The position of Smart-Holding regarding the illegal blocking of assets

The Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, under pressure from the SBU (Security Service of Ukraine), once again violated international and Ukrainian legislation and forcibly returned Vadym Novynskyi to the ultimate beneficiaries of the companies of the Smart Holding Group, grossly violating the rights of the Cypriot trustees. This made it possible to seize other companies of the Group, in particular, real estate and shipbuilding assets, to suspend the licenses of Enwell Energy, which is listed on the London Stock Exchange. Disdain is shown not only for the devoted Ukrainian investor, but also for international investors. Discussions about an attractive investment climate, presentations of a post-war dream country are a brutal deception of the international community.

We stated that the actions of the SBU and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine are a complete lawlessness, where there are no legal grounds for the accusations, where the norms of national and international legislation are ignored, and property rights are devalued in order to seize assets.

We noted that blocking business operations would result in job losses. We called on the authorities to take legal actions, to have dialogue in order to prevent businesses from halting and people from being fired.

We appealed to the authorities to stop the arbitrary actions of law enforcement officers and unblock business operations so that 3,000 Ukrainians would have jobs and receive salaries, and the state would receive taxes. Since April 10, the state has already lost 125 million hryvnias in taxes, and continues to lose.

We have not been heard. Illegal actions continued. The SBU and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine continue to flout national and international legislation, forcefully remove international trustees from the registers, and continue arrests. At the same time, the Ministry of Justice was in such a hurry to cancel its previous registration actions that in some companies all previous changes were also canceled - such as the address of location and appointment of directors. And the SBU was in such a hurry to quickly report on new arrests that they didn't even wait for the information to be entered in the register.

This next wave of arrests is a continuation of raiding actions and a race for assets in the interests of certain groups in full cooperation with the corrupt state. At the same time, no investigations were carried out by the SBU, there is no evidence and no witnesses in the case in which the business is the object of accusations.

The activities of the Ukrainian socially responsible business, which until now continued to pay salaries and taxes, help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, local self-government bodies, cities, communities, and medical institutions, have been blocked. Unfortunately, the authorities have demonstrated that they are indifferent to the fact that in the war they take away jobs and income of three thousand Ukrainians, flout the right of property, and have no respect for national and international legislation. Only indifference to their own wallets and flourishing corruption is observed. We have seen all this in all 30 years of independence. The war not only failed to stop this filth, but rather intensified the lawlessness against the background of a vertically organized raider state system and the absence of freedom of speech.

We are not the only ones who suffer from raiding actions sold to a desperate public under patriotic slogans. The voice of business is the basis of a strong state, and the number of such voices grows, we will be heard.

Due to the inability to continue operational activities, we are forced to lay off people. We did not do this even in the temporarily occupied territories and continued to pay salaries. Today we were left with no other choice.

We declare that we will defend our rights in courts of various jurisdictions.