KYIV. Oct 8 (Interfax-Ukraine) – The State Bureau of Investigations (SBI) with the help of Kyiv's Pechersky Court has created a scheme for seizing accounts of hundreds of legal entities within a single criminal case, while the involvement of these companies in it is doubtful or completely absent, Liubomyr Drozdovsky, the lawyer of Nika agricultural firm LLC, which suffered from such actions, has stated.

"Such decisions on seizure are a bright example of arbitrariness and unlawful interference in the legitimate business of the firms with the only, in my opinion, goal: creating prerequisites for undue profit," he said at a press conference at Interfax-Ukraine.

Drozdovsky stressed that the company managed to prove its case in the court of appeals and achieve the cancellation of the seizure of accounts.

The lawyer said that in June 2019 the investigating judge of Kyiv's Pechersky District Court granted the request of the SBI prosecutor to seize funds on the current accounts and funds in the electronic VAT administration system owned by Nika, KZK Trading House, Torend, XX-Century, Liderresurs, APK-My Family and Kirovohrad Grain Trading Company.

According to Nika's representative, the investigator failed to explain the reason for the seizure, while the company managed to get the arrest removed by the same court on August 6. On August 9 the SBI prosecutor filed another request, and on August 18 the court again seized the company's funds. After that, the company appealed to the court of appeals, which on September 30 and October 1 reversed these orders for the second time.

According to information in the court rulings database, earlier Fish Retail and Yedyna Systema (Unified System) also managed to cancel the seizure of accounts through the court of appeals.

According to Drozdovsky, as of the evening of October 7, in the framework of this criminal case 701 orders were issued to seize the funds or property of various business entities.