Media: Poroshenko transferred almost four million euros abroad
On the 25th of March 2016, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s company, Prime Assets Capital, transferred almost €4 million abroad. They did this by purchasing shares from a related company in Cyprus. This was stated during a journalistic investigation on Slіdstvo.Іnfo, which was published on the 18th of May.
According to the document, on the 25th of March, CEE Confectionary Investments Limited released 18,000 shares with a nominal value of one euro each. This was in addition to the 2,000 shares which was previously released.
On that day, these shares were sold to Prime Assets Capital at a premium price of €218 each. This company, among others, is registered in Kiev to Poroshenko.
“We have found a Greek document where we could only understand the amount of €3,926,160.00. After translating the document, we learned that on the 25th of March 2016, Prime Assets Capital bought shares from a related company in Cyprus. These shares cost almost €4 million in total. Cash was specified as the payment,” journalist Anna Babinec noted.
According to Babinec, this is contrary to Poroshenko’s claims that his offshore companies did not transfer any funds out of Ukraine. She added that at the time, the withdrawal of this amount from Ukraine was strictly prohibited by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
“This is contrary to a decision made by the NBU on the 3rd of March which prohibits the transfer of currency abroad. It is not known why this money was withdrawn. One of the speculated reasons is that the money was intended for Rothschild as a fee. Poroshenko may also have transferred this money abroad for some other reason,” Babinec said.
On the 3rd of April, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ), as well as the websites of the world media published material detailing the numerous offshore companies used by the leaders of countries, politicians and celebrities.
According to ICIJ documents, Poroshenko did not transfer his assets to a blind trust as he had previously stated. Three offshore companies have already been created, and deemed necessary by Poroshenko’s representative, for the pre-sale restructuring of the CEE Confectionary Investments Limited holding company, Roshen.