Zbigniew Wróblewski
Polish businessman Zbigniew Wróblewski is demanding 200 million hryvnias from the Ukrainian authorities. This is his estimated cost for lost investments in the construction of an ice cream factory near Brovary.
The businessman's lawsuit against the Brovary District State Administration, the district's technical inventory bureau, and the Krasilovsky village council was filed in the Kyiv District Administrative Court.
The businessman is demanding that the unfinished construction complex in the village of Krasilovka be returned to him, depriving the Inkon company of its ownership rights to the property.
Vrublevsky also asked local authorities to pay him 200 million hryvnias in damages.
Vrublevsky's story made headlines in the media in the 2000s. In an interview with journalists, the Polish businessman explained that the construction of an ice cream factory in Krasilovka had been planned 20 years earlier: retail outlets and branches had been opened, and equipment and machinery had been purchased. The financial crisis hit in 1998, preventing completion—they were several million dollars short.
Initially, Vrublevsky served as a trustee of Fermoy-KI LLC. The company's shareholders included two foreign firms, Clanvest Limited and Magnet. In 2000, the Pole purchased their shares, becoming the sole shareholder.
In court, the businessman explained that in 2001, due to a lack of funds to complete the plant (it was 77% complete), he invited an investor, Avagno Enterprises Limited. Vrublevsky had previously told the media that he found partners in Kharkiv. "I approached people from a Ukrainian bank in Kharkiv and proposed a partnership, on the condition that they receive 30% of the business for a $4 million investment," the Pole said. Along with the new partner, Fermoy-KI LLC also brought in new management.
True, the promises regarding construction financing were not fulfilled. However, through the Brovary District Administration, the company's new management re-registered its charter documents. Avagno Enterprises Limited became the owner of a 99% stake in the company's authorized capital. Vrublevsky was subsequently excluded from the company's founders altogether.
The assets were transferred to the authorized capital of other companies. Fermoy-KI changed its physical location, moving to Kharkiv.
All of these changes were registered in the early 2000s. Vrublevsky challenged them in court. The Kyiv Regional Court of Appeals in 2004 and then the Supreme Court in 2006 upheld his claim. The judges ruled that the changes to the company's incorporation documents approved by the chairman of the Brovary District State Administration were illegal. Vrublevsky petitioned local authorities to restore his rights to the company and re-register it in his name. However, he was told that the case was pending in Kharkiv, so the registration process should be carried out there.
The legal proceedings have been ongoing for over 10 years. The transfer of the case to another city resulted in the Pole completely losing control of the company, which was subsequently liquidated.
Vrublevsky calculated that the actions of the Ukrainian authorities, in particular the former head of the Brovary district, Leonid Vaysfeld, caused him material damages amounting to 200 million hryvnias. This amount includes investments in the plant and associated losses.
On September 23, the Kyiv District Administrative Court denied the businessman's claim.
Information:
The complex in the village of Krasilovka on Kyiv Street, 2 was registered to the company "Inkon" in August 2006.
In 2008, Vrublevsky published an open letter addressed to businessman Igor Kolomoisky, whom he suspected of corporate raiding. In his letter, the Polish investor stated that the firm Inkon, together with the Dnipropetrovsk-based Erlan (part of the Biola concern, controlled by Kolomoisky's Privat Group), "seized an ice cream factory in the Brovary district of the Kyiv region through corporate raiding." "The Krasilovsky factory means 14 years of life and seven years of endless legal proceedings against corporate raiders who buy court decisions," the businessman wrote at the time. The Polish investor asked Kolomoisky to cease "the criminal activities of the Biola company," which "defame the reputation of a businessman, banker, politician, and sports patron."
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