Does Ocean Plaza still belong to Rotenberg?
The fate of the shopping and entertainment center has not been decided. The Russian oligarch remains the owner of the asset, writes EP
Ocean Plaza opened more than ten years ago. 135 thousand square meters in the central part of Kyiv instantly became the property of Putin’s associate, the Russian oligarch Arkady Rotenberg.
Until the start of the big war, funds from Ocean Plaza were sent to Russian accounts through a chain of different companies.
Loud statements about the arrest of this shopping center were heard in the summer of 2022, and almost until the end of November it was frozen. Now everything works.
Since the beginning of the great war, all the assets of the Russians in Ukraine, including Ocean Plaza, were to be confiscated, and the profits to be used for the needs of Ukraine.
However, the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies again did not go according to plan, and the shadow owner of the object, it seems, is still the Russian oligarch Rotenberg.
Arkady Rotenberg – Russian oligarch, billionaire, is in the inner circle of Vladimir Putin, his friend since childhood.
The Rotenberg family built Nord Stream 2 and the Crimean bridge across the Kerch Strait. Rotenberg is recorded as the owner of the so-called Putin’s palace.
In 2020, the Russian Forbes named the Rotenbergs the richest family in Russia with a fortune of $5.45 billion.
Since 2014, Rotenberg has been under US and EU sanctions. In October 2022, Vladimir Zelensky imposed personal sanctions on Rotenberg for ten years.
Does Ocean Plaza still belong to Rotenberg?
How the owners of Ocean Plaza changed
The Ocean Plaza shopping center on Lybidska in Kyiv had been operating since 2012 and was generating income for Russian beneficiaries until the war.
True, metamorphoses began to occur with the register of owners after 2014.
The entire property complex of the shopping center with a land plot belongs to the IS Lybid company. This company, through Avangard-villart LLC, is 99.999% owned by the Cypriot offshore Ocean Plaza Project LTD and 0.001% by the Cypriot offshore Ethodor Investments LTD.
In 2012, the Russian Arkady Rotenberg became the beneficiary of these two firms. In 2016, the oligarch transferred this business to his son Igor, and two years later to his daughter Lilia.
In 2020, a third of the business was bought by Ukrainian businessman Vasily Khmelnitsky (the corresponding part was owned by UDP Holdings Limited), and the other part was taken over by Swiss citizens Suzanne and Andrea Richaal Wallabh. The name of Rotenberg disappeared from the register altogether.
At the end of 2021, it became known that Andrey Ivanov, a long-term partner of Khmelnytsky, was buying out 55% of the shares of the holding group UDP (Ukrainian Property Development) Holdings Limited belonging to Khmelnytsky. Final settlements between the parties were to be made by mid-2026.
Does Ocean Plaza still belong to Rotenberg?
In April 2022, the National Police against the Lybid and Avangard-vilarti companies, as well as their shadow owners Arkady and Igor Rotenberg opened criminal proceedings under the article “Laundering of proceeds from crime”.
In criminal proceedings, Ukrainian law enforcement officers substantiated in detail that all changes in ownership took place only to maintain control over Ukrainian business.
Does Ocean Plaza still belong to Rotenberg?
The mall worked for the war
Ocean Plaza’s success wasn’t about renting retail space. According to investigators, millions of dollars have been withdrawn through the companies that own the mall for years.
The participants entered false data into the financial statements, the money was sent to the Cypriot offshores, and from there to the accounts of the Russian Rotenbergs.
From October 2020 to February 2022 alone, more than UAH 1 billion was transferred to Cypriot accounts from Lybid. During this period, Khmelnitsky was a co-owner of a third of the business.
The investigation also established that it was with this Ukrainian money that the son of Arkady Rotenberg Igry acquired 48% of the shares of the Tula Cartridge Plant in 2017, and 50% of the shares of the Ulyanovsk Cartridge Plant in 2019.
Further, Rotenberg Jr. received attractive government contracts for the production of weapons.
In August 2022, Prosecutor General of Ukraine Andriy Kostin voiced proven crimes.
The pre-trial investigation established that the funds received from the activities of the shopping and entertainment center were transferred through the chain of financial transactions to the citizens of the Russian Federation.
“The latter subsequently used them, among other things, to finance the production and supply of ammunition for the armed forces of the aggressor country,” — declared Kostin.
What happened to Ocean Plaza?
In August 2022, corporate rights worth UAH 350 million were arrested by a court decision and transferred to the National Agency for Tracing and Management of Assets.
However, according to ARMA officials, the Ocean Plaza shopping center did not hit them.
Although the investigation described in detail how and for what purpose Rotenberg transferred the Lybid company to the Cyprus offshore, how the profit was made and how it went to Russian accounts, the judge of the Pechersk District Court Irina Litvinova did not see the Russian trace in Ukrainian business.
On September 13, 2022, the judge canceled the arrest. First – a third of the corporate rights of Vasily Khmelnitsky, and then – the entire property of the shopping and entertainment complex. This allowed the mall to reopen.
Vasily Khmelnitsky // photo by Dmitry Larin, UP
In September, the head of the Servant of the People faction David Arakhamia declaredthat two-thirds of the income from the activities of the mall will be directed to the state treasury. However, the deputy did not explain what document this is fixed in and how it should happen.
Khmelnytsky did not explain how the shopping and entertainment center is managed and whether the Ukrainian owners are aware of the money laundering scheme described in the criminal proceedings.
The businessman’s assistant referred the author to the management company UDP, which, according to the assistant, manages the asset.
By the time the publication was published, there was no response from Khmelnitsky. Whether he is a participant in criminal proceedings is unknown.
Currently, the pre-trial investigation is ongoing, the term of which has been extended once again. Ahead of the trial, which should confirm that the funds from Ocean Plaza until February 24 along the chain “LLC” and “offshore” strengthened the Russian army.
However, the investigation can last for years, and what is happening with the asset now raises many questions. First of all, why did the court remove the arrest from the entire Ocean Plaza business, and not just from Khmelnitsky’s share.
The pre-trial investigation authorities found out that before the war part of the proceeds from the mall went to the accounts of the Rotenberg family and that this money was invested in the Russian military-industrial complex.
It is not clear how two-thirds of the income from the activities of the mall, formally owned by Swiss citizens, will go to the state treasury, as Arakhamia said.
By what mechanism should these funds be transferred to the budget if the asset is not transferred to ARMA and a manager is not selected for it, as required by the official procedure?
After all, did Khmelnitsky know about such deals at Ocean Plaza?
This story, which should show an example of the effective use of Russian assets in Ukraine to fight the aggressor and restore, resembles a farce and gives rise to suspicions that they want to use the asset for private interests.
It is important that the authorized bodies answer the questions raised and report on the status and fate of Russian assets in Ukraine.
Inna Popovich, Trap Aggressor, translation Skeleton.info
