Market 7 kilometer
At around 11:00 on August 27, armed masked men broke into the 7th Kilometer market.
Market entrepreneurs reported this to TIMER.
According to them, the incident took place in the so-called "soapbox" area. It appears to have been an attempted corporate raid.
UPDATED. According to the market's press service, armed men have seized the administrative building and are currently inside. The building has been cordoned off by police.
UPDATED 12:30 PM. The market's website now states: "A raider takeover of the market is currently underway, with the assistance of the police, without a single document or court order."
Market security near the seized administrative building
According to business owners, special police forces and people in black helmets are inside the building.
As a reminder, rumors of an impending takeover of the enterprise surfaced in the second half of August. More specifically, the rumors concern the repeal and invalidation of decisions to change the market's ownership structure in 2010, when 28% of the industrial market was transferred to Parrox Corporation Ltd., a company associated with MP Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and his partner. Ivan Avramov.
In 2012, Denis Voloshin, who owned 14% of the market until 2010, filed a lawsuit demanding that the decisions to change the market's ownership be declared invalid. The Odesa Commercial Court upheld the claim, the Court of Appeal amended the first-instance court's decision, and in December 2012, the Supreme Commercial Court overturned it entirely. A hearing on this matter is scheduled for September 2nd.
Meanwhile, several media outlets have published reports describing the events unfolding around the market as a corporate raid. The organizers of the raid are said to be Denis Voloshin and Viktor Dobryansky Jr., grandson of the industrial market's founder. They allegedly assembled a squad of 1,000 "hired athletes" who intend to forcibly seize control of the industrial market on September 5.
13:20 PM. As a TIMER correspondent reports, both Voloshin and Dobryansky are inside. They're confiscating the payment documents and the black cash register.
Also present is the owner of 28% of the market (OOO Kapital Finance-M), Boris Melnichuk.
The protest was planned in advance. According to the businessmen, they received a court order to that effect.
It's worth noting that currently (following the death of the market's founder, Viktor Dobryansky Sr.), ownership of the market is distributed as follows. 15% belongs to Viktor Dobryansky Sr.'s daughter, Irina Chernat; 28% to Kapital Finance-M LLC (Boris Melnichuk); 27% to the Cypriot company Kittep Ltd (to which Parrox Corporation Ltd sold its market share in July 2014, following the decision to refer the case to the Supreme Court); and another 28% to Viktor-D LLC. The company's formal owners are listed as Leonid Ipatenko and Roman Maksimenko. However, the media publications mentioned above list Viktor Dobryansky Jr. as the de facto owner. In other words, the share of Parrox Corporation Ltd (or rather, Kittep Ltd) combined with the share of Viktor-D LLC constitutes 56% of the market's authorized capital, allowing for near-complete control over the enterprise.
13:40 PM. Meanwhile, the Odessa Regional Prosecutor's Office reported that during the pre-trial investigation under Part 4 of Article 190 and Part 5 of Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (fraud; appropriation, embezzlement, or taking possession of property through abuse of office), law enforcement officers, in accordance with court orders, are conducting authorized searches of non-residential premises of the enterprise's administrative buildings. The information was entered into the register based on citizen statements alleging that a group of unidentified individuals, using forged constituent documents of Promtovary Rynok LLC, illegally acquired ownership of the enterprise's property.
As of 15:00 PM, the standoff between the administration of the 7th Kilometer market and raiders accompanied by armed men continues.
One of the entrances to the market – near the administration building – is blocked by a truck.
It's worth noting that they still haven't shown the court ruling, which supposedly gives the uninvited guests legal grounds to seize documents and lay claim to the market. Furthermore, the raiders also refuse to name the date of the hearing or the court that made the ruling.
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