Only 11 of the 103 criminal cases involving corporate raiding registered in Ukraine between January and July 2026 were referred to court, according to data from the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine published by Opendatabot and analyzed by the Experts Club think tank.
Thus, approximately 10.7% of the cases reached the court stage—roughly one in nine cases.
In another 21 cases, law enforcement agencies issued notices of suspicion. This corresponds to roughly one in five cases registered since the beginning of the year.
All 11 cases that reached court relate to Article 205-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine—the forgery of documents submitted for state registration of legal entities and individual entrepreneurs.
In total, 74 cases were opened under this article between January and July, accounting for nearly 72% of all proceedings related to corporate raiding.
The prospects for court proceedings regarding categories that are more serious from a business perspective look significantly worse.
Over the course of seven months, law enforcement agencies registered 17 proceedings concerning the unlawful seizure of property belonging to an enterprise, institution, or organization under Article 206-2 of the Criminal Code and 12 proceedings concerning obstruction of lawful economic activity under Article 206.
None of these 29 proceedings had been referred to court as of the publication of this study.
At the same time, the number of cases involving the unlawful seizure of corporate property in just the first seven months of 2026 already exceeded the total for the entire previous year, and their share in the overall structure of raider-related cases rose from 7% in 2025 to approximately 17% this year.
Overall, the number of registered raider attacks continues to decline. From January through July, there were 103 such cases—36% fewer than during the same period in 2025, and approximately five times fewer than before the start of the full-scale war.
BUSINESS, COURT, PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE, raider attacks, UKRAINE
The sale of the seized yacht “Royal Romance,” which is linked to Viktor Medvedchuk, has effectively been blocked due to a change in the procedure for the sale of Ukrainian assets located abroad, stated Pavlo Velykorechanin, an expert with the Verkhovna Rada’s Anti-Corruption Committee and former deputy head of ARMA, in an exclusive interview with the “Interfax-Ukraine” news agency.
According to him, the mechanism developed in 2023 allowed for the sale of seized assets through the “Prozorro.Sales” system, including assets physically located outside Ukraine.
However, the new government regulation stipulates that the sale of seized property abroad must take place on the basis of an asset-sharing agreement between states.
According to international practice, such a division typically becomes possible only after a final conviction by a court.
As a result, Velikorecchanin estimates that the Royal Romance may remain frozen abroad for several years while the trials in the main criminal cases are ongoing.
“The sale of Medvedchuk’s yacht has reached a dead end—these assets will simply remain frozen abroad for many years,” he stated.
The Royal Romance was previously seized in Croatia. Ukraine had attempted to arrange its sale, with the proceeds to be transferred to the state.
An investigating judge of the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) partially granted the motion filed by the defense team of Andriy Yermak, former head of the Office of the President, and eased his pretrial restrictions, allowing him to travel from Kyiv and the Kyiv region to a number of other regions, according to a press release from the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO).
“On August 10, 2026, the investigating judge partially granted the motion filed by the defense attorneys of the former head of the Office of the President of Ukraine—who is suspected of laundering assets obtained through criminal means during the construction of a private cottage community near Kyiv—and modified the procedural obligations previously imposed on him,” the SAP stated in a Telegram post on Monday.
Yermak was permitted to travel outside Kyiv and the Kyiv region to the Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions, with the option of transit. “Thus, the obligation not to leave Kyiv and the Kyiv region without the permission of a detective, prosecutor, or court has been replaced with the obligation not to leave the boundaries of Kyiv, the Kyiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Sumy, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions without such permission, with the possibility of transiting through other regions,” the SAPO stated in its announcement.
The defense explained that the trips to these regions were related to the suspect’s participation in a project providing legal assistance to military personnel. The defense’s decision to file this motion with the court was prompted by the simultaneous receipt by the SAPO and NABU of a series of letters with similar content from military unit commanders on behalf of the suspect.
The court denied the defense’s motion to remove Andriy Yermak’s electronic ankle monitor (a monitoring device).
As previously reported, on May 11, NABU and the SAP announced the exposure of an organized group suspected of laundering 460 million hryvnias through an elite construction project near Kyiv—one of the participants in the scheme was former Presidential Office head Yermak, who was formally charged. On May 12, anti-corruption authorities announced that six more members of the organized group had been charged in this case, including a former deputy prime minister and a businessman (one of the leaders of the criminal organization exposed in November 2025 as part of the “Midas” special operation). These are likely businessman Timur Mindich and former Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Oleksiy Chernyshov.
