Oschadbank without waiting for the court decisions tries to penetrate Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant and wants to transfer the enterprise to an unknown firm. On April 21, 2016 Lauffer Group held the press conference in the Interfax News Agency dedicated to the illegality of Oschadbank’s actions to wards Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant. At the press conference Stanislav Stepchenko, regional development director of Lauffer Group, spoke about the violations of the bank against the plant owned by Lauffer Group and the attempts to take the enterprise by force. In particular, the company has found out that under the lease contract Oschadbank wants to transfer the property to a non-transparentand unknown firm. Thus, the state Oschadbank without owning Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant designated the asset as the subject of lease in the contract dated March17 with the company "SFS Trade" founded in 2015 by Yurii Davydov, the former chairman of the board of PJSC "Creative Group". The deal is more than non-transparent for a variety of reasons. First, there is the judicial decision prohibiting to alienate the property of the plant. The decision is available in the public register of court decisions at the following link.Second, the case is still being considered by the Ukrainian courts, and the line has not been drawn yet. Third, the unknown newly created company "SFS Trade" tries to intrude into the management of one of the largest enterprises, but will not be able to manage this asset depriving the economy of revenue, depriving the budget of taxes, and the employees – of their jobs. Fourth, the lease contract between Oschadbank and "SFS Trade" dated March 17, 2016 provides for "pennyworth" rent al charges. While the company offers to pay the real amount owed to the bank on the terms of restructuring. The bank categorically refuses the loan restructuring and elects to receive the rental charges of 700 thousand UAH per month. The bank will need more than 70 years in order to compensate for the outstanding amount by the way of leasing under this contract. The company, by contrast, has suggested eight working restructuring scenarios, the duration of which numbers in years, which is traditional for banking practice, but not in decades. The attempts of unjustified appropriation of the plant have already been made. On Monday, April 18, 2016, the representatives of Oschadbank once again tried to enter the territory of Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant. Several cars with armed men drove up to the gate of the plant. Without mentioning their names, without showing identity documents or enforcement service documents, the bank's representatives demanded to open the gate and let them in, improperly laying their claims to the company assets. The security officers of the enterprise are the soldiers, previously taken part in the anti-terrorist operation, the Ukrainian officers - the Ukrainians, for whom the word "Homeland" has real sense, and the protection of the native enterprise is the matter of honor. Regardless of the fact that the company is exposed to the attempts of a forcible takeover, the fact that armed men had tried to enter the factory several times and carry out some acts of intimidation, the plant did not tighten the security of the enterprise. The number of watchmen of the plant remains the same. Moreover, Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant remains an open and transparent company, it is ready to give a tour for anyone who feels like it: to show the territory of the plant, the enterprise work from the inside, to arrange informal meetings with the engineer and the technologist and tell about any aspect of the operation. It is not the first time when the enterprise has to beat off. For some time, the staff has noticed cars with unknown plates, in which there are people in camouflage and civilian clothes. Unknown personsinspect the territory, take pictures, possibly make video recording. There is also financial and legal pressure. The management is exposed to threats. For several months at a time the company management receive disturbing phone calls with the requirement to leave their positions of their own free will and assist to the bank. On April 18,owing to the well-coordinated actions,the management, the security service, and the employees of the plant managed to withstand the attack against the enterprise. LAUFFER GROUP IS THE LEGITIMATE OWNER The juridical decisions confirmed that the ownership of the property of Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant belonged to Lauffer Group. In particular, according to the decision of the Court of Kievskii district of the city of Donetsk as of May 26, 2014, the property of Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant is not the subject of pledge or mortgage, consequently, a recovery cannot be imposed thereon. The same decision requires removing the obstacles in the implementation of the ownership of the property by Lauffer Group. The document also imposes the ban on alienation of the immovable property and collection of funds from the enterprise. This decision was also