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Stoli Group’s US subsidiaries announced their bankruptcy due to the alleged August ransomware attack and Russian authorities confiscating the company’s last distilleries in the country.
Based in Luxembourg, the Stoli Group manufactures the well-known Stolichnaya vodka, which is famous across the world for its superior quality, traditional craftsmanship, and inventive spirit-making.
One of the company’s representatives explained that the two Stoli Group companies have been significantly affected by ransomware, which has caused massive damage to IT systems and its enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform.
In addition, the malicious campaign forced the company to resort to manual operations, disrupting critical procedures like accounting. The affected entity does not expect a full recovery until early 2025.
Stoli Group’s IT infrastructure is the main focus of the data breach last August.
Reports reveal that the Stoli Group’s IT infrastructure was severely disrupted in August by a data breach and ransomware assault.
The campaign resulted in significant operational issues for all Stoli Group companies, including Stoli USA and KO. Additionally, the subsidiaries’ enterprise resource planning system was disabled, and most internal processes resorted to manual entry mode.
These incidents prevented the Stoli US subsidiary from sending financial reports to lenders, who claimed the two companies had defaulted on a $78 million loan. Furthermore, in July 2024, two distilleries worth $100 million, the group’s last remaining assets in Russia, were seized in connection with the Stoli Group and its founder after being designated as “extremists.”
This accreditation was based on their humanitarian aid initiatives and marketing campaigns assisting Ukrainian refugees amid the current geopolitical conflict in Ukraine. The Stoli Group has also spent tens of millions in a 23-year court dispute with Russian state firm FKP Sojuzplodoimport for rights to the Stolichnaya and Moskovskaya vodka trademarks.
This legal dispute developed from the Russian president’s March 2000 executive order to reinstate and defend the state’s rights in vodka trademarks that private entities had purchased in the 1990s.
The company’s founder was also forced to depart Russia in 2002 after facing politically motivated and fabricated allegations related to his criticism of the Putin administration. The founder of the vodka company was later granted refuge in Switzerland and British citizenship after Russia’s extradition demands were dismissed.
