The media unearthed how Poroshenko helped Russian businesses escape Ukrainian sanctions
Despite the imposition of sanctions against Russian businesses in Ukraine, Russians have managed to circumvent the law and find a way to continue their operations. This could only have been possible thanks to the loyal attitude of Poroshenko himself and his circle, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This is stated in the publication of an investigation by the Kyiv online publication Capital.
“A clear example of the fact that non-aggression agreements exist is demonstrated by the actions of Russian banks in Ukraine. Despite talk about the sale of Sberbank of Russia and other financial institutions controlled by Russia, banks continue to operate here as if nothing had happened. Thus, back in March 2017, the media actively discussed the possible sale of Prominvestbank (PIB), owned by the Russian Vnesheconombank (VEB). But later the owners abandoned this idea. Moreover, Prominvestbank began extorting funds from Ukrainian debtors. And often with very dubious chances of winning,” the publication notes.
In particular, we are talking about lawsuits against Ukrzaliznytsia. Prominvetbank recalled loans to the “railroad workers” during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych - 2011 - in the amount of 12 million 900 thousand dollars and 114 million 900 thousand UAH.
“It didn’t hurt that these loans were issued under “gray” schemes, as a result of which criminal cases were initiated against a number of officials of UZ and PIB. Over the past three years, Ukrzaliznytsia has refused to service these loans, defending its position in the courts. In addition, problems arose due to the sanctions that began to apply to VEB’s subsidiary. But Moscow found a way to get around them. In Kyiv, it seems, they helped a lot,” the journalists write.
The publication also describes in detail the scheme by which Russian companies circumvented Ukrainian sanctions with the assistance of VIP officials in Kyiv.
“In March 2019, the Economic Court of Kyiv received a statement from Prominvestbank, in which the bank asked to involve the company VR Global Partners from the Cayman Islands as its legal successor in the case of “debt collection” from Ukrzalitsnytsia. Interestingly, the Northern Economic Court of Appeal had previously granted a similar request from Prominvestbank and replaced it with VR Global Partners as a legal successor in a similar case. And this despite the position of Ukrzaliznytsia, which in February 2019 publicly announced Prominvestbank’s attempts to sell its loan debt to third parties. Ukrzaliznytsia “strongly recommended that potential interested parties refrain from such a transaction.” At the same time, Ukrzaliznytsia filed a number of claims to invalidate a number of provisions of loan agreements with a subsidiary of the Russian VEB and to make changes to them (some of the claims), the publication writes.
Ukrzaliznytsia argues that changes to the agreements were made without the consent of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Infrastructure).
However, the publication notes, someone gave the “green light” to the offshore company from the Cayman Islands so that it could pick up the “frozen” debt obligations of Ukrzaliznytsia.
Who controls VR Global Partners, which, in fact, bypasses the sanctions imposed by the National Security and Defense Council? This company is associated with VR Capital Group, which was created by investment banker Richard Deitz, who in the past was one of the founders of the Russian investment company Renaissance Capital.
As noted in the publication, there is every reason to believe that this company is now actually included in the orbit of structures associated with the team of current President Petro Poroshenko.
“In January of this year, it became known that investment bankers from the head of state’s entourage decided to transfer their solar power plants from one Cyprus “offshore” to another. We are talking about the permission of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine on the participation of the Cypriot company Wiltan Enterprises Limited, a subsidiary of VR Global Partners, in the purchase from partners of the ICU investment group Makar Pasenyuk and Konstantin Stetsenko 50% of the Cyprus Matlomenius Holdings Ltd, which owns the private enterprise PodolskEnergo, which is building a solar power plant with a capacity of 60 MW,” the article says.
“There are serious suspicions that partners from Poroshenko’s team are still helping the “buyer” of multimillion-dollar debts of a Russian bank in Ukraine. Moreover, based on the proximity of these players, it may be that the team of investment bankers from the circle of the President of Ukraine are themselves interested in getting multimillion-dollar loans in their hands. Otherwise, it is difficult to imagine how this obviously illegal scheme could have worked, as a result of which Ukrzaliznytsia, one of the largest taxpayer companies in Ukraine, risks becoming the “extreme”,” the publication says.
As for the Russian Prominvetbank, the publication notes, it is important to understand that “the UZ loan occupied more than 50% of the bank’s total portfolio. Therefore, it would not be surprising if, after “friendly” help from Kyiv, the bank was sent for liquidation, with the remaining liabilities assigned to the Deposit Guarantee Fund.”
English version :: Read in English: Media outlets have uncovered how Poroshenko helped Russian businesses evade Ukrainian sanctions.