Cypriot investment companies appeal against confiscation of $1.5 billion from Yanukovych environment
A number of Cyprus-based companies are going into litigation with Ukraine to appeal the judgment of the Kramatorsk city court of Donetsk Oblast on the confiscation of $1.5 billion from the Viktor Yanukovych environment, reported Interfax Ukraine.
Interfax received a letter from the lawyers of Dmytro Shcherbyna and Maksym Kovalenko who represent the interests of the following companies: Akemi Management Ltd., Aldoza Investments Ltd., Erosaria Ltd., Opalcore Ltd., Foxtron Networks Ltd., Loricom Holding Group Ltd. and Wonderbliss Ltd.
The letter says that these are investment companies, which invested into Ukrainian domestic government bonds and were added to the list of legal entities to which special confiscation is applied.
“Our customers consider, and we agree with them, that there are elements of crime in the actions of all persons accessory to adoption and execution of sentence. Therefore, we have already made a relevant application to NABU in that the officials of Oshchadbank committed criminal offenses. According to the official statement of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, they have already performed a judgment absent in the Unified Reports Register and through the prosecutor they provided a performance of judgment, having corrupted Mr. Kashkin to conclude an agreement on the ‘international criminal scheme,’” the letter says.
The companies claim that several significant violations of the law were deliberately committed during the consideration of the case and the passing of the judgment. In particular, the trial was held secretly, without summoning of foreign investors whose property was subjected to special confiscation, although according to the law, third parties whose property is subject to special confiscation have the same rights as the accused.
In brief, the $1.5 billion was confiscated as part of a sentence sustained against Arkadiy Kashkin, a companion of exiled tycoon Serhiy Kurchenko. Kashkin is ex-CEO of Serhiy Kurchenko’s company Gas of Ukraine-2020. Funds were confiscated from Oshchadbank and Privatbank. Their essential parts are bonds of domestic government loan.
According to statements by Ukrainian officials, the money has already been transferred to the treasury.