Vekselberg, Blavatnik Shed Billion-Dollar Oil Deal Suit in NY

Billionaires Leonard Blavatnik and Viktor Vekselberg didn’t breach their contract when they failed to pay a Russian businessman a share of the billions of dollars they received from the sale of their oil and gas business, a New York appellate court held Thursday.

A 2003 agreement under which Leonid Lebedev received $600 million includes a “waiver and release” provision that bars Lebedev’s breach-of-contract claims against Blavatnik and Vekselberg, a panel of New York Supreme Court First Appellate Division justices wrote in their decision affirming a lower court order that dismissed the claims.

Under the 2003 agreement, Lebedev received $600 million ...