Alexander Prosetsky v. Viktor Baransky and others

In 2021, several businesspeople from Russia and Ukraine, including Alexander Prosetsky and Viktor Baransky, jointly acquired a tanker, registering it to a company whose shares were held by nominee shareholders. In 2025, Mr. Prosetsky brought a claim in Singapore against several companies, the nominee holders, and Mr. Baransky, alleging that their conspiracy had resulted in the tanker being diverted from the joint company. The court struck out the claim against the company to which the tanker had passed, finding the claims plainly unfounded: the claimant is only the beneficial owner of the shares, not the owner of the tanker that belonged to the company, and therefore cannot bring a claim in the tort of conspiracy, and Singapore law does not allow recovery of reflective loss (loss measured by the company’s losses).

The decision shows the vulnerability of common arrangements in which ownership is held “on trust” through nominees. Even in jurisdictions with developed legal systems, a beneficial owner of shares risks losing the right to bring claims independently if the court considers the owner’s interest in protecting its rights too “diffuse.”