The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv continued the consideration of the case on the arrest of shares of JSC Motor Sich. This time, the court considered petitions to remove four arrests from the company’s shares from two shareholder companies at once.
It was announced by Aleksandr Maksimenko, a lawyer, commenting on the results of the court session on October 21.
‘We continue a series of appeals against arrests that were imposed by the Shevchenkivskyi District Court within the criminal proceedings of the pre-trial investigation carried out by the Security Service of Ukraine. We did not get the desired result (cancel of the arrest, - ed.) in previous court hearings. Therefore, under the current legislation, we are trying to cancel the arrest again,’ said the lawyer in comments to journalists.
This time, one of the shareholders initiates the cancellation of four arrests at once on the company’s shares imposed within the framework of the same criminal case.
Court hearings at the procedural requests of two shareholders were scheduled on the same day with an interval of five minutes. Vitaliy Tsiktich, who was previously remembered for his participation in the case of ‘ex-Berkuts’, was appointed the investigating judge.
Since there is one judge in these petitions, lawyers do not exclude that in case of an adverse verdict on one of them, the same decision should be expected on the second.
‘However, arrests not only harm the company’s economic activities but are simply meaningless from the legal point of view as the shares in uncertificated form exist in the form of electronic records. Thus, they cannot be material evidence in a case since they cannot even physically contain traces of a crime. The uncertificated shares in the form of electronic records cannot be a tool for the destruction of equipment of JSC Motor Sich, as investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine considered. That is why the investor companies of JSC Motor Sich repeatedly applied to the court with procedural requests to remove the arrests from shares,’ the lawyers note.
Due to the failure of the investigator and the prosecutor to appear in court, the judge decided to postpone the sessions until November 4 and 10. The lawyers are convinced that it is an evident ignorance of the court session by law enforcement officers to deliberately delay it.
Let us recall that the criminal case, which became the basis for the long-term blocking of shares and obstruction of the change of shareholders of JSC Motor Sich was initiated by the Security Service of Ukraine in 2017.
The last of four arrests of shares in August 2020 was imposed on the initiative of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. It happened immediately after Skyrison Aircraft Holdings, together with its partner, the DCH group of Aleksandr Yaroslavskyi, the Ukrainian businessman, submitted a new application to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine to agree on the concentration of shares.
In the opinion of state and law enforcement agencies, the presence of Chinese investors among the shareholders of JSC Motor Sis poses a threat to the economic security of Ukraine.
At the same time, according to Pavel Rozenko, former Vice Prime Minister, statements made by Vadim Nozdrya, the Head of Ukrspetsexport, on the priority of military and technical cooperation with private companies in Turkey in the field of aircraft engine building in the context of a violation of the rights of private Chinese investors of Motor Sich PJSC, is an example of double standards and an indicator of Ukraine’s unreliability as a partner in international relations.
Earlier, Wang Jing, Chinese businessman, who is a key shareholder of Beijing Xinwei Technology Group and Beijing Skyrizon (the investor companies of PJSC Motor Sich), explained the reason for his companies’ interest in Motor Sich in an interview with RBC-Ukraine.
According to the lawyers of the shareholder company, arrests and bans on shares worsen the financial position of Motor Sich JSC – the company’s profits have decreased several times, the decreasing financial condition of the company and its uncertain future have caused about 8 000 employees to leave the company.
Whereas Chinese investors from Skyrizon sent a message to the Ukrainian government about their intention to start international arbitration against the state of Ukraine, demanding compensation for $3.5 billion in damages on September 4.
As Aleksandr Yaroslavskyi, the businessman and owner of the DCH group of companies said earlier, authorities
should stop preventing the legitimate shareholders of Motor Sich from disposing of their property.
