“Raid” of security forces on “Novaya Poshta”: a thief takes away stolen goods from a thief
On Saturday, March 17, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine initiated searches in the branches of the large transport and logistics company Novaya Poshta, whose services are used by hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians. It is reported that Ukrainian security forces blocked and searched 15 warehouses and office premises of the company in Kyiv, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava.
According to the GPU, investigative actions were carried out within the framework of criminal proceedings for tax evasion on an especially large scale, as well as the transfer of excise-free alcohol and drugs through a delivery service.
A serious scandal erupted around this event, involving not only the owners of Novaya Poshta LLC and related business structures, but also the GPU and its violent Prosecutor General, Chairman of the Cabinet of Ministers Groysman and ordinary users who specifically came out to make noise with protests on the social network.
On Monday, especially for this occasion, at the Interfax-Ukraine press center, the company’s management held a press conference “Searches at Nova Poshta: business and government - who works for Ukrainians.”
Nothing particularly interesting was said during the hour and a half of talking. The co-founder of the company, Vyacheslav Klimov, told the audience that the searches at the Novaya Poshta sites lasted 8 hours and ended late at night. The company's management does not have any serious complaints against the prosecutors; employees, including the top management, were locked out of their workplaces until the end of the search. Klimov, in particular, noted that this time the security forces came to the event with open faces, and only the absence of a “mask show” distinguished the new procedure of their work from the old methods.
In addition, as Klimov said, the prosecutor’s attack was in no way a misunderstanding. According to him, a search permit was issued
During the closed court hearing, operational work on the ground was carried out by the “Fifth Department” of the GPU, which deals with particularly important cases. And, most importantly, company representatives did not receive a single request regarding criminal proceedings. In short, Repin’s painting “We Didn’t Expect.”
Another co-founder of Novaya Poshta, Vladimir Popereshnyuk, formed a positive image of the company in the press, recalling its significant services to society, the rise of a business from scratch, large financial turnover, regular tax deductions and free services for volunteer programs in the ATO zone.
In addition to interested parties, various experts and analysts were invited to the press conference in order to emphasize the usefulness of Nova Poshta for Ukrainian society. For example, speeches were made “serving hundreds of thousands of orders from the Rozetka online store alone would be enough for them to be rich.”
In general, all the gossip boiled down to the fact that “officials and security forces, using old methods, are taking by the udder and milking innovative companies, the sprouts of Ukraine into a bright future, while “Maidan” stood for something completely different”...
Along the way, there was a lot of pathetic talk about the moral damage to the company, the decrease in the investment attractiveness of Ukraine, which is already unattractive, that there is nowhere else to go.
Simply put, it’s not the lamentations themselves that are interesting: “What are we for?!” cynical businessmen who, until recently, were absolutely satisfied with everything, and the reasons why the GPU, after secret preparation, treacherously attacked a loyal and, as they say, regularly deducting part of the income “where it is needed” office. With determination, as if “New Post” had started a coup d’etat by sending parcels with explosives to people’s deputies and the political elite of Ukraine (including the government), and the couriers had to finish off the survivors with blows of heavy parcels on the head.
Most questions disappear after becoming familiar with the scope of the business of Novaya Poshta LLC. According to official data alone, the company has more than 2300 branches, more than 1400 parcel terminals for issuing and receiving parcels and 40 logistics terminals. The company operates in almost 1000 cities and villages, and targeted delivery is carried out in 28 thousand settlements of Ukraine. The annual income of Nova Poshta is estimated at 2,4 billion hryvnia.
Well, that is, since its founding in 2001, Novaya Poshta has bitten off a decent piece of the pie of the transport and logistics market of Ukraine and is developing this vein quite well.
Ukrainian business unequivocally supported the owners of Nova Poshta and unanimously recognizes the actions of the GPU as a “banal attack.” Alexandra Tomashevskaya, a consultant at the Kyiv Center for Business Support and Development, also believes that Novaya Pochta is being forced to “share” in this way.
“The lawyers who accompanied such processes called the price 50/50 - you give 50% of the share and work on,” the expert explained.
Observers also do not rule out that in this case the actions of the GPU are caused by unfair competition in favor of “Ukrposhta, which is rapidly gaining momentum and starting to work according to European standards.” They say that the security forces have been given the task of identifying activity around an inconvenient competitor and stirring up unhealthy excitement. The scandal surrounding Novaya Poshta, which has taken a big bite of the postal transportation pie, will force the ambitious company to make room and many loyal customers will leave it.
However, many do not believe in the “order” of Ukrposhta and suggest that in this way Poroshenko launched the mechanism of the presidential campaign, giving the go-ahead to the security forces to lighten the cheek pouches of the wealthiest business hamster.
To smooth out the awkwardness of the situation and the indignation of the respectable public, the head of the Cabinet of Ministers, Groysman, intervened in the matter. A recent promise obliges: speaking from the next podium, Vovochka rhythmically tapped his heel on his plump chest and promised to “destroy all regulatory bodies that put pressure on business.”
To suit the current moment, Groysman depicted extreme amazement at what was happening and instructed the Ministry of Justice, the Office of the Business Ombudsman, and the Investment Support Office to analyze cases of searches at enterprises that took place last week, and to prepare a meeting of a special commission formed as part of monitoring the implementation of the law on protection “masks-show-stop” business.
In short, all parties are trying to create the appearance of an “innocent children’s game of rat” and present the case as if some are honest, honest working bees, while others are simply upholding the law because “there are signals.”
Of course, “independent” sewers of all times are capable of driving even God’s lamb to death and prison, and not just a commercial satanic goat. In this case, despite the protests of the respectable public and the Ukrainian business community, we are talking about a bunch that does not deserve even the slightest sympathy. Moreover, the owners and employees of Nova Poshta deserve all kinds of reprisals on their greedy and unclean bodies for complicity in looting and assistance in removing loot by the “defenders of Ukraine from Russian aggression” from the areas of Donbass controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The management and workers of “Novaya Poshta” lack elementary disgust, since under the cover of a “free volunteer program in the ATO zone” they calmly collect, sort and deliver to the cities and towns of Nenka uprooted double-glazed windows, cut-off radiators, torn-out household appliances, steel gates, all kinds of spare parts, garden tools and household utensils. Not a single creature even mentioned this side of their business at the press conference, although a lot was said about the image losses of the company and the whole of Ukraine due to the search of the prosecutor’s office.
Question to answer: why, along with stolen things, is Novaya Poshta not able to transport excise-free alcohol, drugs and all kinds of shooting tchotchkes? Is scrupulosity a hindrance? It is possible to export swag, but Zarathustra does not allow anything else?
Whatever motives the Ukrainian security forces pursue when they stage a “attack” on an “innovative company” – tax extraction, election milking, “we need to share more” – it doesn’t matter. We are talking about a mafia clan clamping down on a large dealer, dragging the thieves' swag in bundles from the crime scene. A thief stole a club from a thief. And that’s all you need to know about business and legal relations in post-Maidan Ukraine.
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