Suspicion declared by NABU's is politically motivated and jeopardizes the functioning of the Ukrlandfarming agricultural holding, - Bakhmatyuk

According to Bakhmatyuk, the actions of NABU are politically motivated and have huge negative impact attractiveness of Ukraine to foreign investors.

"All our international partners are now, to put it mildly, surprised. Bankruptcy of "Mriya" will seem like a little problem after the fall of Ukrlandfarming," he said.

According to Bakhmatyuk, this situation negatively affects the investment prospects of Ukraine and the status of the state in the international arena.

"I even know that there is a letter from investors with warning that in case their rights will be violated, they will file an international lawsuit against Ukraine. Therefore, people who create such situations do it unconsciously, and I do not understand their purpose" , - said Bakhmatyuk.

According to Oleg Bakhmatyuk, he repeatedly offered to restructure the debts of VAB Bank and to start payments on the negotiated terms of all the parties involved, but did not receive any answers yet: " We offered to bring an international advisors such as, for example, Rothschild, Lazard, the Big Four auditors, bring well-known debt restructuring companies and hire lawyers. Plus, the offer we have already mentioned: we return 8 billion hryvnias, of which we immediately pay 500 million hryvnias of the guarantee fee while the documents are being processed, and we return a billion hryvnias annually. What's wrong with that proposal?".

Moreover, Bakhmatyuk considers the whole process as politically motivated, since public accusations by NABU appeared precisely at the moment of negotiations concerning loans for paying the bank debt: "We came out with a proposal to the Deposit Guarantee Fund, we want to repay 8 billion UAH And I went to negotiate with the buyers of our raw materials - cereals - with the Cargill Company. I was in Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Geneva, where they fully agreed that they could provide funds that will be returned by future contracts. And when we were already at the final stage on Sunday, I was declared as a suspect, and this completely breaks the situation and makes negotiations unprofitable. All lawyers, now considering our case, say that it is purely political, and carry violations both of procedural rules and human rights".

Bakhmatyuk reminded that about 27,000 people are occupied at Ukrlandfarming, the company regularly pays taxes to the state budget and plays an important role in ensuring the food security of the country.

"I hope that a company that gives employment to 27,000 people will be heard, not destroyed with the empty statement "well, it happened". "New Ukrainian authorities behave as the "masters of everything" and repeat the same mistake as its predecessors" Bakhmatyuk said.

As reported by Depo.ua, on November 22, 2019, Ministry of Internal Affairs placed into the wanted list ex-owner of "VAB Bank", the owner of the agricultural holding "Ukrlandforming" Oleg Bakhmatyuk. Earlier, on November 14, NABU detectives reported to Bakhmatyuk about suspicion of seizing a $ 1.2 billion stabilization loan given to VAB Bank by the National Bank of Ukraine.

Reference: Ukrlandfarming is the largest Ukrainian agricultural holding, specialized in crop and seed production, production of eggs and egg products (Avangardco IPL), sugar production, livestock and meat production, as well as distribution of agricultural machinery. The company owns 146 granaries, 19 poultry farms, 19 meat processing plants, six sugar plants, six feed mills, three breeding farms, two leather production plants, errs processing plant and other infrastructure.