Masked people from state law-enforcement agencies broke into the office of Kyiv-based Phoenix Capital investment company on Tuesday, Olesia Orobets, an opposition-minded MP and wife of founder and chairman of the company's board, Oleksandr Omelchuk, wrote on Facebook.
“The people who’ve broken into the husband’s office, having knocked down a security guard, were crying that they’re from the department for organized crime control, and now they tell lawyers they’re from the tax police,” she wrote.
According to her, the masked people stripped the employees of mobile phones, nobody is let in and out, and the police officers who have arrived cannot get a court order to conduct a search or investigation, but remain outside.
“The employees have indicated through the glass doors that they’ve been beaten,” Orobets said.
According to her, a corporate lawyer and even a deputy head of the tax police were not let in, and a bookcase was put on the way of journalists to prevent them from shooting video.
“They’ve let it be understood what’s going on. ‘Individual work’ has been launched with members of parliament to create a [parliamentary] majority under [Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych,” she said. Orobets is on the 26th place of the opposition Batkivschyna party’s list in the recent parliament election, which gives her a seat in a new parliament.
Referring to MP Andriy Parubiy, who’s managed to get into the office, Orobets said that her husband Omelchuk is facing an attempt of being taken out for an alleged investigation.
Interfax-Ukraine was unable to obtain a comment from either the tax or law-enforcement agencies. At the same time, a source in the tax police expressed doubt that their officers are involved, as tax police officers have not used masks recently.
Phoenix Capital was founded in 2008. Its core business includes underwriting, brokerage, dealer, depositary and asset management activity on the stock market.
According to the State Commission for Securities and the Stock Market, Phoenix Capital LLC was founded by Cyprus-based Klevia Ventures Limited with 99.99914% and Phoenix Capital CEO Oleksandr Skubenko with 0.00086%.
Phoenix Capital’s charter capital by the end of 2011 was UAH 7 million. The company’s net revenues in 2011 totaled UAH 980.9 million and its net profit was UAH 560,000.
