Some notaries throughout the vertical are fighting on the side of sanctioned persons using legal and not entirely legal methods, ignoring the legal requirements of the Ministry of Justice.
Opposition to the sanctions process is enormous. All possible resources are being devoted to protecting assets and removing them from sanctions. We have already talked about “postal terror” from former owners, and about the substitution of statutory documents, and even about the dubious issue of shares. This time, together with Trap Aggressor, we will show by example how “black” notaries help counteract the sanctions process, and the High Qualification Commission of Notaries covers up colleagues instead of monitoring their integrity.
At one time, dozens of bookmakers operated in Ukraine, including those with parent companies in the Russian Federation. After the outbreak of a full-scale war, some of them ceased functioning on their own. Some received sanctions from the Ukrainian state. But since the industry has long gone online, the functioning of bookmakers requires not only websites where players place bets, but also a certain financial infrastructure that provides tools for the flow of money between the player and the bookmaker.
So, sanctions in Ukraine after February 24, 2022 included both offices (for example, PariMatch) and financial companies related to them (for example, Royal Pay Europe). The latter will be discussed below.
In Ukraine, before the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, a certain Megabank functioned half-heartedly. I think this name means nothing to the vast majority of you, because the bank was more regional than national. At the end of 2021, Megabank was experiencing clearly defined financial difficulties, so at the beginning of February 2022, it transferred real estate in Kharkov as a mortgage to two foreign companies - the Latvian SIA Royal Pay Europe (owner - Russian citizen Sergey Kondratenko) and the Cypriot Startling Limited (owner - Russian citizen Galina Kondratenko). An exchange took place: Kondratenko Bank - loans, Kondratenko Bank - collateral for several buildings.
In July 2022, the NBU, taking into account the deplorable state of liquidity of the financial institution and non-compliance with mandatory criteria, revoked Megabank’s license and launched the procedure for its liquidation. The legal appeal from Megabank with the participation of the Deposit Guarantee Fund against the two above-mentioned companies was not very successful.
We won’t go into detail about Kondratenko’s complex relationship with the bank, but they are clearly not strangers to each other.
In particular, according to the terms of the initial deposit of 1.5 million euros, the property should not have been secured by the bank. In addition, the bank assigned its property rights to a certain Option-Trade LLC, owned by Viktor Subbotin (he was the main shareholder of Megabank) and his wife Elena Subbotina (general director of the 75% state-owned Turboatom). And later, the bank transferred part of the premises to Kondratenko’s mortgage, which helped to “bring it out”.
It was in this way that, in the end, the companies of the Kondratenko spouses were able to resell the real estate that belonged to the bank and which it mortgaged for UAH 361 million. It is clear that the state planned to use this real estate to pay off the debts of Megabank. And the transfer from one legal entity to another, controlled by Kondratenko, was intended to avoid further collection into state revenue, and now I will explain why.
On January 12, 2023, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky imposed economic sanctions and restrictive measures against the Latvian company Royal Pay Europe for five years. In accordance with these measures, the National Security and Defense Council for this company provides for the blocking of assets in Ukraine, the prevention of the withdrawal of capital outside Ukraine, as well as the suspension of the fulfillment of economic and financial obligations.
As a result, the sale of property that was mortgaged to a foreign company is a direct violation of the norms of the current legislation, including its sanctions part. Already on March 10 of the same 2023, similar sanctions were imposed on the Cypriot company Startling Limited for 50 years. And then - personal sanctions for both Kondratenko and the director of one of their companies, citizen of Cyprus Aaron Mkhitaryan.
The reason for such a radical turn of the state machine against the above-mentioned persons is the connection with the Russian bookmaker company 1xVet. There were even rumors in the market that Sergei Kondratenko had or has a stake in the specified bookmaker, but this has not yet been proven.
Now the key thing is that the collateral real estate, which was provided by Megabank, was bought from the Latvian Royal Pay Europe and the Cyprus Startling Limited by a certain Natalya June. However, as of the date of acquisition, namely February 16, 2023, the same Latvian company was already under sanctions. Why didn’t notary Nikolai Zhuravel check the seller’s presence in the register under restrictions, despite the fact that without this he should not have approved this operation? I probably forgot...
Why is Kondratenko doing this? In order to remove these several real estate properties from the sight of the Ministry of Justice and avoid their collection into state revenue. So they are selling various property. Probably by prior agreement with buyers and unscrupulous notaries.
What follows is even more interesting. Megabank appeals to the Anti-Raider Commission of the Ministry of Justice, claiming that such alienation occurred illegally and in order to avoid sanctions. After this, the specified commission makes a decision on sending a request for deprivation of the certificate of this notary. Fair enough, because the notary really should have verified that the parent company is under sanctions and refused to carry out notarial actions.
However, as it turned out, the Ministry of Justice cannot yet deprive this notary of his certificate, because the Higher Qualification Commission of Notaries, which mainly consists of notaries, has delayed the consideration so much that there is no one to decide anything.
While the qualification commission was playing for time, the notary, who carried out the above-mentioned steps for re-registration, went to court and received a decision to secure a claim to prohibit the Ministry of Justice and the commission from considering the proposal for deprivation of the certificate. And the qualification commission took too long until its members’ tenure ended. And in order to assemble a new commission, it is necessary to hold a congress of all notaries of Ukraine. Which is not easy, because the president of the notary chamber (a meeting of all notaries. - A.L.) does not want to hold this congress (because in fact, not a single notary is delighted that the qualification commission exists at all). Consequently, the commission is not yet authorized, so neither our particular notary nor any other can be held accountable.
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Indeed, a not very presentable picture emerges: some of the notaries throughout the vertical are fighting on the side of the sanctioned persons using legal and not entirely legal methods, ignoring the legal requirements of the Ministry of Justice. And the judicial system helps by providing them with rulings prohibiting the deprivation of a notary's license. The widest window of opportunity for anyone who plans to withdraw their assets from state sanctions has been created by individual representatives of the same state.
