On the same day Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Company completed the acquisition of Mriya agroholding in Ukraine, the agroholding’s fugitive former co-owner Mykola Huta was extradited to Ukraine. Huta is accused of defrauding Mriya for over $100 million.
Switzerland handed over Huta, who had been on Interpol’s wanted list for large-scale fraud, to Ukrainian law enforcers on Nov. 5, the Deputy Prosecutor General Yevhen Yenin wrote on Facebook. Earlier in September, it was reported that Swiss authorities had denied Huta a political asylum.
Once listed on Frankfurt Stock Exchange, Mriya defaulted in 2014 after it had failed to make its bonds interest payments. The Huta family — founders Ivan and Klavdiya and their sons Mykola, CEO, and Andriy, member of board, — fled Ukraine having stolen over $100 million of investors’ money.
The 2012 audit by the Ukrainian investment house Millennium Capital warned that the company had cooked its books using inflated production volumes, questionable deals on land lease rights at unreasonably high prices, and undisclosed third party transactions.
According to the 2015 massive leak of files from Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca, titled Panama Papers, exposed that the Hutas owned five offshore companies, including HF Assets Management Limited registered in British Virgin Islands, through which they controlled 80 percent of stake in a Cyrpus-registered Mriya Agro Holding Plc.
After the default, foreign creditors, including banks BNP Paribas SA, Credit Agricole SA, and UniCredit SpA, took over the ownership, appointed a new management team, and saved the company from bankruptcy. In August, Mriya finished restructuring its $1.1 billion debt and was eventually sold to the Saudis.
Mriya controls over 150,000 hectares of farmland in central and western Ukraine, as well as four grain elevators, two plants, a potato storage area, and equipment.
