Odessa businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, in an attempt to maintain control over the "Dry Port" of the Olympex grain terminal, mortgaged it three times, the last time it was a loan for 20 years, writes UNN.
In 2019, the GNT Group agroholding of Groza and Naumenko received a $75 million loan from the American investment fund for the development of the Olympex terminal. As collateral, Odessa businessmen transferred corporate rights and half of the grain terminal. Among the collateral there was also a "Dry Port" - a grain cargo preparation site at the Olympex grain terminal.
As it turned out later, GNT was most likely not going to return the money to the Americans, but they clearly did not want to lose control of the terminal either. Groza and Naumenko found a way out, they somehow managed to convince the head of the board of the Vostok Bank and concurrently the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Odessa local council, Vadim Morokhovsky.
Groza and Naumenko, with the help of Ferko and Inzernoexport Grain Transshipment Complex, which are part of the GNT Group, took out a loan from Vostok Bank. They didn't need money so much as to re-mortgage the Dry Port. Despite the fact that this property was already burdened with a loan from the Americans, Vostok accepted it.
The full repayment period of the loan under the loan agreement with the Ukrainian bank was due to expire on May 25, 2023. But without waiting for the expiration of the loan agreement, Vostok began the debt collection procedure.
At the same time, according to media reports, the bank handed over the official request on December 2, 2022 on purpose instead of an official notification by mail. Thus, the bank violated Article 35 of the law "On Mortgage", which implies sending official notifications to the debtor.
In fact, according to media reports, the recovery procedure began two months after the notification – on February 13, 2023, by making changes to the State Register of Encumbrances of Movable Property, which may indicate that the first notification was a fake.
At the same time, even before making changes to the state register, on February 10, 2023, Bank Vostok assigned the right of claim under its loan agreement to FC Solutions Factor LLC.
This company assigned it to Affordable Finance LLC on the same day. On the same day, Affordable Finance sold the Dry Port to Sunolta OU, which is part of the Sunalta Group of companies.
It is worth noting that the market value of the Dry Port in 2020 was at least $ 18 million. And the Sunolta group got it for only 4.7 million dollars. Moreover, as in the previous scheme with the bank "Pivdenniy", Sunolta bought the "Dry Port" despite the fact that he had been under arrest in one of the criminal proceedings since March 2023.
This also did not prevent Sunolta OU from transferring the Dry Port on April 10, 2023 to its own Grain Port LLC. This company was registered just a few weeks before receiving the "Dry Port" and had no other property on the balance sheet, and its only participant was Sunolta OU.
On April 19, 2023, Grain Port LLC transferred the Dry Port of the Olympex terminal for 20 years as collateral for a loan of 78.5 thousand dollars to Mind Set LLC, which, according to melon media, is controlled by Groza and Naumenko.
Journalists admit that this could be a criminal conspiracy aimed at forming grounds (including by entering false data into official documents) for the transfer of ownership under the re-pledge mechanism.
Recall
Earlier UNN already told how Morokhovsky helped Groza and Naumenko to gain control over half of the grain terminal, which was secured by an American investment fund on a loan of $ 75 million. To do this, businessmen, with the help of the bank "Pivdenniy", worked out a scheme for transferring property under a double, and eventually a triple pledge.