Location: Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, Moskovs'ka str., 8 (main entrance)

Date: September 30, 2019 at 14.30

Media representatives and all interested persons are welcome to attend a briefing on the facts of the corporate raid of the Integrated Construction Design Institute LLC at the main entrance of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal on September 30, 2019 at 14.30.

The participants and corporate lawyers will reveal the facts of naked manipulations with property registers as well as pressure from raiders on the administrative officials of the Ministry of Justice, law enforcement agencies and the court.

Conflict Background

The Integrated Construction Design Institute LLC (hereinafter ICDI) was founded in 2015 by four founders. Andriy Kozyuk, Andriy Fal, Ivan Voitovych and Oleksandr Fomenko had equal shares in the authorized capital. The executive positions were taken by Ivan Voitovych (CEO) and Andriy Fal (Tech Director).

In 2017-2018 the company became one of the leaders in design of transport infrastructure of Ukraine, which portfolio contains such strategic locations as Shulyavsky overpass, Podolsk-Voskresensky bridge, Ring road of Lviv etc.

The company development and its focus on complex infrastructure projects became, on the one hand, the steppingstone for creating a successful business model, and on the other, the object of interest of unscrupulous business rivals and raiders.

First, Andriy Kozyuk and Oleksandr Fomenko felt psychological pressure from other members of the Company, who demanded to assign their shares to a third party at a low price.

I personally heard threats to send law enforcement bodies to me in order to solve this property issue with force using all possible administrative resources. Having been faced with such pressure, we unilaterally left the negotiations on the sale of our shares, Andriy Kozyuk said.

Due to unsuccessful negotiations, Voitovych and Fal, who had access to ICDI assets, first began to withdraw current assets of the Company keeping it secret from partners. Then they forcefully transferred personnel, tangible and intangible assets of ICDI to the company of International Design Institute set up by them. The latest is owned by Yevhen Petroshchuk (50% of its shares belongs to him) – the person, close to a famous real estate developer in Kyiv Andriy Vavrysh.

In fact, the flywheel of the creeping seizure of property and company raids was launched. Moreover, the new company was located in the office premises of ICDI, whereas the lease agreement of ICDI by Voitovich was canceled. Thus, the shareholders of Kozyuk and Fomenko were physically blocked from the access to the assets.

In April 2019 ICDI participants Andriy Kozyuk and Oleksandr Fomenko appealed to law enforcement agencies to protect their property interests and intellectual property. The National Police has initiated criminal proceedings No 12019100100003592.

In the end of May 2019 the general meeting of the members of the Company refused to approve the financial results of ICDI, but at the same time appointed Andriy Kozyuk as Director General. In response, the raiders applied pressure on the officials of the Ministry of Justice according to reliable insider information, using the name of Andrei Vavrysh.

As a result, the commission of the Ministry of Justice canceled the registration actions for the change of ICDI management at a closed meeting in the short term. This procedure allowed the raiders to slowly cover up the traces of the illegal withdrawal of the ICDI assets.

Neither Kozyuk nor Fomenko was invited at the closed meeting, and the decision of the commission was based solely on the conflicts of law and generally did not take into account the real state of ICDI as a legal entity.

At the suit of Kozyuk, the Kyiv Regional Administrative Court suspended the order of the Ministry of Justice. However, the Ministry of Justice did not comply with the court decision and did not complete the necessary registration actions.

Eventually, the court decision was executed by the registrar Iryna Grachova, who reinstated Kozyuk as Director General, as follows from the results of the general meeting dated May 29, 2019.

Then the raiders used the services of “black registrars”, in particular the infamous Kateryna Garmash, who was repeatedly mentioned in mass media. Thus, the valid court decision was temporarily removed from the registry without any legal reason.

After that the registrar Iryna Grachova’s legal registration actions, which were based on the ruling of Kyiv District Administrative Court and entered into force, were cancelled.

In their turn, ICDI participants in the person of Andryi Kozyuk turned to the commission of the Ministry of Justice with a demand to investigate the actions of the "black registrar», with the help of whom all raiders’ actions of unscrupulous partners were legitimized. The Ministry of Justice refused to consider this application without formal grounds.

Moreover, in order to conceal the actions of the “black registrar”, the Ministry of Justice filed an appeal to the court with a significant violation of the terms. And despite the expiration of the term, the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal commenced the proceedings in violation of the procedural rules, having appointed a court hearing on October 2, 2019.

Taking into account the unprecedented administrative pressure on the Justice Ministry as well as law enforcement and judicial authorities, the ICDI participants consider it appropriate to draw attention of business media, Ombudsman and the bodies performing control functions in criminal proceedings to this blatant legal Bacchanalia.

Despite declarations at the “End of the Age of Greed”, there is an undisguised violation of the Law and competitive conditions for doing business in Ukraine. The notorious “black registrars” are still in demand, and the Ministry of Justice does not only show inaction but it also tries to hide raiding facts by own illegal actions, Andriy Kozyuk stated.

To recap, briefing of ICDI participants takes place on September 30 at 14-30 (on Monday) at the main entrance of the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal, located at Moskovs'ka str., 8.

No accreditation is required. All requests for commenting from mass media representatives are to be sent to the email of the lawyer Oleksandr Gaidash: [email protected].