Bank of Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov – PJSC First Ukrainian
International Bank (PUMB) – attracts fake guarantors to transfer proceedings of
credit matters to Dnipropetrovsk region, where corrupt judges instantaneously
pass unlawful judgements. The details of the scheme used by PUMB to seize the
assets of its clients-borrowers were disclosed by representatives of LLC
Eximagrokom, which owns an oil-extracting plant in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region.
The next hearing in the case of LLC Eximagrokom is scheduled for August
18, 2015 in Dnipropetrovsk. The company hopes that in the post-revolutionary
country, whose president declared a commitment to tackle oligarchy, the
National Bank of Ukraine, law enforcement agencies and national courts will not
allow the tycoon's bank to seize the property of the Ukrainian producer.
"Since both PUMB and LLC Eximagrokom are registered in Kyiv,
litigations regarding the execution of loan agreements fall within the
jurisdiction of Kyiv Commercial Court," says Andrii Poraiko, partner of
the law firm LA Group, which provides services to Eximagrokom.
"However, PUMB used a fake guarantor – LLC Modern Business,
registered in Dnepropetrovsk, to move the litigation to the Commercial Court of
Dnipropetrovsk region, where one of the respondents is officially
registered," said Poraiko.
In 2014, LLC Eximagrokom took a loan of UAH 36 mln in one of the
branches of JSC PUMB. The loan was secured, inter alia, by a mortgage on
property rights for oil-extracting plant in Chuhuiv. At the time the loan was
issued the factory was still under construction.
Despite the fact that Eximagrokom regularly paid the interest on the
loan on time, and the deadline for the final settlement of the loan was still
months ahead, the bank sent Eximagrokom a notice demanding the repayment of the
full amount of the loan – UAH 35.8 million – ahead of schedule. The formal
reason behind this demand was allegedly the fact that Eximagrokom did not
register the right of ownership for the newly built capital facilities, which
are part of the complex of the plant's buildings, as well as that the company
did not conclude a mortgage agreement with respect to this property. Notably,
the company did file the relevant application to the State Registry, yet upon
the consideration of the submitted application the authority refused to
register the right of ownership. PUMB was duly informed about this
circumstance.
"Until July 2015 we were in negotiations with PUMB, during which we
offered various options for the repayment of the loan by installments or
refinancing it. But during the negotiations it became clear that PUMB is not
interested in returning the lent money, and instead wants to use a formal
pretext to seize the company's business, which is ten times more expensive than
the amount of the loan," Eximagrokom's Head of Legal Department Edvard
Danilov said.
In July 2015, Eximagrokom received a statement of claim from which it
learnt that in February 2015 PUMB and an unknown company Modern Business
concluded a contract of guarantee under which the latter allegedly vouched for
debtors – Eximagrokom – within the sum of UAH 100,000.
Moreover, having examined the public register of court decisions and
legal entities, Eximagrokom lawyers obtained proof of the connection between
the fictitious guarantor LLC Modern Business with PUMB. In particular, it
transpired that Modern Business director Alexei Dolgii is the founder of
Agro-Shliah. In turn, the second founder of Agro-Shliah – Lvov Oleksander – is
the director of Agro-Top; both enterprises are registered at the same address:
1 Sobinova Street, Dnipropetrovsk, 49083.
It should be noted that all three companies were used by PUMB as bogus
guarantors for the change of jurisdiction, as is evidenced by a number of
materials in the open court registry (case №904 / 2324/15, 18/05/15, case №904
/ 8277/14, 22.12. 14).
"The main purpose of transferring the case to the 'right' court and
judges (for PUMB) – is to conduct early proceedings and receive a positive
court decision on debt recovery and secure decisions about the arrest of the
debtor's assets. In practice, the hearing of cases by commercial courts of
first instance takes no less than two months, while the final decision is
delivered after two, sometimes up to 10 court sessions.
During the first hearing in the case of LLC Eximagrokom, which took
place on August 4, 2015, we, as the client's lawyers, had "to fight"
for over three hours to convince judge Manko G.V. to announce a break for the
evaluation of new materials. And this is just one of the numerous procedural
violations in this case," said Andrii Poraiko.
According to Danilov, in addition to litigations, PUMB takes
extrajudicial steps with the view to re-registering the mortgaged property in
its own name. He believes that the purpose of such actions is to completely
block the company's business and force it to voluntarily give up its assets to
the bank-raider. Eximagrokom's management hopes that the authorities of the
country in a pre-default state will make all legitimate efforts to protect the
Ukrainian company which pays taxes and provides real jobs.
In December, 2014 LLC Eximagrokom completed the construction of its
oil-extraction plant in Chuhuiv, Kharkiv region. The plant's processing
capacity is 1,200 tons sunflower seeds per day. The annual production capacity
is 432, 000 tons. The plant is equipped with the world leading technologies and
employs over 300 people.
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