The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has recently been in the spotlight for the loss of the Royal Romance yacht, which belonged to former MP Viktor Medvedchuk, a suspect in high treason. Despite the yacht's arrest by a Croatian court and its transfer to Ukraine for sale, ARMA has not been able to sell the asset in two years. What happened and what are the scenarios for further development of events - in the material of UNN.
How it all began
In March 2022, a court in Lviv seized Medvedchuk's property, including a yacht.
The problem was that the yacht of the traitorous ex-MP was physically located in a port in Croatia. However, thanks to the assistance of international partners, on May 23, 2022, the Croatian court arrested this vessel for the maximum possible period provided for by local law - 2 years. This is, without exaggeration, a unique decision, as the Croatian court ruling ordered the yacht to be transferred to the Ukrainian Agency for its sale.
However, after receiving a foreign court decision, ARMA was faced with the fact that it had no legal ability to manage and sell assets located abroad.
In order to start the procedure for selling Medvedchuk's yacht as soon as possible, in May 2023, the Prosecutor General's Office, together with the Cabinet of Ministers, drafted amendments to the relevant legal documents.
However, in late June, Olena Duma became the new head of ARMA. Probably in order to gain political points and demonstrate her "professionalism," she rejected the proposals prepared by the Prosecutor General's Office and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, saying that she would develop her own plan.
This process lasted until November 2023. In fact, instead of starting the procedure for selling the yacht, Olena Duma decided to prove herself as a specialist in preparing legislative changes for the sale of foreign assets and spent five months doing "titanic work.
In mid-February 2024, Olena Duma solemnly announcedthat the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine had authorized the sale of the yacht and immediately emphasized that the proceeds from the sale of this asset would "significantly strengthen the state budget and defense capabilities" of Ukraine.Here, the question immediately arises whether a professional leader would make such "loud statements", realizing that there are only about three months left for the procedure of selling the property seized abroad?
Selling or not selling - that's the question
On March 20, 2024, the ARMA finally launched a tender to select a seller to sell Medvedchuk's yacht, and a month later chose the winner. There were three bidders for the yacht, but one was disqualified. Probably, such a "rush" was caused by the fact that Croatia has about a month left before the maximum period of arrest of this asset expires. Obviously, not every firm will undertake the sale of such an expensive asset, realizing that there is almost no time.
Probably seeing that ARMA was not able to sell the yacht in time, the Prosecutor General's Office and the Foreign Ministry began to look for alternative ways to ensure that Ukraine did not lose Medvedchuk's yacht. On May 27, 2024, the EU decided to impose personal sanctions on Viktor Medvedchuk and his wife. As a result, the yacht is under indefinite arrest in Croatia. However, in order to sell it, a new mechanism needs to be found.
Consequences of the "titanic PR"
On June 25, 2024, the maximum possible period for the seizure of property by a Croatian court decision expired, and the head of ARMA, Olena Duma, finally said goodbye to the possibility of selling this asset.
At the same time, throughout her tenure, in almost every public speech, Olena Duma talked about the "titanic work" that the agency's employees were doing to sell Medvedchuk's yacht.
However, it seems that Elena Duma was actually making titanic efforts to get Viktor Medvedchuk's yacht back. Whether these actions were intentional or not can only be determined by law enforcement agencies. But in any case, the result is obvious, and whether it was official negligence or deliberate actions committed in favor of pro-Russian forces, the investigation must determine, and the perpetrators must be punished.
But as experts emphasize in their comments, Olena Duma should bear at least political responsibility for delaying the sale of such an important asset for Ukraine. Even if such actions were unintentional, it calls into question the ability of Duma and her team to fulfill their duties.
The loss of Medvedchuk's yacht is a serious blow to the reputation of the ARMA and Ukraine's anti-corruption system. Therefore, it is worth considering reforming the Agency, including changing the leadership and introducing new mechanisms to control the agency's activities, as well as introducing stricter sanctions for officials who do not perform their duties properly.
Add
Last week it became known that the ARMA will not be able to sell one of Viktor Medvedchuk's most expensive seized assets.
The Office of the Prosecutor General notedthat throughout the seizure, efforts were made to develop mechanisms that would allow ARMA to sell the property located abroad. However, the new ARMA leadership allowed delays in this process and started the procedure for the sale of the yacht only on March 20, 2024, almost 2 years after the arrest.
The ARMA even tried to hide its fiasco with the yacht by publishing news of the successful sale of one buggy and one ATVbelonging to Medvedchuk. However, ARMA sold the buggy and ATV for 920 thousand hryvnias, while the yacht is estimated to be worth almost 8.5 billion hryvnias.
However, having realized that the sale of Medvedchuk's much cheaper asset did not work, ARMA head Olena Duma is trying to shift public attention to another asset that is being attempted to transfer to her management - the Gulliver business center in Kyiv. The head of the agency even published a video to demonstrate how "thoroughly and efficiently" her subordinates inspect the premises of the complex - it shows a group of men walking from one office to another and admiring the view from the window of the capital's complex.