In former Soviet Russia, bankrupt Cambridge company sues you

The trustee for a bankrupt Cambridge biotech is suing a Russian company he claims is trying to get out of a $1.4-million debt for drugs it ordered and accepted but then mostly didn't pay for before the local company went out of business.

In a suit filed in US District Court in Boston last week, Harold Murphy, in charge of cleaning up the detritus left behind when creditors forced OPK Biotech into bankruptcy in 2014, charges that Medintorg ordered and received a total of $1.57 million worth of OPK's bovine-derived Hemopure, which can be used as an emergency blood substitute, but only submitted a single payment of about $157,000.

The amount of the unpaid bill equals the amount creditors and company workers said they were owed when they forced the company into bankruptcy.

Murphy is seeking full payment, plus interest and damages.