A search of the office of investment company Concorde Capital without a warrant from an investigating judge on January 18 resulted in the seizure of employees’ personal phones and computers, as well as about a dozen folders of materials that do not relate to the time and territory of the criminal proceedings, the company’s press service said.
“So, the office itself is now paralyzed, and this entails inevitable losses and loss of clients. In addition, it is impossible to imagine the normal operation of an investment company without a head,” the head of the press service, Anna Dyakonova, told Interfax-Ukraine on Monday.
Earlier in the day, State Bureau of Investigation (SBI) Director Oleksiy Sukhachov said that the procedural actions of law enforcement officers in the case of Concorde Capital CEO and founder Igor Mazepa did not lead to blocking or limiting the business, and the company can fulfill its obligations in full.
“At the moment, there have been no actions that would block the business or limit the activities of the Concorde Capital investment fund, which allows it to continue to operate and fulfill its investment obligations in full,” said the SBI director at a briefing in Kyiv.
For her part, Dyakonova added that one of the clients has suspended a loan agreement for construction in the SHELEST project.
According to her, Mazepa also had a number of meetings scheduled in Davos to attract investment in Kryvyi Rih Cement, but now the implementation of the company’s expansion project is in question.
She also said that Mazepa’s lawyers have already appealed the court’s January 19 ruling to place him under arrest with an alternative bail of UAH 349 million, and confirmed that the head of Concorde Capital’s house in his small homeland in Chernihiv region burned down.
As reported, on January 18, SBI officers together with the National Police detained Mazepa on the Ukrainian-Polish border on charges of organizing a scheme to illegally seize 2.4 hectares, which allegedly contain hydraulic structures of critical infrastructure – Kyiv HPP, and currently house the premium cottage community Goodlife Park. It was noted that three more people, including Mazepa’s brother, were detained in different regions of Ukraine, and searches were conducted at the office of Concorde Capital and the offices of some of its employees.
According to the SBI, at the end of 2023, eight suspects were served with a similar case involving 7 hectares of land in the neighborhood and other people were arrested. According to the database of court decisions, these are land plots involved “in the process of implementing a construction project of elite housing – a premium club cottage town Riviera Village,” which was originally developed by the Dragon Ukrainian Properties and Development (DUPD).
The SBI indicated that the defendants face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.