Dear Supporters

Thank you very much for supporting my petition, which today passed the next symbolical milestone of 30,000 supporters and which describes the corruption of Putin’s oligarchs (PhosAgro) in the UK. In this update, I have decided that it is time to provide information about one more corrupt action of these oligarchs in the UK that I have not previously spoken publicly about. But the circumstances are such that it's time to do it. 

With the corruption of my lawyers from Candey by Putin's oligarchs, everything has long been extremely obvious and an investigation has begun against them (here you can read my response to the investigator of yesterday about specific issues that need to be investigated).

But if we talk about my former lawyers, the oligarchs did not limit themselves to bribing only Candey. Their corruption activities against my lawyers began earlier than the story with Candey – exactly when formally my lawyers were Signature Litigation. Why formally - because when entering into a contract with them, we assumed that they would find an investor to fund their work. But since it was not possible to attract investors, from a certain point on, Signature, while waiting for the investors' decision, was simply formally listed as my lawyers, doing no work other than forwarding correspondence between me and the oligarchs' lawyers. 

Next, I will describe the basis of my suspicions (or rather, my confidence) that Signature Litigation has been bribed by the oligarchs either, but first I must explain why I did not make this story public before and why I decided to do so now. The fact is that this story has become public in connection with the actions of the oligarchs themselves, who are trying to present the situation in such a way that if I say that they bribed not one, but two law firms that previously represented my interests, then this supposedly proves that I am accusing everyone without exception, which means that no one can believe me. That is, the oligarchs are trying to justify themselves (of course, without giving any details) by saying that such a fantastic scale of corrupt activities that they actually conduct cannot exist in principle, which means that my statements to the contrary cannot be taken seriously.

But let's look at the concrete facts. In the UK, there is a mechanism that is often used by unscrupulous defendants when they have nothing to object to on the merits of the claims and they know that the plaintiff has no money. Such defendants try to oblige (through the court) the plaintiff to provide a certain amount of interim security, and if the plaintiff cannot do this (as in my case), the claim is simply dismissed without consideration. For this, there is even a special term in the law – stifling a claim.

SO, SIGNATURE LITIGATION, WHICH WAS OBLIGED TO PROTECT MY INTERESTS, INSTEAD HAS DONE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO HELP THE OLIGARCHS TO STIFLE MY LAWSUIT.

Events developed in the following way. On 10 May 2021, PhosAgro sent a letter to Signature asking me to provide financial security, threatening that if I did not give a reasonable answer by 20 May, PhosAgro would go to the court. For some reason, Signature forwarded this letter to me with a two-day delay. Since the law provides for legal opportunities to resist such stifling demands of the defendants, I prepared a corresponding response, in which I gave the legal grounds on which the demands for interim security do not comply with the law and are aimed solely at stifling the lawsuit. 

Of course, on 18 May, I sent my response to my lawyers from Signature, since exactly they were the ones who were formally listed as my representatives and were obliged to conduct correspondence (not me) and send the response to the defendants by 20 May, as was requested. 

However, Signature (in particular, partner Josh Wong) wrote to me late on the evening of 19 May that it would be better not to respond to this request now (as the oligarchs demanded), but to respond in a week. On the same day, I sent a clarifying email in which I asked if it would be too late, since the defendants demanded an answer exactly by 20 May. Josh Wong responded: “A response next week will be fine. The first response to the letter in respect to security for costs will be a robust letter from Signature rejecting their request for security for costs. We can include some of your helpful points in relation to undue pressure”. 

However, Signature (without any explanations) did not prepare and send any response the following week either. Taking advantage of the lack of a response, PhosAgro filed an application with the court on 1 June and wrote: “A response was requested by no later than 20 May 2021, noting that in the absence of such confirmation PhosAgro would have no choice but to make an application for security, and seek the costs of doing so from the Claimants. As at the date of this statement no response to the 10 May letter has been received”.

THEREFORE, SIGNATURE HAS CREATED A FORMAL BASIS FOR PHOSAGRO'S APPLICATION TO THE COURT. 

Further events developed even more strangely. On 27 May, the owner of PhosAgro and Putin's friend Guryev, who is depicted in the photo to my petition, sent a request to Signature similar to PhosAgro's request. Signature didn't inform me about this request at all. On 3 June, Guryev sent a chasing request to Signature, which Signature also did not forward to me at all. 

On 7 June, absolutely without my knowledge, Signature sent a reply to Guryev, in which it wrote that I would provide financial security for Guryev until 29 June, although Signature knew that in principle I could do this neither until 29 June nor ever at all. 

