The struggle for the restoration of the legal rights of Econia continued for almost a month. And, finally, on August 14, the company received an Order that cancels the unlawful actions of state registrars and returns Econia its legal rights to own immovable property of the enterprise.
The order issued by the Ministry of Justice put an end to the attempt of illegal takeover of the property complex of Econia, which started on July 19 this year. The difficult situation, which the company faced, pulled together and united the leading business communities. The local authorities and the public rallied to the manufacturer’s defense. No one remained indifferent to the injustice. Clear, coordinated, and professional actions left raiders no chance.
Perhaps, this story will be useful to the companies that may face a similar situation. Of course, we are confident that your proposals will help the Union to provide even better assistance and support to our members. Of course, during the entire course of events, the Union has been constantly providing information support to Econia.
Let us recall the course of events.
In the morning of July 19, a group of unknown persons broke into the passage of the factory of LLC Foreign Invested Enterprise “Econia” and claimed its rights to the immovable property. With the help of illegal actions of the state registrars, they registered the immovable property owned by the baby food factory FIE Econia LLC in their name, and, having fake documents in possession, claimed their rights to the facility.
Econia lawyers, representatives of Arzinger law firm, went to the factory to provide legal support. By the way, both Econia and Arzinger are the members of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs (SUP), which greatly facilitated and accelerated internal communications.
Almost immediately, posts started to appear in the social network Facebook in support of Econia from business unions and associations. On the same day, on the website and Facebook page of Econia a message appeared about an attempt of illegal takeover of the enterprise.
SUP actions:
July 19 – public statement of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs in support of Econia.
July 20 – complaint submitted to the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine against the actions of the state registrars.
July 23 – demand to accelerate the consideration of a complaint against the actions of the state registrars.
July 24 – letters to the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko and Deputy Minister of Justice for State Registration Olena Sukmanova.
July 25 – participation in the press conference on the topic “Attempted illegal takeover of LLC FIE Econia”. Among the speakers were the President of the company Iryna Varagash, Executive Director of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs Kateryna Glazkova, Head of Criminal Defense and Business Protection Practice at Arzinger law firm Kateryna Gupalo (Chairman of the Committee for the Protection of Business at the SUP), representatives of other business associations: Anti-Raiding Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, CEO Club Ukraine, and Ukrainian Business Association.
July 31 – the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs filed a letter addressed to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, the Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman, the Minister of Justice of Ukraine Pavlo Petrenko, the Head of the Office of the National Investment Council of Ukraine Yulia Kovaliv “On the Vulnerability of Business to Hostile Takeover Attempts”.
August 9 – presence of the representative of the Business Development Committee of the SUP at the Commission of the Ministry of Justice for Reviewing Complaints in the Sphere of State Registration, which considered the complaint of LLC FIE Econia against the actions of the state registrars, who re-registered the company’s immovable property in the name of Capital Invest Development LLC.
August 10 – the Commission of the Ministry of Justice for Reviewing Complaints in the Sphere of State Registration satisfied the complaint filed by LLC FIE Econia, abolished the illegal actions of the state registrars, and returned the company’s legal rights to own immovable property.
We believe that it is necessary to eliminate as much as possible the schemes of illegal takeovers and to increase responsibility for actions that lead to the illegal seizure of someone else’s property. We are constantly working on the initiatives to ensure the security of business from hostile takeovers.
Summarizing, we would like to emphasize and appeal to the entrepreneurs who are suffering from hostile takeovers. Do not be afraid to be public, do not be left alone with your problem, you need to maximize the publicity and attract the attention of the public and state authorities to the problem.