According to the investigation, between 2021 and 2025, the suspects “laundered” over 460 million hryvnias through the construction of a cottage community in Kozin, Kyiv Oblast. The project involved the construction of four private residences with auxiliary buildings and structures, as well as a spa area (the so-called “Dynasty Cooperative”), on land plots with a total area of approximately 8 hectares.
On May 14, the High Anti-Corruption Court imposed a pretrial detention order on Yermak, with the right to post bail in the amount of 140 million hryvnias. On May 18, the full bail amount was posted for Yermak, and he was released from pretrial detention.
COURT, High Anti-Corruption Court, pretrial detention, Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, ЄРМАК
On July 7, the Paris Court of Appeals reduced the sentence of Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s National Rally, in a case involving the misuse of European Parliament funds, effectively paving the way for her to run in the 2027 French presidential election.
The court upheld the guilty verdict in the case involving the misuse of EU funds but reduced the ban on holding elected office from five years to 45 months, 30 of which are suspended. The remaining 15 months are considered to have already been served, so Le Pen regains the right to run for office.
The court also sentenced her to three years in prison, two of which are suspended, and one year to be served under house arrest with an electronic ankle monitor. Additionally, according to Le Monde, she was fined 100,000 euros.
Following the court’s decision, Le Pen stated that she would run in the 2027 presidential election and appeal the verdict to the French Court of Cassation. According to Reuters and AP, the appeal could suspend the portion of the sentence involving electronic monitoring, allowing her to campaign without immediate restrictions of this kind.
The case concerns the use of European Parliament funds between 2004 and 2016. Investigators alleged that money intended to pay for the work of European Parliament members’ assistants was used to fund party staff in France. Le Pen denies any wrongdoing and calls the case politically motivated.
The initial verdict, handed down in March 2025, threatened her participation in the presidential campaign, as the five-year ban on holding elected office effectively excluded her from the race. The National Rally had considered nominating Jordan Bardella as a contingency plan, but following the appeals court’s decision, Le Pen remains the party’s lead candidate.
The French presidential election is scheduled for 2027. Incumbent President Emmanuel Macron will not be able to run for another term, so the campaign is already being viewed as one of the most wide-open in recent years. Le Pen’s participation ensures that the National Rally retains its status as one of the key players in the upcoming race.
PJSC “Electrometallurgical Plant ‘Dniprospetsstal’” (Zaporizhzhia) and Zaporizhzhia Electric Power Supply LLC have reached a settlement agreement to repay the consumer’s electricity debt in the amount of 89,986,568 thousand UAH for the period from January 1 to February 5, 2026.
According to court documents in Case No. 908/1091/26, copies of which are available to the “Interfax-Ukraine” agency, on May 4, 2026, the Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhia Oblast received a statement of claim from ‘Zaporizhzhiaelektropostachannya’ LLC against “Dniprospetsstal” with the participation of JSC “Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo,” seeking recovery of debt for consumed electricity in the amount of 89,986,568 thousand UAH, of which 85.398 million UAH is principal debt plus 3% per annum and the inflation index.
Following a series of hearings, at the court session on June 3, representatives of the parties to the case supported a joint statement by the parties approving the settlement agreement dated May 26, concluded between Zaporizhzhia Electric Power Supply LLC and Dniprospetsstal PJSC. The court granted the motion to approve the settlement agreement, under which the defendant acknowledges that its debt for electricity consumed during the period from January 1 to February 5, 2026, amounts to 87,986,568 thousand UAH and undertakes to repay it in several installments.
Within three calendar days of the lifting of the provisional measures ordered by the Commercial Court’s ruling of May 19, 2026, in Case No. 908/1091/26, the defendant shall pay the plaintiff 50 million UAH.
Payment of the remaining principal debt in the amount of 37,986,568 thousand UAH will be made according to the following schedule: 18,993,284 thousand UAH by June 30, 2026; a similar installment by July 30, 2026.
On this basis, the court, by a ruling dated June 3 and published on June 8 of this year, closed the case.
