ARMA suspends inspection of a company with a Russian trace that claims to be the manager of the Gulliver shopping center

The Asset Recovery and Management Agency (ARMA) has temporarily suspended the inspection of Alakor City LLC, the only remaining bidder in the tender for the management of the Gulliver shopping center. Responding to a request from UNN journalists about possible ties between this company and Russia, the agency assured that it would make every effort to find an effective manager. 

Details

The agency explained that while the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) is considering complaints about the tender procedure, the inspection of the third participant has been postponed.

ARMA, in implementing the state policy within its competence, acts and will act in the interests of the state on the basis, within the powers and in the manner provided for, in particular, by the above-mentioned legislative acts 

Earlier, a number of media outlets reported about the company’s ties to Russians and the entourage of former President Petro Poroshenko. Journalists of UNN conducted their own investigation that confirmed these facts.

Alacor City is owned by businessman Dmitry Adamovsky, the son of scandalous businessman Andrey Adamovsky. Although Adamovsky Jr. now claims to be an honest Canadian citizen, according to our information, he still holds Russian citizenship. He probably received a passport of the aggressor country back in 2005.

The father of the owner of Alakor City LLC, businessman Andriy Adamovskyi, is known for many high-profile schemes, including corruption fraud in the supply of fuel to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine through the company Trade Commodity. This scheme, which was investigated by the NABU and the SAPO, involved inflated fuel prices for the military and caused the state losses of UAH 149 million. Andriy Adamovskyi is also a longtime business partner of Petro Poroshenko’s associates Oleksandr Hranovskyi and Ihor Kononenko. 

Against the backdrop of Ukraine’s war with Russia, the participation of a company whose owner is a citizen of the aggressor country in a tender for the management of a strategic facility in the center of Kyiv raises serious concerns.

The ARMA suspended the inspection of Alakor City LLC due to complaints to the AMCU, but the process may be resumed after they are considered. If the agency decides in favor of this company, it will mean that the management of the Gulliver shopping center could be transferred to a structure associated with both Poroshenko’s associates and Russian business.

It remains to be seen whether ARMA will keep its promises to thoroughly vet the company and its owners.

Recall

On October 30, ARMA announced a competition to select a manager for the Gulliver shopping center. The head of the agency, Olena Duma, proudly stated that she had taken the strictest possible approach to the selection of a manager for this high-profile asset and even set the maximum possible 4 criteria for candidates.

However, experts criticized the establishment of very “narrow” criteria for potential managers of seized property, as in the situation with the tender for the management of the Gulliver shopping center, as this limits competition and may call into question the transparency of the process.

Only three companies competed in the tender for the management of the Kyiv mall. After an audit, ARMA rejected the first and second bidders.