Moscow’s Basmanny Court in December again extended for three months a freeze on property and land plots belonging to the Roshen Confectionary Corporation in Lipetsk, Russia, Roshen Confectionary Corporation has said.
Various Russian arbitration courts have abolished interim measures that did not allow the tax authorities to perform any actions with the property of the Lipetsk factory before the court tried the cases on the merits, the corporation said in a press release on Dec. 22.
“The speed and uniformity of decisions taken on the abolition of the interim measures (which the tax authorities have repeatedly and unsuccessfully tried to cancel for three years) cast doubt on the impartiality and independence of the judges who made these rulings. We believe they are not based on the law and were made under pressure,” Roshen said.
As a result of the abolition of the interim measures, all money held in the accounts intended for salaries of the remaining workers at the factory was withdrawn to pay taxes, penalties and fines, which Roshen does not recognize and is challenging in arbitration.
“Roshen Corporation has never recognized and does not recognize the legality of the decisions made by Russia’s tax service and the accusations brought by the investigation and will continue to challenge their legality in Russian and international courts,” the corporation said.
Roshen Confectionary Corporation is one of the largest Ukrainian confectionery producers, including production facilities in Kyiv, Mariupol in Donetsk region, Kremenchuk in Poltava region, and two Vinnytsia confectionery factories, and the Vinnytsia dairy. It also runs confectionary facilities in Klaipeda, Lithuania; Lipetsk, Russia; and Bonbonetti Choco, Hungary.
The Lipetsk factory suspended work on April 1, 2017.
The network of the Roshen stores in Ukraine has 50 outlets in five regions. The first opened in Kyiv in 2009. The corporation annually opens five or six outlets on the average.
In keeping with an agreement signed by Petro. Poroshenko in January 2016, his 85 percent stake in the corporation was transferred to Rothschild Trust’s blind trust. The trustee also has a four-year power of attorney to negotiate the sale of the assets. The president of Roshen Corporation, Viacheslav Moskalevsky, owns 13 percent through the Conditerinvest investment fund, another four top managers have 0.5 percent each.
