Problems of relations between business and law enforcement during the war in Ukraine: three well-known cases

For three years now, Ukrainian entrepreneurs have been working in a new reality, and I would like to say according to new rules. However, there have long been no rules as such, especially when it comes to the relationship between law enforcement and business.

The boldness and demonstration of criminal proceedings and detentions have become the main "trick" of law enforcement. And although the accusations themselves may be absurd and unsubstantiated, the main thing is that they are "loud" and immediately hit the reputation of businessmen.Such cases have repeatedly caused waves of outrage in society and the business community, but so far this has only led to regular meetings with the president and temporary moratoriums on searches.

The editorial board of UNN has analyzed several well-known cases when entrepreneurs built their business, and then law enforcement officers remembered that the land or money for this project was somehow incorrectly obtained and now it can be easily "raided." After all, what will bring more money into their pockets - empty land or, for example, a suburban elite cottage community?

Details

Let's start with the most high-profile case that stirred up the information space and united businessmen at the beginning of the year - the case of Ihor Mazepa .

On January 18, SBI detectives detained Ukrainian businessman Igor Mazepa in a criminal proceeding based on the events of a decade ago. According to the investigation, the businessman is the organizer of a scheme to illegally seize land on which hydraulic structures of critical infrastructure, the Kyiv HPP, are located.

The businessman himself stated that he did not understand the essence of the detectives' accusations and attributed his detention to his position on pressure on entrepreneurs. The case also caused a wave of outrage among both the public and the business community.

The Pechersk court arrested Mazepa on bail, and the businessman was released on UAH 21 million bail.

Another equally high-profile case this year was the transfer of the Gulliver shopping and entertainment complex and business center owned by Ukrainian businessman Viktor Polishchuk to the ARMA.

The property of Gulliver was recognized as material evidence in the criminal proceedings regarding alleged tax evasion by the owner of the complex, Tri O LLC. In early June, the Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv granted the motion of the Prosecutor General's Office and allowed the transfer of the Gulliver complex to the ARMA.

Representatives of Gulliver statedthat this decision grossly violates procedural and substantive law and actually means a business takeover with the assistance of law enforcement and security agencies.

However, it seems that the case of tax evasion is only a formality to take away the complex in the center of the capital. After all, shortly before the director of the Three O company was suspected in this criminal proceeding, the media began to promote the topic that the owners of Gulliver allegedly stopped servicing loans from Oschadbank and thus the bank and the state suffered large losses. The law enforcement agencies apparently could not find any grounds to open criminal proceedings under these circumstances, so they updated the old case of alleged tax evasion.

Another illustrative case of law enforcement's "struggle" with business was the land case, in which searches were conducted at the IT company MacPaw and at the home of its founder Oleksandr Kosovan.

As it turned out, the searches were not related to the activities of the IT company itself, but were conducted because of the land plots in Kyiv region that the company acquired in 2016-2021. According to law enforcement, the owner of MacPaw allegedly illegally seized land plots in Dnipro. However, Kosovan himself claimed that the interest in this land was due to the fact that officials and prosecutors wanted to take away the rights to use the developed land.

This case gained a lot of publicity, and well-known Ukrainian businessmen and even the Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov stood up for Kosovan.

At almost every meeting, conference, or forum, the business community calls on law enforcement to "leave them alone" and allow them to work, pay taxes, and support Ukraine's economy in this difficult time of war.

How many more "high-profile" cases need to shake up society and the business community before a new cooperation agreement with new rules is "signed" between entrepreneurs, authorities and law enforcement