Russian Billionaire Must Pay Up in VC Fund Dispute, Judge Rules

Russian billionaire Dmitry Rybolovlev largely lost a legal fight over whether his family trust was on the hook to provide tens of millions of dollars to a US venture capital firm to finance life-science startups.

Delaware Chancery Court Judge Kathaleen St. J. McCormick on Friday ordered the trust to fork over $97 million, which mostly goes to fund several companies that develop treatments for serious medical conditions such as childhood blindness, cancer, obesity and neurodegenerative diseases. “The public interest strongly favors preserving potentially life-saving research programs,” the judge wrote in her ruling.