On July 11,a press conference on the seizure of the Company of five German investors by Ukrainian raiders with the help of corrupt officials was held in the press center of the “Interfax-Ukraine”information agency.
Bertold Carl Alois Wild, German investor, Herman Intemann, representative of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine, Robert Schmidt, German investor, and Yaroslav Romanchuk, attorney-at-law, managing partner of EUCON Legal Group and Yevgen Petrenko, attorney-at-law, partner of the EUCON Legal Group, which protect the interests of German businessmen in the case, were participants of the press conference.
The event began with a welcoming speech of Yaroslav Romanchuk, who introduced participants to the press conference and briefly outlined the essence of the discussion and business topics. As explained Yaroslav Romanchuk, after reviewing the case materials, we can say that the influence of the state authorities is being traced, namely, assistance to raiding; this scheme was implemented with the participation of representatives of the registration authorities. If we consider the legal component of the issue, the authorized capital of the company was not paid, and from the point of view of the Civil Code of Ukraine and laws on limited liability companies, such corporate rights could not be alienated.
Bertold Wildjoined the previous speaker in detailing the situation. Thus, according to speakers, German investors established several agricultural companies in Ukraine, among which, particularly, foreign enterprise“Agro-Wild Ukraine”, LLC “Victoria”, LLC “Victoria.” and others. More than 500 land lease agreements were concluded with the owners of the land shares, which was processed and sown by these companies. In October 2018, German investors found out that, without their knowledge and consent, the LLC “Victoria.” was alienated, which led to the illegal deprivation of their ownership of the company’s property and the right to manage it. The consequence of the raider seizure of LLC “Victoria.” was the early termination of the existing sublease agreements with the foreign enterprise “Agro-Wild Ukraine” in the framework of the Kniazhykivska and Ziubryska village councils of the Monastyryschensky district of Cherkasy region. Without convening a General Meeting andfalsificating Minutes of the General Meeting, raiders, through the hands of nominees, have illegally alienated 100% of the company’s property with the help of corrupt notaries and registrars and dismissed real owners from the management of the company.
In the spring of 2019, “Agro-Wild Ukraine” sent a complaint to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine in order to protect their rights and return the right of ownership of the alienated property, and land plots were returned to investors as a result of the complaints. Mr. Wild, having received a positive decision in his favor, sew the returned land, but at this time opponents created a new company and re-concluded all land lease agreements for it, now this company claims to be harvesting. “All 28 days, during which the sowing continued, police representatives were present on our territory,” as Mr. Wild said.
The representative of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Ukraine, Hermann Intemann, expressed concern about this situation, and also added that the Embassy periodically received reports of such cases, which has a bad effect on Ukraine’s investment reputation: “There must be positive examples to interest investors. The situation of Mr. Wild only scares them away and it is a negative example” said Mr. Intemann.
In turn, Robert Schmidtnoted that the situation for the conduct of activities by farmers in Ukraine has always been difficult. German investors are monitoring the situation in the country, in particular the political one, and hope for certain improvements. According to Mr. Schmidt, for German entrepreneurs, Ukraine remains a priority market in the field of agrobusiness, since agriculture is a developed sector of the Ukrainian economy.
Yevgen Petrenko, in turn, told the press conference participants about the legal aspects of the case and the course of the trials taking place in the case. Particularly, the attorney-at-law became a member in the meeting of the Anti-Raider Commission under the Cherkasy Regional State Administration, whose members are representatives of the regional state administration responsible for anti-corruption policy, representatives of the police, representatives of the Justice Department, SFS, the State service of Ukraine for Geodesy, Cartography and Cadastre (StateGeoCadastre), is actually a platform that unites almost all representatives of state authorities that have attitude to this case. Following the meeting, representatives of the Anti-Rider Commission promised to find an effective mechanism for protecting the interests of the investor.
Currently, the relevant facts of raiding in public authorities and law enforcement agencies. This issue was repeatedly considered at the Interdepartmental Commission on the protection of investors’ rights, countering the illegal takeover and seizure of enterprises under the chairmanship of Stepan Kubiva. According to these facts, criminal proceedings have been initiated, in which suspicions have been handed over to relevant persons, legal proceedings are continuing to alienate the company’s corporate rights.
As a result, Yaroslav Romanchuk pointed outthat the primary goal is to return the crop, land, corporate rights to current owners, as well as punish those responsible for the case – the director, officials, law enforcement officials and state registrars, and attorneys-at-law of EUCON Legal Group are working on it.