VB PARTNERS have succeeded to lift Ukraine’s sanctions against the EU company

Special economic restrictive measures (sanctions) were imposed on the European Union resident company (metallurgy sector), by the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, in particular, its assets freezing and financial transactions suspending.

This decision of the National Security and Defense Council was put into effect by a relevant decree of the President.

The only asset of the company in Ukraine was a stake in the Ukrainian company. However, without the stake of another majority shareholder, the resident company would not have been able to hold a general meeting of shareholders and exercise the relevant corporate rights. Besides this stake, the company didn`t own any assets, didn`t carry out any commercial activities in Ukraine, didn`t have business relations with banking institutions and residents of Ukraine.

The majority shareholder openly tried to use the imperfections of the sanction legislation and procedures to remove the company from management. For a long time, the Ukrainian authorities saw no reason to impose sanctions on him. However, sanctions were imposed later for unknown reasons.

For several years, the foreign company was unable to attend the general meeting of shareholders, and its representatives on the supervisory board and audit committee were replaced by representatives of the majority shareholder.

During this time, the assets of the Ukrainian company were dismantled, and losses amounted to hundreds of millions of hryvnias. These facts led the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to launch a criminal investigation.

Having addressed the authorities of Ukraine, the company has not been able to find out the initiator, the reasons and grounds for imposing sanctions. Subsequently, representing the interests of the company, the lawyers of VB PARTNERS filed an administrative lawsuit to the Supreme Court.

The defendant, represented by several bodies at the same time, did not provide the Court with a justification of the reasons and evidence of the need for state interference in the rights of the company. The need to restrict the company`s corporate rights, the presence of a legitimate aim, and the principle of proportionality of interference following the established case-law of the European Court of Human Rights were not substantiated.

Under the guidance of a partner Vladimir Vashchenko, VB PARTNERS team managed to get the Supreme Court to declare the decree of the President of Ukraine on the application of sanctions against the Client illegal and invalid.

 

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