The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is concerned about the fact that former owners of Interleaseinvest that earlier had a fleet of 2,400 freight wagons, which the bank later took away under the collateral agreement in court, are fighting for control over the company and the fleet.

Allies of the ex-owner continue fighting for control over Interleaseinvest and the wagons with the EBRD. Their tactics includes abuse of weak points and imperfectness of the judicial system, physical intimidation of persons acting in the legal interests of the EBRD. Recently they used mass media to spread rumors and untrue information about the ownership structure and the role of CREA company belonged to the EBRD and Ukrainian private wagon operator Spetsvahon Transleasing, the Ukrainian representative office of the EBRD told Interfax-Ukraine.

The bank said that in 2011 the bank provided a $90 million loan to the private wagon operator – Interleaseinvest, the largest owner of which was Honorable President of Inter Car Group and later defense minister (2013-2014) Pavlo Lebedev.

The bank said that Interleaseinvest failed to implement its payment liabilities to the EBRD and sent hundreds of thousands of U.S. dollars to the company affiliated with Lebedev.

Synchronously with the default on the loan in September 2014 Vesta Services Ltd. tried to seize Interleaseinvest, the EBRD said.

The bank decided to protect its investment via filing a claim to collect the collateral, including Interleaseinvest's wagons. Ukrainian courts declared that the EBRD has ownership rights to the wagons.

The decision was confirmed by the courts of appeals and the Supreme Court. In December 2016, Ukraine's State Enforcement Service officially transferred ownership rights to 2,387 wagons to the EBRD, the bank said.

The bank founded special Ukrainian company CREA I UA LLC to observe Ukrainian legislation for ownership rights to the wagons and their use. The company will own and use the wagons on behalf of the EBRD.

The bank said that CREA is a holding company without experience of managing the wagon fleet it used the services of Ukrainian private wagon operator - Spetsvahon Transleasing LLC. The operator was appointed by court to manage the wagons and currently it is registered as the owner and the operator in the database of public joint-stock company Ukrzaliznytsia.

Interleaseinvest, part of Inter Car Group, was registered in 2005. The company started operations in 2009.

In October 2014, the company claimed an illegal seizure of the company and the change of the owner.

The company said that according to extracts from the unified register of companies presented by a group of persons entered the office on October 8, 2014, instead of Interleaseinvest Ukraine B.V. (the Netherlands) as of October 1, 2014 Inter-Blitz (Yuvileine, Dnipropetrovsk region) registered on September 26, 2104 became the owner of the company.

According to the register, as of October 9, 2014, this company held 1% and 99% of shares belonged to offshore company Vesta Services Ltd. (British Virgin Islands).

Spetsvahon Transleasing LLC was registered in 2008. Its core business is operation of freight railway transport. Its founder is Cyrpus-based Javier Investments Limited.

CREA I UA was founded in November 2016. Its core business is car, equipment and goods leasing and operation of freight railway transport.

The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. As of January 1, 2016, the bank had a total cumulative commitment of EUR 12 billion in 355 projects in the country.