Co-Owner Obtains Preliminary Injunction to Halt Sale of Valuable Russian Paintings

PRLog (Press Release) - Apr. 27, 2011 - Spillane Weingarten LLP has obtained a preliminary injunction on behalf of client Irina Raskin prohibiting the sale of four rare paintings worth millions of dollars that were fraudulently transferred as part of a scheme to hide community property assets.  As part of the court’s ruling, it determined that Mrs. Raskin was likely to prevail on her claims at trial.

The paintings at issue are famous Russian artist Oleg Tselkov’s “Meal,” Viatcheslav Kalinin’s “Kozyenyi Dom from Dalnya Doroga series,” Ilya Kabakov’s Seria “I. Spivak: In the Store,” and Komar and Melamid’s Seria American Dream “Our Way of Life.”  A fifth painting, Semion Faibisovich’s “The Last Bus,” was auctioned April 14 in London through Phillips, de Pury & Company LLC auction house. Those proceeds were placed in escrow pending trial.

In 2009, Irina Raskin’s estranged husband Alex Raskin purported to borrow $935,000 from relatives and co-defendants Alexander Yerekhman and Ben Dorfman using the valuable artwork worth $2,950,000 as collateral.  The “loan” amounted to less than a third of the paintings’ total commercial value, but no money exchanged hands.  Raskin contends he “defaulted” on the loans and turned over ownership of the art to the co-defendants. Evidence suggests that Raskin never surrendered custody of the artwork, and he admitted he “has gone through great pains and spent a great deal of time to ensure ‘The Last Bus’ goes up for auction.”

“Alex Raskin engineered a fraudulent transfer of these pieces of art in order to hide them from his wife, Irina, and their minor children.  He should be ashamed of himself and as we proved today, he is not going to get away with it, not on my watch,” said Mrs. Raskin’s attorney, Alex Weingarten.

About Alex Weingarten
Alex Weingarten is the managing partner of business litigation boutique Spillane Weingarten LLP.  Mr. Weingarten’s practice focuses on entertainment and intellectual property matters where he has represented a broad range of clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to artists and other high net worth individuals.  An honors graduate of UC Berkeley and Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Weingarten has been distinguished as a Southern California Super Lawyer Rising Star in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011.

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Spillane Weingarten LLP is a business litigation law firm with an emphasis on entertainment and intellectual property matters. The firm has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.