The Belotserkovsky Rollton plant, which was closed in 2022 for connections with Russia and financing Donbass terrorists, has changed its owner and resumed operations. So far, the new beneficiary of the plant, the Cypriot Jelmond LTD, claims that all the accusations are erroneous, and the plant never had and does not have any connection with Russia.
Formally, the new owner is not lying - criminal case No. 22022101110000218, initiated on June 29, 2022 by the investigative department of the State Security Service of Ukraine against Mareven Food Europe LLC, which was the owner of the plant in 2022, was closed by a resolution of an unnamed senior investigator of the Department of Internal Affairs of the investigative department of the State Security Service of Ukraine in Kiev and in the Kyiv region on December 29 of the same year. In addition, the owner of the plant (Mareven Food Europe LLC) changed the name of its founder and beneficiary. If before the initiation of a criminal case, the Rollton plant in Bila Tserkva was owned by Mareven Food Europe LLC, the founder of which was the Cypriot Mareven Food Holdings, then after the initiation of criminal proceedings and the seizure of the assets of the plant in Bila Tserkva, the corporate rights were apparently sold, and the owner of the plant became Euro Food Service LLC, which is also owned by the Cypriot Jelmond LTD, the beneficiary of which, in turn, is Vietnamese citizen Tran Tuan Minh.
If we approach the decision of the SBU investigator who closed the criminal proceedings against the Ukrainian manufacturer Rollton from a formal point of view, then everything is correct - indeed, Mareven Food Europe LLC is not involved in the activities of the Russian Rollton plant in Serpukhov, which is owned by LLC Mareven Food Central. True, accusations of financing Donbass terrorists remained unanswered, but let’s assume that they were wrong. However, in all this change of owners and beneficiaries, there are several questions that also remain unanswered. In addition, against this background, a campaign in the media raises suspicions, which actively talk about the “arbitrariness of the SBU”, which closed the plant in 2022, and focus attention precisely on the fact that the Russian “subsidiary” of the international holding Mareven Food Holdings, which produces “Rollton” in Russia, and the Ukrainian “daughter” of the same holding, which produced Rollton in Ukraine, had nothing to do with each other, and now, after a change of ownership, and even more so – these are completely different companies.
Formally, of course, yes. Although even a quick glance at the Ukrainian registers suggests that everything is not as smooth as one would like. Firstly, the plant itself in Bila Tserkva, which caused the scandal, did not change its owner. The owner, Mareven Food Europe LLC, simply changed its name to Euro Food Service LLC. Formally, the owner of the plant has changed. Now it is the Cypriot Jelmond LTD, the beneficiary of which, as already noted, is Vietnamese citizen Tran Tuan Minh.
Actually, Mareven Food Holdings understands that it is stupid to deny the fact that the factories in Ukraine and Russia that produce Rollton are connected - they were united by the parent company, and this is Mareven Food Holdings. Its owners are also hidden behind a Cypriot offshore; we only know that they are citizens of Vietnam and Japan.
Of course, who knew back in 2010, when Yanukovych came to power in Ukraine, that everything would end in war? It was in 2010 that the plant opened in Bila Tserkva. And then, against the backdrop of brotherhood, no one hid the fact that it was the Russians who opened this plant:
But it happened the way it happened. And in 2022, we had to urgently change owners and get rid of ties with Russia. That is why the name, founder, and beneficiary of Mareven Food Europe LLC changed.
Nothing is known about the latter, citizen of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam Tran Tuan Minh. In the registers, he is listed as the beneficiary of only one company - the same Cypriot Jelmond LTD, which is the new owner of the Rollton plant in Bila Tserkva. Therefore, a logical assumption arises that changing the owner of a plant is the same formality as changing the name of the Ukrainian legal entity that owns it.
If we return to the Russian “daughter” of Mareven Food Holdings, Mareven Food Central LLC, which is the owner of the Rollton plant in Serpukhov, then it is still successfully working there, contributing considerable funds to the Russian budget. Over the past year, Mareven Food Central LLC contributed one billion two hundred million rubles to the Russian treasury.
It is interesting that Mareven Food Holdings does not hide its activities in Russia; on the contrary, it is proud that it invests in the Russian economy:
Moreover, judging by the period for which its trademarks are registered, it has no plans to leave Russia at all:
The holding also does not want to lose Ukraine, so after it became clear that the blitzkrieg and “layoffs” had failed, and sanctions began to be applied to companies associated with Russia here, it was necessary to urgently “change the owner” for the Belotserkovsky Rollton plant. That’s why the unknown citizen of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Tran Tuan Minh, and the equally unknown Cypriot Jelmond LTD, registered in Nicosia, appeared at the place of mass registration of the same offshore companies, hiding their true owners from interest of outsiders.
Of course, purely theoretically, it can be assumed that Mareven Food Europe LLC, which is the owner of the plant in Bila Tserkva, changed not only the name, but also the owner. And Jelmond LTD has nothing to do with Mareven Food Holdings registered there in Cyprus.
And the owners of which are also securely hidden under Cypriot law. However, in this whole story there are a lot of coincidences and questions, the answers to which were not given by either the SBU or the Antimonopoly Committee, which promised to “check the legality of the change of owners” in Mareven Food Europe LLC almost two years ago. But we have a quietly closed criminal case and just as quietly resumed proceedings in Bila Tserkva, under a new name and with a beneficiary from Vietnam, whose persona is very reminiscent of the famous Pound from the famous novel.
