Estonian owners of shopping malls in Crimea financed Russian aggression and were sanctioned

The President signed a decree on sanctions against companies that cooperate with Russia in the occupied territories. The list includes Voyage-Krym LLC, which was re-registered under Russian law after the annexation of Crimea and is associated with the Ukrainian developer Arricano.

This is evidenced by the decree of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, by which he put into effect the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine to impose personal economic sanctions against individuals and legal entities cooperating with Russia in the temporarily occupied territories.

According to the President, this is "only the beginning of a larger-scale work" to bring to justice all those who help Russian aggression.

One of the targets of the sanctions is the South Gallery LLC company, which is officially registered in Russia but actually operates in the temporarily occupied Crimea, in Simferopol.

The owner of this company is Voyage-Krym LLC, which until 2014 was part of the Ukrainian development group Arricano Real Estate Plc, a large developer specializing in retail and entertainment real estate. The company has businesses in Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia and operates in Russia. Its ultimate beneficiaries are Estonian citizens. It was also subject to sanctions.

According to the ruling of the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv, Voyage-Crimea LLC, along with other companies, was accused of collaboration and transfer of material resources to illegal armed or paramilitary groups of the Russian Federation.

After the annexation of Crimea, Voyage-Krym LLC was re-registered under Russian law as Voyage-Krym LLC to continue its activities in Simferopol. Thus, the company was registered with the Russian tax authorities, which allowed it to pay taxes to the budget of the aggressor state. In 2022, the company made payments to the Russian budget in the amount of 196 million rubles.

As stated in the ruling, in 2013, Arricano built the second phase of the South Gallery shopping center in Simferopol with an area of more than 32 thousand square meters. After the occupation, the property was formally retained, but the asset was legally registered in Russian registers. Investigators found that Voyage-Crimea remained controlled by Arricano, and its management evaded sanctions by creating fictitious debts. In particular, in 2017, the company's debt to Stilf was artificially increased from USD 3.6 million to USD 12.2 million by executing documents retroactively.

During the searches in Kyiv, copies of Voyage-Crimea LLC's documentation for 2018-2021 were found, which indicate further cooperation with Arricano and the use of Ukrainian investors as a cover. The journalists also gained access to private correspondence between the Estonian beneficiary and a British lawyer, in which he directly recognizes Voyage-Crimea LLC as a subsidiary and complains about EU sanctions .

The Kyiv Regional Prosecutor's Office launched an investigation in May 2023. The investigation has gathered evidence that the executives of Voyage-Crimea LLC deliberately assisted the Russian occupation administration by transferring assets to it, facilitating the activities of illegal armed groups, paying taxes and cooperating with Russian state authorities. This qualifies as aiding the aggressor state.

On April 1, 2024, the court granted the prosecutors' motion and seized the property of Voyage-Crimea.

The Artek camp in Crimea was also added to the sanctions list. The aggressor uses this children's camp as a place of rehabilitation for its military who participated in the war against Ukraine.

Анна Бальчінос