Court turns in Russia's favor shares in Roshen's Lipetsk-based candy factory

LIPETSK. Feb 19 (Interfax) - The Oktyabrsky district court in Lipetsk has granted a request from a deputy prosecutor general to seize shares in JSC Lipetsk Confectionery Factory Roshen in favor of the Russian state, the joint press service of the Lipetsk regional judicial system said.

The court has ordered Russia's confiscation of the company's shares, and 94.9976% owned by the Central-European Confectionery Company (Ukraine) in the authorized capital of the LLC Roshen and 5% owned by the factory's general director Oleg Kazakov in the authorized capital of LLC Roshen.

The shares are being seized in the amount 128,970,771 pieces, the court told Interfax, without specifying the proportion.

In addition, the court banned Kazakov and former Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko along with his son Alexei Poroshenko from any activity in Russia.

"The court's decision in the administrative case has been turned for immediate enforcement. It may be appealed in an appellate procedure to the Lipetsk regional court within a statutory period," the statement said.

In April 2015, Roshen Corporation said its Lipetsk factory's assets worth 2 billion rubles had been seized. Around that time, the Russian Investigative Committee said it launched a criminal inquiry into fraudulent embezzlement of 180 million rubles reclaimed illegally from the Russian budget as the value-added tax of the Lipetsk Confectionery Factory Roshen. Searches were carried out at the factory and in the offices of the NPF Metalimpress construction company in Nizhny Novgorod.

According to the inquiry, in 2012-2013 these organizations sent forged statements to the Federal Tax Service interregional inspectorate for the Lipetsk region, showing more than 1 billion rubles spent on construction of a candy factory in 2012, "including demanding a VAT refund in the amount of over 180 million rubles."

The enterprise was mothballed in 2017. Court proceedings were suspended.