Spanish citizen Angel Miguel Cerezo Gallardo estimates losses from the raider takeover by the Ukrainian co-founder of the Selecto Markets company, of which he is a co-founder, at UAH 20 million.

As the Spanish citizen said at a press conference at the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Tuesday, together with Ukrainian partners, he planned to develop a chain of grocery stores in Ukraine with the supply of products from Spain and other European countries, created the Selecto Markets company, invested in first store in Kyiv, delivered equipment and goods.

According to him, one of the co-founders of the company from the Ukrainian side was Maksym Marshchivskyy, who at that time headed the distribution direction in the Furshet retail chain. The co-founders, among other things, planned to supply European products to Ukrainian retail chains, as well as develop their own network of Selecto Markets stores.

However, according to the Spanish investor, Marshchivskyy, without any reason, refused to pay for goods imported from Spain and other European countries by the Spanish businessman’s companies, stopped paying local suppliers, blocked the Spanish partner’s access to the company’s accounts and documents, and also “decided to personally manage the company and re-register for himself."

In turn, Cerezo Gallardo’s lawyer Hennadiy Borysychev noted that law enforcement agencies “are in no hurry to enter information about criminal offenses under Articles 219 and 191 of the Criminal Code into the unified register of pre-trial investigations, as well as to investigate them.”

“We will have to go to court to declare the investigators’ inaction illegal and in court to oblige law enforcement agencies to initiate criminal proceedings,” he said.

Borysychev clarified that the matter concerns the actual raider takeover of the Selecto Markets company by Marshchivskyy.

The lawyer also noted that, according to information available to Cerezo Gallardo, Marshchivskyy is currently abroad, presumably in the United States.

"Any country that is at war, especially with a nuclear state, is not very attractive for investment. But if you add to this the fact that law enforcement and government agencies cannot protect investors, it can lead to bankruptcy of the state," he said.

“We want to use the example of this case to prove that justice and law enforcement agencies really work in the country, that it is really possible to invest in our country,” he said.

According to the lawyer, representing the interests of Cerezo Gallardo, he intends to “take other steps to stimulate the investigative authorities in a legal way so that they actually investigate these cases.”

In turn, another co-founder of Selecto Markets, Eugene Zhevagin, said at the press conference that since the start of the full-scale invasion, Cerezo Gallardo “not only did not leave Ukraine, but is actively helping it, supplying humanitarian aid, ambulances, and medicines.”

“He doesn’t just invest money, he helped and is helping everyone who needs it, he believes in Ukraine. We really hope that by making this case public, we will get a positive result,” Zhevagin said.

The Spanish investor contacted the Embassy of the Kingdom of Spain in Ukraine to assist in a fair resolution of the case.