A commission set up by the Justice Ministry to combat corporate raids has returned property worth Hr 125 billion ($5 billion) to its rightful owners, Justice Minister Pavlo Petrenko said at a news conference on July 5.
Previously businesses whose property was seized by raiders had to go to court and fight for their rights for years, Petrenko said. The commission’s creation in January allowed such businesses to resolve these issues within two weeks, he said.
Applicants do not have to pay an administrative fee, Deputy Justice Minister Pavlo Moroz said at the conference.
If a complaint is upheld, the Justice Ministry blocks the registrar that violated the law, he added. However, the commission can only consider actions carried out by the registrars after January 2016.
As a result of the commission’s work, the number of complaints against the unlawful actions of the employees of the registration offices in corporate conflicts has fallen, Petrenko said. Last year it amounted to about 1,000 per month, while over the past six months there have been just 900 such complaints, he added.
Of these 900 complaints, 130 were upheld by the commission, Petrenko said.
He said that the problem of raider attacks could only be resolved by launching a thorough judicial reform.
“Raider attacks happen when there is a feeding ground for them – corrupt courts and law enforcement agencies,” Petrenko said.
He added that for investors to come to Ukraine, they must know that the rights to their property are inviolable and protected by the law.
Petrenko also urged the commission to send its cases to prosecutors and the National Anti-Corruption Bureau for investigation.
Bunge, a U.S. food and agriculture company, is one business that recently suffered a raider attack. Ukrainian corporate raiders attempted to seize some of the company’s grain elevators in Vinnytsya Oblast. The elevators had a storage capacity of 80,000 tons.
With the help of a local registrar, the raiders registered a parallel company that claimed ownership of the elevators, according to Oleg Bigdan, head of Bunge’s legal department.
Bunge complained to the Justice Ministry’s commission and it resolved the issue. The registrar was blocked from accessing the state registry.
According to Petrenko, Bunge has invested Hr 13 billion in Ukraine’s economy, which is a sum equivalent to 13 percent of all investments made in Ukraine in 2015.
However, some have accused the Justice Ministry’s anti-raider commission of siding with lawmaker Serhiy Pashynsky in a conflict over Zhytomyrski Lasochshi, a Zhytomyr confectionary company. Pashynsky has been accused of illegally seizing the company, which he denies. Pashynsky is a member of the same political party as Justice Minister Petrenko, the People’s Front.
In the past, the commission has decided in favor of firms allegedly linked to Pashynsky in this conflict.
Commenting on the issue, Petrenko and Deputy Justice Minister Moroz said the commission had canceled the illegal decisions of a registrar taken in favor of Pashynsky’s opponent in the corporate conflict, Igor Boiko.
Boiko has also been accused of a raider attack against the firm, which he denies.
Petrenko also commented on whether the commission would consider the corporate conflict around the Sky Mall shopping center in Kyiv.
Lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky, a major ally of President Petro Poroshenko, and his business partner Andriy Adamovsky have been accused of illegally seizing Sky Mall from Estonian businessman Hillar Teder. In May, a London court ruled in favor of Teder, ordering control of the mall to be transferred to him.
Petrenko said the commission would study the case if a formal complaint is filed against the registrars’ actions. Hranovsky and Adamovsky deny the accusations.
