President Poroshenko did not provide information to the German transparency register — DW

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and his business partners did not enter their data into the German transparency register of companies as the final beneficiaries of the plant in Germany, writes DW.

In 2017, a register was created in Germany, in which German companies must enter the names of their final beneficiaries. This is primarily about companies whose owners are abroad and intentionally hide their property with the help of offshore firms.

"Since 2011, as part of the agricultural holding UKPROMINVEST-AGRO a plant for the production of starch operates in Elsteraue in the east of Germany. The ultimate owners of the plant are companies from Cyprus and the British Virgin Islands, registered through Interstarch GmbH. The owner of a minority stake in Interstarch GmbH is Interstarch-Ukraine, which is part of UKPROMINVEST-AGRO", the message says.

According to the German anti-money laundering act, which entered into force on 26 June 2017, the company was to enter the names of its beneficiaries in the register before 1 October 2017. But Ukrainian investors did not fill any information in it, breaking the German law on the combat of money laundering.

According to the German law, the beneficiary is a natural person directly or indirectly holding 25% or more of the voting rights and/or shares of capital in the legal entity or partnership or exercising control in a similar manner. The key criterion for determining the final beneficiary in such cases is the influence of a person on the appointment of the governing bodies of the enterprise.

According to the message, there is also no evidence in the Ukrainian electronic declaration of Peter Poroshenko that he is the beneficiary of the German company.

The German law on combating money laundering allows for a fine of up to EUR 100,000 for violation of the requirements for notification of beneficiaries. And in case of a repeated violation, up to EUR 1 million.