Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv partially cancelled the arrest of accounts of Poltava Mining and Processing Plant PJSC (PGOK) of the mining company Ferrexpo plc with assets in Ukraine to pay salaries to employees, provide assistance to internally displaced persons and mobilized workers, ensure the production process.
According to the company’s press release, the court made the respective decision on February 16 this year.
At the same time, the court partially satisfied the company’s claims. In particular, PGOK is allowed to pay salaries and related charges (alimony, sick pay, benefits for families of employees killed during the defense of Ukraine, etc.) for full-time employees, payment for rent of municipal and state property, goods and services of state and municipal enterprises, institutions and utilities.
In addition, it is allowed to make payments related to the payment of local taxes and fees, as well as payments for the purchase of food, groceries, rent of premises for accommodation of internally displaced persons.
The company’s press release welcomes the court’s decision, but states that the court rejected the possibility of payments for goods and services received from contractors. PGOK believes that the extension of the ban on making these payments jeopardizes the work of such companies, because for most of them, PGOK is the main customer.
In addition, the services and goods provided by these contractors are critical to ensure stable production activities of the company. And a possible reduction in production volumes or its shutdown would entail non-compliance of the state with taxes and employees with stable salaries.
PGOK also insists on the removal of the seizure of financial operations aimed at social support of Ukraine. According to the company, in 2022 PGOK allocated more than 500 million UAH to help 8 regions that suffered the most from the Russian aggression as part of the program of humanitarian support for Ukraine. The company considers it extremely important today to continue all planned social and humanitarian programs as part of the PGOK Charitable Foundation.
PGOK points to the importance of the full unblocking of accounts to ensure the full operation of the enterprise and is taking all necessary measures to this end.
As reported, by the decision of Shevchenkivskiy district court of Kyiv on February 3, 2023 all accounts of Poltava Mining and Processing Enterprise PJSC and expenditures, except for the payment of taxes to the state budget, were seized. This decision made it impossible to pay salaries and an annual bonus, which the company planned to make on February 7, 2023.
Later, the court adjusted the ruling, allowing the payment of wages, explaining the restrictions on its payment by a clerical error. However, the adjusted determination did not allow payments to accounts at other banks where the wage bill was opened, so it was difficult to comply. Despite this, as of February 16, 2023, salaries for January 2023 and the annual bonus for all full-time employees of PGOK had been paid in full, the company noted.
It was also reported that a court in Ukraine arrested the accounts of PGOK Ferrexpo at the request of the prosecutor’s office in the case of underpayment of rent for iron ore mining in 2018-2021. The company denies the fraud.
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) and the Bureau of economic security (BEB) reported the suspicion of the chief accountant of PGOK Ferrexpo, the majority owner of which is a businessman and former MP Konstantin Zhevago.
“The SBU together with the BEB and the Office of the Prosecutor General reported the suspicion of one of the top managers of PGOK, which is part of the Ferrexpo group of companies and is owned by a Ukrainian fugitive oligarch,” the SBU said in a message on Telegram channel.
“BEB detectives reported the suspicion of the chief accountant of PGOK. The company is part of the Ferrexpo group of companies, which is owned by a billionaire from the Monaco battalion,” in turn stated the BEB.
According to law enforcement officials, due to the actions of the top manager, the company avoided paying to the state budget rent payments for the use of subsoil deposits of iron ores in the amount of about 2 billion UAH.
“The investigation found that the official during 2018-2021 entered false information in the official documents of the enterprise. This and caused significant losses to the state”, – was specified in the message.
Criminal proceedings were opened under part 3 of article 212 (evasion of taxes, fees) and part 1 of article 366 (official forgery) of the Criminal code of Ukraine.
The SSU and the BEB note that the conclusions of the comprehensive expertise conducted during the pre-trial investigation confirmed the amount of the damage to the state budget of 2 billion hryvnias.
Law enforcers continue to identify all the persons who might be involved in the crime.
Ferrexpo is an iron ore company with assets in Ukraine.
Ferrexpo owns 100% of the shares in Yeristovskiy GOK LLC and 99.9% in Belanovskiy GOK LLC. Before the court ruling in September 2022, Ferrexpo also owned 100% of Poltava Mining and Processing Division PJSC.
