Criminal risks for business in Ukraine remain quite significant as part of a general set of risks usually considered by foreign investors. International business has brought compliance management systems to their everyday operations and management. As for local business owners, there are permanent cases of misappropriation of funds, corporate raiding, and fictitious bankruptcies. Lawyers confirm that of late there is increasing demand for conducting corporate investigations to discover internal and external fraud, money laundering, abuse of office, negligence. All in all, the practice in Ukraine is booming and keeping criminal attorneys busy.

New Business Crime Trends in Ukraine

by Sergiy Smirnov, Zlata Simonenko

The government has been continuing to implement the earlier-proclaimed policy related to harmonizing Ukrainian legislation with European standards and creating anti-corruption legislation. For the last few years, amendments to the Criminal Code, the Criminal Procedure Code, as well as other laws and regulations have been initiated to reduce pressure on business and improve the investment climate.

Sergiy Smirnov is a partner at Sayenko Kharenko

Zlata Simonenko is a counsel at Sayenko Kharenko

Crypto Fraud: Potential for Recovery

by James Ramsden, Nicholas Connon, Ivan Kovalenko

It has a market value of around USD 2 trillion and it is not gambling or some forbidden business. This article is about the cryptocurrency market, whose value topped USD 2 trillion in April 2021. It is undoubtedly true that this market involves the risk of illegal actions like fraud or theft.

James Ramsden QC is a partner at Astraea Group (London)

Nicholas Connon is CEO at Quintel Intelligence (London)

Ivan Kovalenko is a senior associate at Hillmont Partners (London)

Business Crime & Investigations

by Zoya Burbeza, Julian Hayes

What is business crime? The term business crime, which is also called “white-collar” crime, is generally used to describe offenses committed by businesses and their office holders, often for personal gain or for commercial advantage, but usually within the course of business dealings. It usually involves aspects of financial crime, although the motivation may not always be purely financial. Business crime includes (but is not limited to) fraud, money laundering, tax evasion, bribery and corruption, blackmail, insider trading, cyber security crimes and straightforward theft.

Zoya Burbeza is a consultant solicitor at Gateley, London

Julian Hayes is legal director at Gateley, London

Cashback Ukrainian-Style

by Kostiantyn Kryvenko, Denys Nienov

Like in any other country, fraud in Ukraine may assume a variety of forms. Both businesses and individuals can fall prey to it. What types of fraud impact businesses the most, what promotes it and how can this be avoided? What measures can the injured party take if the fraudsters have already taken possession of its property? Let’s try to provide some insight into the problem.

Kostiantyn Kryvenko is an attorney at law at Ilyashev & Partners

Denys Nienov is an attorney at law at Ilyashev & Partners

Deals

EVERLEGAL acted as legal counsel for UDP Renewables

CMS advised EBRD on financing for Kokhavynska Paper Factory

Horizon Capital and Datagroup acquired Volia group of companies

Asters advised BSTDB

CMS and Kinstellar advised EBRD on funding for leading energy and gas trading company in Ukraine

Cases

Court declared confectioner AVK bankrupt

European Court of Justice issued judgment restricting pumping of gas bypassing Ukraine

Supreme Court failed to allow state to return gas distribution networks assigned to RGC group for operation

Draft

Verkhovna Rada approved draft law on oligarchs in first reading

Law enables taxes for casinos and bookmakers to be cut

MPs supported rise in guaranteed amount for depositors to 600,000 in first reading

Draft law on activities of AMCU passes first reading in Verkhovna Rada

Law digest

Ban on plastic bag use set to come into force in December

Parliament approved banking draft law necessary for cooperation with IMF

Law on Mechanisms for withdrawing banks from market adopted

Launch of special mode for IT industry agreed

Verkhovna Rada passed law on restructuring gas debts in market

Biznews

Banking & Finance

Ukraine to get EUR 340 million loan from EIB to renovate infrastructure in eastern regions

Aviation

New low-cost airline flying to Germany to  enter Ukrainian aviation market

M&A

Hitachi acquired GlobalLogic for USD 10 billion

Amazon buys Hollywood studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for USD 8.45 billion

Zoom buys cloud service provider for nearly USD 15 billion

Competition

Google fined EUR 200 million by French regulator

Facebook’s market value surpassed USD 1 trillion for first time

Capital markets

Localized ISDA documentation is just around the corner

Comfortable Defense

The Western partners of the state of Ukraine consistently pursue ongoing anti-corruption reform with a special focus on developing its institutional capacities. The commitments resulted in the establishment of subsequent authorities, namely the Anti-Corruption Bureau, Anti-Corruption Court and the Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. The new wave of political cases and investigation of business crimes resulted in the initiation of resonant criminal proceedings. The white-collar crime practice continued its upcoming track, keeping criminal defense attorneys busy and ready for high media resonance. We met up with Olga Prosyanyuk and Igor Fedorenko, partners of AVER LEX attorney at law, to discuss the current practice and peculiarities of client representation before the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine.

The Liability Side of Corporate Governance

by Taras Dumych

Corporate governance is commonly associated with decision-making, directing, oversight and the representation of companies in public by company executives and board members. These roles are undoubtedly important elements of corporate governance. However, there is yet another side of corporate governance, which is arguably more robust than the above-referred privileges, but is no less important. This other side relates to liability, which arises from corporate governance.

Taras Dumych is a partner at Wolf Theiss

Legal Digest

Despite the relative calm in law-making activities before the start of the new political season, there are still some attention-worthy highlights from the previous months related to the country’s banking and taxation sectors. These include Draft Law No. 5542-1, which increases the guaranteed sum in the event of a bank’s insolvency; Draft Law No. 4546, which improves mechanisms for the withdrawal of banks from the market; Draft No. 2713-d, which reduces taxes for gambling businesses; Draft No. 5376, which  establishes a special tax regime called Diia.City. The UJBL editorial team asked our experts to provide comments on the issues mentioned.