"To date, the trust agreement has been signed, the Roshen asset has been transferred, and the process in this part has been completed," said Pasenyuk. He added that the contract on trust was signed in January 2016. "The contract is indefinite, and its action is not time-bound. It is tied to [Poroshenko’s] post of the president," Pasenyuk said.
He drew attention to the fact that the trust was the only possible tool for the head of state to transfer his assets for management or further sale.
Read alsoPoroshenko’s legal advisors: creating offshore companies only way to transfer Roshen into "blind trust""After taking the decision on the sale and transfer [of Roshen] into the trust, the president was not involved in the processes with the asset. The actions have been implemented by a group of lawyers, who were hired, including the ICU group and law firm Avellum,” said Pasenyuk.
However, Pasenyuk noted that that the Ukrainian legislation does not provide for creating a trust structure as a management contract.
"And so it was decided to create a clearer structure. In order to implement the mechanism of transfer [of Roshen] into the trust, several companies have been registered, including the offshore company Prime Assets Partners Ltd in the British Virgin Islands. This is a common scheme, which is used globally," Pasenyuk said.
In turn, a senior lawyer at Avellum Vadym Medvedev, who was also present at the meeting with the journalists, stressed that it was a matter of principle to register the offshore company on the president’s name. "The company was basically organized on Poroshenko's name, so that it did not look like concealment of assets. This company does not facilitate evasion from paying taxes or declaring [assets]. This structure is built on the principle of transparency," said Medvedev.
Read alsoPoroshenko responds to "offshore scandal"However, he said that because the statutory funds of foreign companies were not paid and the shares had no nominal value, they are not subject to declaration in accordance with Ukrainian legislation. "However, as soon as the norm on electronic declaration enters into force, all the officials will have to submit data on their income in 2015 in accordance with the new requirements. And then the information [about the offshore company] will have to be specified in the declaration," said Medvedev.
As reported, according to the investigation of the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)
President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko set up three offshore companies for managing assets, including Roshen confectionery corporation, but failed to specify this information in declaration of property. Thus, according to OCCRP journalists, in August 2014, Poroshenko established an offshore holding company to transfer his business in the jurisdiction of the British Virgin Islands (BVI). This offshore structure became the owner of another two companies – in Cyprus and the Netherlands. Both companies were registered in 2014 – in September and December. According to journalists, this step allowed Poroshenko to evade taxes in Ukraine, as well to make his assets attractive for investment, primarily Roshen Corporation.
