The Danish engineering company BIIR’s legal fight for the building it purchased for its Ukrainian office is about to enter its second year.
BIIR’s troubles started when the company bought a building for its new office in Odesa in March 2017.
Almost immediately after the purchase, the previous owner, an influential local businessman with political connections, challenged the building’s sale. A court in Odesa arrested the property.
Now BIIR says it has filed complaints to the Supreme Council of Justice of Ukraine against two judges who allegedly unlawfully ordered the arrest of the building.
BIIR’s case made it to the Kyiv Post’s list of the five most famous cases of pressure on business in 2017.
What happened
BIIR had been operating in Ukraine since 2013. It was first based in the eastern city of Luhansk, but due to Russia’s war against Ukraine it relocated its entire operation and staff to Odesa, where in 2017 the company bought an office building, paying at least $400,000 for it.
However, several days after the deal two judges at Prymorskyi District Court ruled to arrest the newly-bought building based on the complaint of the former owner, Mega-Stroy construction company. Mega-Story’s ultimate beneficiary was Valentyn Skoblenko, a political ally of the former Central Election Commission Head Sergiy Kivalov, who is highly influential in the Odesa courts.
Mega-Stroy filed a suit saying they had been fraudulently dispossessed of the building. According to a court case from 2013, Mega-Stroy failed to make mortgage payments for more than six years and received foreclosure notice. Then, a bank took over ownership of the building, which then passed to BIIR via another company.
The Odesa Oblast Appeal Court ordered to cancel the arrest of the building in October. But the legal fight for the ownership goes on.
Legal fight
Apart from the arrest of the building, Odesa Economic Court ruled in August 2017 to seize the property from BIIR without compensation.
The company says that the judge also canceled the former owners’ mortgage debts, which had amounted to nearly $400,000, plus fines and penalties.
BIIR filed an appeal, and the hearings started in October. The next hearing is scheduled for Feb. 27.
The company took it as a good sign that the presiding judge recused himself from the case citing the conflict of interest.
“When judges can arbitrarily impose unwarranted freeze on legally owned property purchased by a legitimate former investor, it destroys public confidence in the legal system and society overall,” Sillesen said.
Complaint against judges
BIIR complained about the two judges who ordered the arrest of the building, Anatoliy Derus and Dmytro Osiik, to Supreme Council of Justice. The company argues that the judges had no legal grounds to order the arrest.
BIIR expects the decision from the Supreme Council to arrive in spring. If found guilty of wrongdoing, the judges can face dismissal.
The Kyiv Post couldn’t reach Derus and Osiik for comment before the time of publication.
“Ukrainians have very little confidence in their legal system and it is because of judges that arbitrarily impose freezes without just cause or evidence,” Thomas Sillesen, a company’s chairman of the board, was quoted in the company’s statement.
“Until judges are held accountable to Ukrainian law and not allowed to be above the law, the public will continue to have zero confidence in the impartiality of the courts,” he said.
