’s evidence “was contradictory, lacked credibility, and, at times, was plainly false,” according to Guriev’s filings.

In 2023, Gorbachev revealed that third parties were paying his litigation expenses, with two paying direct costs for the UK proceedings. Sphinx was one of those funders and had an agreement with him since 2021. It fronted the cost of a £5 million ($6.3 million) after-the-event insurance policy and Sphinx was entitled to the higher of either £40 million ($50.7 million) or 20% of the case proceeds.

Funders’ Role

Guriev applied to have the funders added as parties to the litigation. In response, Joshua Wander wrote that he is the managing partner and co-founder of 777 Partners and Sphinx is a subsidiary. Wander wrote that 777 has no entitlement or any stake in the outcome of the proceedings and never has, despite 777 paying some of the funding payments to Gorbachev.

Wander wrote that none of the funders have made any payments related to the costs of the proceedings after May 2023 as the result of a disagreement. The details of the dispute are the subject of confidential arbitration, he wrote.

“There is a breakdown in the relationship between Alexander and the funders such that the funders are no longer privy to developments in the proceedings,” he wrote. Wander also noted that Guriev’s costs appear to be high and when asked by Gorbachev’s attorneys to fill in the gaps as to the reasons for the levels of the costs, it was refused.

777 Partners is a private investment company that has acquired soccer clubs and airlines and also funds litigation. Its has been thrust into the spotlight for some of its failed investments. It moved to acquire UK Premier League soccer team Everton FC but the deal later fell apart. It bought Italy’s oldest consistently running football club Genoa Cricket & Football Cub in 2021 but then a major lender to 777 took it over.

It is also the subject of several lawsuits from lenders, including one alleging the company fraudulently borrowed millions of dollars against assets that were already pledged or didn’t exist.

The case is v. 777 PARTNERS LLC, S.D. Fla., 25-mc-20896, 2/26/25