In another case, No. 908/1844/25, the Zaporizhzhia Regional Commercial Court, by a ruling dated June 11 of this year and published on June 12, partially granted the motion “Dniprospetsstal” to defer enforcement of the decision regarding the recovery, in favor of the Zaporizhzhia City Council, of lost revenue from the use of a land plot without title documents for the period from July 14, 2020, to February 28, 2025, in the amount of 3,661,675 thousand UAH, taking into account the outstanding balance as of June 11, 2026, in the amount of 3,138,578 thousand UAH.
The company must repay the debt within five months, making equal monthly payments of 627,715 thousand UAH.
As previously reported, in the first quarter of 2026, “Dniprospeztal” saw its losses increase 3.9-fold compared to the same period in 2025—to 510.751 million UAH. Uncovered losses as of the end of March 2026 amounted to 6 billion 775.516 million UAH.
The company’s net loss in 2025 increased by 22.1% compared to 2024—to 711.015 million UAH from 582.427 million UAH. As of December 31, 2025, the company’s workforce numbered 2,814 thousand people (in 2024—3,147 thousand people).
“Dniprospetsstal” is Ukraine’s sole manufacturer of long products and forgings made from special steel grades: stainless steel, tool steel, high-speed steel, bearing steel, structural steel, as well as heat-resistant nickel-based alloys.
According to the National Securities Commission’s data for the first quarter of 2026, its shares are held by Wenox Holdings Ltd. (47.1128%), Boundryco Ltd. (11.0131%), Gazaro Ltd. – 16.5197%, Crascoda Holdings – 6.6826%, and Middleprime Limited – 9.7901% (all based in Cyprus).
It was previously reported that in May 2008, the international investment and consulting group EastOne sold its approximately 30% stake in Dniprospetsstal, which had previously been held under the group’s mandate. The plant’s new shareholders are linked to VS Energy International, whose beneficiaries include several Russian entrepreneurs.
According to the report, in May 2023, pursuant to a decision by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine (NSDC) dated May 12, 2023, personal economic sanctions were imposed on the ultimate beneficial owner of PJSC “Dniprospetsstal.”
The authorized capital of the PJSC amounts to 49.720 million UAH.
COURT, DEBT, DNIPROSPETSSTAL, ELECTRICITY, electricity supply, Zaporizhzhia
The Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast granted the claim of PJSC “Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant” (NZF, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast) to recover UAH 17,271,408 in debt from LLC “Kvartsit DM” (Vasylkivka, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast).
According to court documents in case No. 904/7423/25 in the Commercial Court of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, copies of which are available to the agency “Interfax-Ukraine,” NZF filed a lawsuit seeking to recover from “Kvartsit DM” a debt of 17.271 million UAH under general contract No. 1905621 dated September 27, 2019, as well as court fees.
By a ruling dated March 19 of this year, the court ordered “Kvartsit DM” LLC to pay NZF 17,271,408 UAH. The ruling became final on April 9. On the same day, the Commercial Court issued an order for the enforcement of the ruling (the order was published on April 10).
As reported, NZF’s claims are based on the defendant’s improper performance of the terms of General Contract No. 1905621 dated September 27, 2019, regarding full and timely payment for the work performed.
According to YouControl data, Quartzite DM LLC was founded in February 1999. Its primary activity is the extraction of other minerals and quarrying.
Vespanto Limited owns a 24% stake in the LLC, Dione Trading Ltd. – 23%, Relish Holdings Ltd. – 22%, “Hyperion Holdings Ltd.” (all based in the Marshall Islands) holds 22%, and “Lascrenso Management Ltd.” (St. Kitts and Nevis) holds 9%.
The company’s ultimate beneficiaries (50% each) are Gennadiy Bogolyubov (Austria) and Timur Mindich (Ukraine).
The authorized capital is 14,314,564 thousand UAH.
NZF is Ukraine’s largest producer of silicomanganese and ferromanganese. The average monthly output of ferroalloys under stable operating conditions is approximately 55–60 thousand tons.
According to the State Registration Service data for the fourth quarter of 2025, Sofalon Investments Limited owns 15.503% of the shares of the private joint-stock company, Rougella Properties Ltd. – 9.6904%, Dolemia Consulting Ltd. – 15.7056%, Sonerio Holdings Ltd. – 9.2158%, Manjalom Limited – 5.8824%, Treelon Investments Limited (all – Cyprus) – 15.1013%.
NZF is controlled by the EastOne Group, established in the fall of 2007 as a result of the restructuring of the Interpipe Group, as well as the Privat Group (both based in Dnipro).
