The NABU chief has reported about meddling in registers of property in Ukraine / Photo from UNIAN
Director of the National Anti-corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) Artem Sytnyk says Ukraine has seen a new form of hostile takeovers of private property by meddling in property registers and the replacement of owners' names, according to an UNIAN correspondent.
"Now we observe massive hostile takeovers by meddling in registries of ownership: an owner is deleted and replaced with another person's name. I am going to meet with the justice minister to discuss this issue, as this is a new form of corporate takeover," Sytnyk said at a press conference in Kyiv Tuesday, January 31.
Read alsoNABU probing into bankrupt banks' UAH 10 bln siphoned to tax havensAs UNIAN reported earlier, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry's Complaints Commission for state registration of property rights and assets in 2016 addressed over 500, or 50% of all submitted complaints about the seizure of businesses and real estate.
Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada on October 6, 2016, passed an anti-raider bill, developed jointly with the Justice Ministry. The Ukrainian president signed it into law on October 28.
The law introduces measures aimed to prevent hostile takeovers. Namely, it requires that a notary should legalize signatures of a chairperson and a secretary of a general shareholders meeting on the registration of changes in a legal entity. What is more, signatures under bylaws, reorganization balance sheets, statements on withdrawal from a company are also subject to such legalization. The law also introduced criminal liability for registrars' wrongful registration of property.