The Stoli Group’s US companies filed for chapter following a ransomware assault in August and the seizure of the corporate’s remaining distilleries within the nation by Russian authorities.
As Chris Caldwell, president and world CEO of Stoli USA and Kentucky Owl, the 2 subsidiaries of the Stoli Group, he mentioned in a Friday presentationThis comes after the August assault severely impacted its IT programs, together with its enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) platform.
The cyberattack additionally compelled handbook operations throughout the group, affecting key processes equivalent to accounting, with a full restoration not anticipated till early 2025.
“In August 2024, Stoli Group’s IT infrastructure suffered extreme disruption following a knowledge breach and ransomware assault,” Caldwell mentioned.
“The assault triggered vital operational points throughout all Stoli Group corporations, together with Stoli USA and KO, attributable to Stoli Group’s enterprise useful resource planning (ERP) system being disabled and most of Stoli Group’s inner processes ( together with accounting capabilities) have been compelled right into a handbook entry mode.”
Caldwell added that the incident additionally prevented Stoli’s U.S. associates from offering monetary stories to lenders that claimed the 2 corporations had defaulted on $78 million in debt.
A month earlier, in July 2024, two distilleries valued at $100 million, the group’s final remaining property in Russia, have been additionally confiscated in reference to the designation of the Stoli Group and its founder, Yuri Shefler, as “extremists.” .
This designation was associated to his humanitarian support efforts and advertising campaigns supporting Ukrainian refugees in the course of the ongoing struggle in Ukraine.
The Stoli Group has additionally spent tens of tens of millions of {dollars} as a part of a long-term court docket battle spanning greater than 23 years and a number of jurisdictions, together with the US, with Russian state-owned firm FKP Sojuzplodoimport over the rights to the Stolichnaya vodka manufacturers. and Moskovskaya.
This authorized struggle arose from a March 2000 government order by President Vladimir Putin to “restore and defend state rights” to vodka manufacturers whose rights have been bought by non-public corporations within the Nineteen Nineties.
Shefler, the corporate’s founder, was additionally compelled to flee Russia in 2002 attributable to “fabricated” and politically motivated accusations associated to his criticism of Putin’s regime. Shefler has since been granted asylum in Switzerland and British citizenship after extradition requests from Russia have been denied within the 2010s.
