The main purpose of the establishment of Prime Asset Partners Limited (BVI) in the British Virgin Islands was the creation of a special purpose vehicle (SPV) for the transfer of the Roshen Group under the management of the Rothschild bank. It was not for minimizing the tax payments like in the cases of other participants of the 'Panama Papers', President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said.

Speaking at a press conference in Tokyo on Wednesday, Poroshenko said that he authorized the creation of the offshore to minimize taxes and that this was done openly. The company has not received a single penny from Ukraine, he said.

"There is a distinction from the cases in Russia, Iceland and the rest of the world: we had an absolutely transparent process and its purpose was to separate business from politics and establish a trust. There is no other way than to set up an independent company and transfer [the business] to a well-known bank," the Ukrainian president said.

Poroshenko stressed that the new company registered in the British Virgin Islands has no authorized capital, no open accounts, as their principled position was not to conduct operations through it and its only purpose was to transfer the president's well-known assets into a 'blind trust' to a reputable bank, which also put forward certain conditions for creating such an SPV.

In his words, the Roshen Corporation is one of the best in Ukraine and it has never included any offshore structure.

Poroshenko recalled that once he became the president, he announced his readiness to sell his business, however buyers were hard to come by due to the war in Ukraine and the arrest of some of these assets in Russia. The head of state added that he was under no legal obligation to sell his assets, but he wanted to be the first politician in the country, who would absolutely transparently separate business from politics through a mechanism which was used by politicians all over the world.

Asked about the investigation which has arisen as the result of the 'Panama Papers', Poroshenko expressed the opinion that there was no need for such inquiry against him, since there were no sales operations and all other operations and objectives were transparent.

"But if you want to investigate, please do," the president said.

According to Poroshenko, the agreement on the transfer of his stake in Roshen into the 'blind trust' of Rothschild has already been signed and cannot be terminated as long as remains Ukraine's president.

As reported, after the inauguration as president of Ukraine, Poroshenko stated his intention to sell all assets and hired for this purpose Rothschild and ICU investment companies. However, due to the lack of potential buyers on January 14, 2016, the president said he signed contract under which he transferred his stake in Roshen Corporation to an independent 'blind trust'.

"What does this trust foresee? First of all, during my tenure as the president, neither I nor someone else can terminate this trust. Secondly, under the contract, neither my signature nor my orders have legal force. A respectable foreign bank of the first category will manage the trust, it will own, control and manage the assets," he told reporters at a press conference in January 2016.

According to an investigation as part of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) based on the data from the so-called 'Panama Papers', which are the documents obtained from a Panama-based offshore services provider, Poroshenko established a company in the British Virgin Islands on August 21, 2014, and then failed to mention it in his income declaration. As of August 21, 2014, Prime Asset Partners Ltd.'s shares had a total value of $1,000 and Poroshenko was listed as the sole shareholder. In the fall of 2014, Prime Asset Partners Limited established CEE Confectionery Investments Limited in Cyprus, which in turn founded the Roshen Europe BV company in the Netherland. The published report says that these companies were set up as the preparation for the sales of the Roshen Group.

Roshen Corporation includes confectionery factories in Kyiv, Kremenchuk and Vinnytsia, and the dairy producer Bershadmoloko. It also runs confectionary facilities in Klaipeda (Lithuania), Lipetsk ( Russia), and Bonbonetti Choco (Hungary).