The Bukva bookstore chain has said that the seizure of a large number of books during searches of warehouses in Kyiv is actually theft as the officers of the tax police that carried out the search did not even try to establish the owners of the products and ignored a proposal to do this.

"They [the tax police] had a building in the court ruling to conduct the search, and they acted as a vacuum cleaner in it and took books at random, without paying attention to the owners of the goods [there are several of them], leasers and that the companies are not the target of the investigation. The books were simply removed, but they were actually stolen in the amount of around 576,000 of Ukrainian-made books for which we have copyright or license agreements for each of them," Director of OSMA company (which operates under the umbrella brand Bukva) Dmytro Vysoven told Interfax-Ukraine.

In turn, Deputy Head of the State Fiscal Service Serniy Bilan wrote on his Facebook page on Wednesday that the searches took place as part of a criminal case against a group of persons who organized the sale of counterfeit books without paying taxes.

He said that UAH 457,000 in cash, 410 tonnes of products, 27 stamps of various companies, accounting documents, PCs, electronic carriers and other documents were seized.

Vysoven told Interfax-Ukraine that among books which were seized were books that are not protected by copyright under the Hague Convention, and Bukva had the legal right to print them.

"However, taxmen believe that these are counterfeit products," he said, adding that tax agencies also did not try to establish the owner of the printing equipment.

He also said that the chain does not have any bookstore, warehouse or other facilities in Vorzel which Bilan mentioned.

He again confirmed that Bukva has grounds to believe that the criminal case was ordered falsely.