Prime Assets Capital with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko being beneficiary of the fund as part of the transfer of his 85% shares in Roshen Confectionary Corporation to the management of a blind trust, Rothschild Trust, used these shares to pay for the acquisition of Cyprus-based CEE Confectionary Investments Limited.

According to the Slidstvo.Info investigation published on May 18 the EUR 3.926 million deal was signed on March 25, 2016.

The authors of the investigation said that Cypriot CEE Confectionary Investments Limited that belongs to Prime Asset Partners Limited (BVI, earlier created by Poroshenko) additionally issued 18,000 shares with a face value of EUR 1 and sold them at the price of EUR 218.12 per share.

Slidstvo.Info alleged that the payment was settled using monetary funds, while Poroshenko's aide and managing partner of ICU Investment Group Makar Paseniuk told them that they incorrectly interpreted the documents by claiming the shares were bought using Prime Assets Capital's 85% of shares in Central-European Confectionary Company (CECC), the holding company of Roshen Corporation.

The lawyer responsible for the transfer of Poroshenko's assets to the management by Rothschild told Interfax-Ukraine that on March 25, 2016 the shares of Prime Assets Capital in Roshen were transferred to the share capital of the Cypriot company and these shares were used as payment for the shares of the Cypriot company.

"No foreign bank accounts were opened, no funds were transferred and the shares were handed as part of the transfer of Poroshenko's assets to the management of Rothschild. The allegation of Slidstvo.Info authors that EUR 3.926 million were withdrawn abroad is untrue," the lawyers said.

They also said that Prime Assets Capital early 2016 asked the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the Economic Development and Trade Ministry to give explanations whether there is a need to obtain a license for investment abroad. The NBU and the ministry confirmed that no license is required.

Poroshenko's advisors said that the value of shares was set at EUR 3.926 million. This is equal to the cost of shares of CECC as of March 25, 2016 – UAH 114.965 million at the NBU exchange rate and journalist were informed about this before they published the materials.

"CECC LLC is Ukrainian holding company of Roshen Group. The transfer of shares in CECC in favor of a foreign company was the obligatory stage in the transfer of Poroshenko's shares to the management of Rothschild. After the transaction all shares in CEE Confectionery Investments Ltd [and Poroshenko's shares] were transferred to the management of Rothschild," the advisors said.

Slidstvo.Info reported that on April 27, 2016, Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) AG as trustee for Prime Asset Capital Trust was placed to the Cypriot register as holder of all 20,000 shares in CEE Confectionary Investments Limited. Authors of the investigation said this happened only days before Deputy Director General of Roshen Serhiy Zaytsev was appointed director of the Cypriot company.

Paseniuk said that Zaytsev heads the foreign economic department of Roshen and he was appointed a director of the board of the foreign company for the transitive period.

"The reshuffling of top managers of the holding company is being discussed by Rothschild as trustee and it would be settled in the near term," he said.