The Assets Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has terminated the competition to find the manager of the arrested Gulliver shopping center in the “Prozorro” system.
This was reported by the ARMA press service.
The shopping center was transferred to the management of ARMA in 2017, as one associated with former President Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage, as part of criminal proceedings on the misappropriation of state-owned bank funds.
The agency notes that their task was to ensure the preservation and proper management of this asset until its legal status was finally determined.
Currently, the courts have ruled that the share in the ownership of “Gulliver” belongs to the state-owned creditor banks, and not to individuals associated with Yanukovych.
ARMA emphasized that the termination of the competition for the management of the “Gulliver” shopping center is an example of how the Agencyʼs reform works in the legal field, "protecting the interests of the state and ensuring the rule of law".
What preceded
According to Forbes, since the start of the full-scale war in 2022, Viktor Polishchukʼs companies, which operate “Gulliver”, the “Eldorado” electronics and household appliances chain, and several large warehouses, have stopped paying interest on loans from state banks. Repayment was supposed to take place in 2025, but after the crisis of 2014–2016, the debt ceased to be serviced.
In May 2023, BES informed “Gulliver” CEO Iryna Kruppa of the suspicion. The investigation stated that during 2019–2021, the SEC management concluded a number of contracts with signs of "fictitiousness" and "transit".
In fact, the primary documents included information about the alleged carrying out of works on the territory of the shopping mall, which in fact were not carried out. According to the investigation, this allowed to unjustifiably overstate the amount of the tax credit from the value added tax.
Thus, the company — the owner of the shopping mall, managed to evade paying taxes in the amount of more than 145.8 million UAH and withdraw them in cash.
On April 9, 2024, the Kyiv Court of Appeal seized the property of “Three O” LLC, in particular “Gulliver”.
In June 2024, the Shevchenkivsky District Court of Kyiv transferred the property of the “Gulliver” shopping center to the management of the National Agency for the Assets Recovery and Management Agemcy (ARMA). “Gulliver” called this a “raider seizure”.
After two years of litigation, the state consortium of “Oschadbank” and “Ukreximbank” received ownership of the Kyiv shopping mall.
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