185 million UAH seized in terms of the investigation of the «Krayan Plant case» was transferred to the ARMA

The funds in the amount of 185 million UAH were transferred to the National Agency of Ukraine for Finding, Tracing and Management of Assets Derived from Corruption and Other Crimes (АRМА). The abovementioned funds resulted from the sale of Odesa City Hall building of the Krayan Plant at inflated prices. On March 13, 2018, the judge of the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv satisfied a request filed by the Detectives of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the prosecutors of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor`s Office (SAPO) for restoring seizure of funds. Also the court satisfied the request on transferring funds to the АRМА.

 

 

For the first time the seized funds in terms of the investigations of the NABU and the SAPO were transferred to the ARMA.

It should be reminded that in September 2016 the Odesa City Council bought the building (part of the former SE Krayan Plant) early for 185 million UAH from a private firm. At the beginning of 2016 the private enterprise bought the building at the auction organized by the liquidator of the State Enterprise for 11.5 million UAH.

The received 185 million UAH company-seller tried to transfer to a fictitious company.

But the Detectives of the NABU and the prosecutors of the SAPO prevented the attempt to legalize the funds and blocked the accounts of a private company-seller.  On February 1, the judge of the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv canceled the seizure of the part of funds in the amount of 92.34 million UAH.

On February 6 the seizure of the funds was restored according to  the request filed by the prosecutors of the SAPO. But on February 7 the seizure was repeal again within of the consideration of the lawyer's complaint of the judicial decision dated December 21, 2016. 

The abovementioned funds on the seller's accounts were blocked by the State Financial Monitoring Service of Ukraine due to the fact that there was a threat of possible legalization of proceeds from the corruption crime.

On March 13, 2018, the seizure of the funds was resumed.

It should be reminded that on February 14, 2018, the NABU Detectives and the prosecutors of the SAPO detained the Odessa City Mayor and his Deputy in the Kyiv Boryspil Airport. The officials are suspected of committing a crime under Part 5 Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine («Misappropriation, embezzlement or conversion of property by abuse of office»).

The day before, on February 13, 2018, the NABU Detectives under the guidance of the SAPO prosecutors gave notices of suspicion to 8 probable participants of the crime. Four of them, whose location was unknown at that moment – in order Article 278, Article 135 Criminal Procedural Code of Ukraine.

According to Article 62 of the Constitution of Ukraine a person is considered not-guilty in commission of crime and cannot be a subject to criminal punishment, until he or she is found guilty by the court