A day later, on 9 June, Guryev went to the court, informing Signature on the same day. For inexplicable reasons, Signature did not inform me about this until late on the evening of 10 June. From the forwarded documents of Guryev, I learned about the correspondence mentioned above, which was conducted by Signature on my behalf, but without my knowledge. I also saw from the same documents that this strange correspondence became the reason for Guryev's application to the court. There was no limit to my surprise at the strangeness of what was happening.

THEREFORE, SIGNATURE AS WELL HAS CREATED A FORMAL BASIS FOR GURYEV'S APPLICATION TO THE COURT 

But that's not all. The next day, 11 June, without warning in advance, Josh Wong wrote to me: “In view of the lack of funds, the time has come for Signature to formally hand over the case to you to act as litigant in person”. Thus, on 11 June, I was left alone with the defendants' applications for financial security, which they submitted to the court, using the formal reasons provided by Signature. I was completely discouraged for two reasons: first, I saw the strange correspondence that Signature was conducting behind my back and which was the reason for the defendants to go to the court, and second, immediately after the defendants filed their applications to the court (which they filed “thanks” to the reasons created by Signature), Signature left me with all these applications and accompanying oddities one-on-one.

Leaving me alone (completely confused by all these oddities), Josh Wong promised that he would support me informally. However, he began to fulfill his promise very strangely, with a delay of 4-5 days. For example, I received an urgent letter from the defendants, which said that I should take some action within 24 hours, but I did not quite understand what exactly I should do (if should at all). I sent an email to Mr Wong asking to clarify, but he did not answer it until five days later, when I figured it out myself, as the question turned out very simple.

THUS, I DO NOT HAVE A SINGLE REASONABLE EXPLANATION FOR ALL THESE ODDITIES, EXCEPT THAT SIGNATURE ALSO COLLUDED WITH THE OLIGARCHS FROM A CERTAIN MOMENT AND BEGAN TO ACT NOT IN THE INTEREST OF ITS CLIENT (ME), BUT IN THE INTEREST OF MY OPPONENTS, HELPING THEM IN EVERY POSSIBLE WAY. 

I wrote about my suspicions in response documents to the oligarchs' applications for interim security and since then I have practically not raised this issue. By the way, in the future, in fact, I managed to resist the demands of the defendants myself and the court in October 2021 recognized that the chances of satisfying these applications are almost zero. After that, and realizing that this method of stifling the claim would not work, the oligarchs decided to use another method, which can only be called cynical. They began to insist that the court forbid me to continue the trial in the absence of lawyers (previously bribed by them). And they successfully achieved this with the help of deputy judge Mr Beltrami KC, who turned out to be very closely connected with the lawyers of the oligarchs, but contrary to the requirements of the Guide to Judicial Conduct, chose not to disclose information about this to me. This story is described in more detail in the main text of the petition, in which I also demand an investigation into this story with Mr Beltrami KC.

But since the story with Signature became public at the initiative of the oligarchs (who, of course, never give details), I decided to speak out about this story publicly giving the facts. I HAVE NO DOUBT THAT PUTIN'S OLIGARCHS BRIBED SIGNATURE EITHER AND I WILL DEMAND THAT THIS CORRUPTION EPISODE BE INVESTIGATED AS WELL. 

By the way, I recently asked Josh Wong to comment on his strange 2021 correspondence. He did not deny the existence of these oddities (but how can they be denied?), but said that even without these oddities, the defendants, in his opinion, would still have applied to the court for interim security. But this is just guessing, and the indisputable fact remains that it was Signature that (1) created formal reasons for the defendants to go to the court and (2) immediately after that left me to deal with all this alone. 

Josh Wong formally denies that he colluded with the oligarchs, but it would be strange if he officially confirmed this by admitting his involvement in corruption. I will give a few quotes from further correspondence with Josh Wong:

• “I have huge sympathy for what you have endured and also admiration for the way you have continued with your struggle against the defendants and have not let any obstacles stand in your way. In light of all the terrible things that have happened to you and the approach taken by the defendants, I fully understand that you will be cautious about trusting anyone and sceptical about the motives of all people involved in your case”. 
• “I agree the defendants are capable of resorting to corruption, but certainly they have not reached me and my firm”.

I decided to quote these excerpts, because while Josh Wong denies colluding with the oligarchs, he, nevertheless, confirms that they are capable of corruption in the UK (I think he meant corruption of judges) and that what they did to me is monstrous. 

THE SCALE OF CORRUPTION OF THE OLIGARCHS IS AMAZING AND HAS NO LIMITS, SO I KINDLY ASK YOU TO CONTINUE TO SUPPORT MY PETITION, AS ONLY PUBLICITY CAN HELP TO COUNTER THIS! 

Many thanks and kind regards,

Igor Sychev