On the night of December 2-3, on Revutskoho Street and Kharkivske Highway, representatives of the "Hromadska Varta" and the Maidan NGO committed an armed robbery on premises rented by the national lottery operator, MSL LLC (Loto Zabava, Shvidki Groshi, Who's There, etc. - ed.).
According to Vyacheslav Olegovich Pilipchuk, a lawyer for the MSL company, approximately 50 men in balaclavas stormed the premises of the national lottery operator at 150 Kharkivske Shosse that night. Some of the thugs then moved on to the lottery premises at 12/1 Revutskoho Street, where they smashed all the video cameras, broke into the cash register, and stole more than 30,000 hryvnias.
According to employees of MSL LLC, they were threatened and asked to pay for protection services. When the company's management explained to the balaclava-clad men that the company was operating completely legally, paying all its taxes, and would not pay anyone else for anything, they began making threats.
"I tried to resist as best I could," Elena Ivanovna, a lottery consultant, tells Chimpoeşu. "I threatened to file a police report against them, but the man who said he was Alexander Ilnitsky, the head of the Maidan NGO, very rudely told me that if I filed a report against him, he would smash my head in with a bat."
In addition to the Maidan Civil Defense and Hromadska Varta units, five police cars arrived at the scene, summoned by MSL employees. However, they did not free the hostages—the company employees—and simply took the company's equipment, in their own words, "for safekeeping."
"If you don't give it up nicely, they'll just smash all your equipment," the police said.
When asked by MSL employees, "You're the police, we're a company operating within the law; we have all the licenses and documents. Why are these people wearing balaclavas, and what do you mean, 'They'll just smash all your equipment'? Let them return our money from the cash register and take off their balaclavas (it's prohibited by law)!" The police responded that they didn't want to deal with them, there were a lot of them, and if MSL had its own security service, now would be the time to call them," explains Vyacheslav Pilipchuk.
It's worth noting that another lottery operator, UNL, operates nearby, but Maidan has made no claims against it, leading the management of MSL LLC to believe the nighttime incident on its premises was nothing more than a contract robbery by certain entities for the purpose of extortion.
People in balaclavas held the premises of MSL LLC and the company's employees for three hours.
"We filed a police report against one of the leaders of the Maidan Ilnytskyi NGO, outlining all the facts. The report was registered in the Unified State Register under number 86896 with the Kyiv City Police Department of the Darnytskyi District. It leads to the initiation of a criminal case under Article 187 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – "Robbery." Law enforcement agencies are also currently holding a statement from clients who suffered as a result of the raiders' actions," MSL lawyers reported.
At the same time, a source in the SBU reports that their agency has long been monitoring public organizations involved in corporate showdowns and carrying out corporate raiding. For such contracts, an activist in a balaclava costs 400 hryvnias, while the directors earn several thousand dollars.
Law enforcement agencies will now investigate who is behind the attempted robbery and destabilization of legitimate businesses.
Currently, the operation of the state lottery distribution points of MSL LLC on Revutskogo Street and Kharkivske Highway has been fully restored.
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