reviewedby all superior authorities. The courts of appeal and cassation adjudged the decision to belegitimate and fair. By virtue of Article 124 of the Constitution of Ukraine and Article 14 of the Civil Procedural Code of Ukraine this decision shall be executed throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. The decision is available in the register at the following link. ILLEGAL ACTIONS OF OSCHADBANK As previously reported, JSC "Oschadbank" in recent months has made the attempts of illegal change of the owner of the plant, introduction of modifications in the registration documents, as well as manipulation with the judicial decisions. Thus, on December 18, 2014 the Economic Court of Zaporozhye region had made the unlawful judgment in the dispute concerning the security for the loan of TC "Urojay" LLC with JSC "Oschadbank", which later led to the attempts to take over the property of Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant by the bank. TC "Urojay" LLC was not notified of the judicial proceedings at the court of the first instance. In the courts of appeal and cassation TC "Urojay" LLC evidenced the fact that as early as on May 26, 2014 the mortgage agreement, which formed the basis of the proof of the bank's claims, had been invalidated by the court judgment, and the bank got the refusal in the courts of appeal and cassation to reverse the decision. Regardless of the invalidity of the mortgage contract, the concealment from the company of the fact of the court proceedings in the first instance, the Economic Court of Zaporozhye region had taken the decision, which satisfied the claims of JSC "Oschadbank", recognized the ownership of JSC "Oschadbank" of the immovable property in the city Slaviansk under the invalid mortgage contract. TC "Urojay" LLC appealed this decision in the courts of appeal and cassation. However, the courts have ignored the norm of Article 35 of the Economic Procedure Code of Ukraine, which approves the binding effect of the facts determined by civil courts decisions for economic courts. That is, the facts determined in the decision in a civil case are not to be proven and are prejudicial for disputes in economic courts. The invalidity of the mortgage contract affirmed by the decision of the civil court should have prejudged the outcome of the dispute in favor of the company by virtue of law. However, the legal process was not unprejudiced. Using the unlawful decision of the Economic Court of Zaporozhye region as of December 18, 2014, JSC "Oschadbank" registered its ownership of the immovable property on October 09, 2015. However, even during the registration actions the bank made some law violations. The registration of ownership of the property was made with retrospective effect. The state registrar accessed the public register of title to real property on October 09, 2015, but it indicated August 13, 2015 as the date of the property registration. The illegal actions of the public registrar are being appealed in the appropriate authorities, and the law enforcement authorities have been notified of commission of the crimes. Besides, the notary Strazhnik T.A. had illegally removed the attachment from the immovable property, which allowed the bank to re-register the right of ownership in its own name. Lauffer Group’s news can be found at following links: The official websiteof the company: www.lauffer.com Yuliia Geidiunas, Mass media communications specialist of Lauffer Group [email protected] 067 329 44 08 Yevgenii Kudriashov, Lauffer Group regional projects specialist [email protected] 095 290 23 19 Information on the company Slaviansk Oil and Fat Plant "Slavianskoliia" represents the unified complex of workshops and support departments with well-developed infrastructure, which provides the opportunity to process 800-820 tons of sunflower seeds, 500 tons of soya beans, 480 tons of rapeseed per day. Today "Slavianskoliia" is one of the largest oil and fat complexes of "Ukroliiaprom" Association. The enterprise consists of three main production units: oil extraction shop, hydrogenation shop, soap shop. In terms of throughput and product yield "Slavianskoliia" is in the top five of the oil and fat enterprises of Ukraine. High quality of Slavolia TM products is also confirmed by: 1. Gos standard of Ukraine certificate of quality. 2. State standard of the Russian Federation. 3. Permit of O.M. Marzeyev Institute for Hygiene and Medical Ecology, Academy of Medical Sciences of Ukraine, for production of "D" grade sunflower oil "Slavolia "Gold". 4. Combined quality certification and ecological control mark. 5. Permit of the Department of the State Sanitary-Epidemiological Expertise of Donetsk regional Sanitary and Epidemiological Station, the Ministry of Healthcare of Ukraine. The international group of companies LAUFFER GROUP is in the top ten of processing companies of Ukraine and is one of the global leaders in the segment of flour and bakery products manufacture. According to the results of the year 2013 the group’s turnover amounted to $415 million. The group of companies has been operating in Ukraine for 14 years. It includes about 100 enterprises working in various food production segments.