In November 2010 a Moscow court declared Mezhprombank insolvent and Russian authorities later began a criminal investigation into the bank.
Three days later, in January 2011, Pugachev fled the country and settled in London, although it is believed he is now in France, in breach of English court orders.
Mezhprombank's court-appointed liquidators, the Russian State Corporation Deposit Insurance Agency, have alleged Pugachev carried out a scheme designed to extract money from the bank after it received recapitalisation loans from the Russian central bank.
Pugachev denies the allegations and has fought a worldwide freezing order placed over his assets last year by a UK court. When Pugachev disclosed details of US$70 million ($110.3 million) of assets to the liquidators to comply with this freezing order, he revealed he was a beneficiary of five New Zealand-based trusts.
The trustees of these entities, before July 24, were Kiwi firms directed by Auckland lawyers Bill Patterson and Robyn Hopkins.
But documents apparently signed by Pugachev in the French city of Nice purported to remove those trustees and replace them with four other local companies.
These are all directed by Auckland lawyer Ben Lenihan, Pugachev's associate Natalia Dozortseva and a London-based man, Willem Smit.
The original trustees have applied to the New Zealand courts seeking directions on whether they were validly removed and if so, whether trust assets can be transferred to their replacements without breaching the worldwide freezing order. That is due to be determined in Auckland at the end of this month.
At the end of July and about five weeks after the last confirmed sighting of Pugachev within Britain, Mezhprombank's liquidators applied to England's High Court for the freezing order to be extended to the trustees of the New Zealand-based entities linked to the Russian exile.
One of their arguments was that the trust assets were allegedly still beneficially owned by Pugachev.
The request was refused by England's High Court but granted by that country's Court of Appeal last month, with Lord Justice David Bean saying there was "a good arguable case that the assets held by the trusts are in reality assets of, or under the control of, Mr Pugachev".
"There is at least a good arguable case that he is taking every possible step to keep his assets out of the reach of this court," he said.
Lord Justice Bean, with the assent of two other judges, extended the freezing order to cover the New Zealand trusts.
Sergei Pugachev
• 52-year-old co-founder of Russia's Mezhprombank.
• Claims he was behind Vladimir Putin's rise to power.
• Accuses the Russian government of seizing his business empire.
• A worldwide freezing order placed over his assets.
