27 February 2019, 11:20, Ukraine

Nikolai Guta never manipulated Mriya's financial reports — SAPO

The Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) closed the criminal proceedings against the former Chairman of the Mriya Agroholding Nikolai Guta for fraud, as the prosecutors did not find a criminal offence in his actions, EPravda informs.

“In the course of the SAPO the investigation, it was not established that Nikolay Guta had the intent to take possession of the creditors' property, it was also not established that the financial statements were forged. There were no objective data on the discrepancies between the financial statements and the true financial state of the agricultural holding,” the SAPO reported.

The SAPO also noted that Mriya’s audit was duly conducted by the international company Ernst&Young.

“The possibility that the creditors were misled by Nikolay Guta is also proved untrue by the fact that the debt obligations of the holding were rated by the international rating agencies at B and B-,” the report indicates.

Alexander Paraschiy, Head of Research at Concorde Capital, stated that the total loss borne by creditors as a result bankruptcy of the agricultural holding could be estimated at EUR 760 million.

As previously reported, the absence of risks for evading from liability by the former Chairman of Mriya Nikolai Guta led to the selection of a softer preventive measure.