Poroshenko claims to have sold all businesses there were buyers for
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that over the last five years he has sold all of the businesses for which there were buyers.
“Wherever there was a buyer, even if they didn’t have the money now or if it had to be paid off over many years, I sold my assets. This was the case with Kuznya na Rybalskomu. There is a new owner, the relevant decisions have been made,” Poroshenko told journalists in the press center of the Olimpiyskiy Stadium in Kyiv at an event that was supposed to be a debate between the two remaining presidential candidates.
The president explained that he transferred all of the unsold assets to fiduciary ownership, renouncing any active influence over them. He said that the blind trust that his businesses have been transferred to is “a wall separating President Poroshenko from his assets”. He emphasized that he is the first Ukrainian politician to take such a step.
During Ukraine’s previous presidential elections, Poroshenko promised to sell all of his businesses after inauguration, except for the TV channel “Kanal 5”.
The best-known company belonging to the Ukrainian president is the Roshen Confectionery Corporation, a subsidiary of LLC Central European Confectionery Company. Poroshenko also owns confectionery plants in Vinnytsia, Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Mariupol in Ukraine, Lipetsk in Russia, Klaipeda in Lithuania and the Bonbonbetti Choco plant in Hungary.
Some of the Ukrainian president’s other assets include a bank called “International Investment Bank” and the “5th Element” sports club in Kyiv.
Poroshenko also owned the Sevastopol Shipyard until it was expropriated by Russia after its annexation of Crimea.