In addition to Kyivstar, another mobile operator – lifecell – was among the assets seized by the court that belonged to sanctioned Russian oligarchs Mikhail Fridman, Pyotr Aven and Andrey Kosogov.
As a reminder, the court decision concerned 20 companies and financial institutions owned by Kremlin oligarchs as ultimate beneficiaries or through controlled offshore companies. The total value of the seized assets amounted to over UAH 17 billion.
According to the court ruling, in fact, the largest seized asset was 100% of the authorized capital of Lifecell LLC worth almost UAH 13 billion, owned by a foreign legal entity Lifecell Ventures Cooperatief. At the same time, the authorized capital of Kyivstar PrJSC is “only” UAH 654 million.
The case file, which was considered at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office (the Security Service of Ukraine suspects Friedman of committing a crime under Part 3 of Article 110-2 of the Criminal Code), states that Fridman, Aven, and Kosogov, through LetterOne, own shares in the Turkish company Turkcell Iletisim Hizmetleri A.S., which owns the Ukrainian operator Lifecell.
The lifecell has not yet commented on the situation. We are waiting for comments.
In addition, the court seized 100% of Paycell LLC, which is owned by the mobile operator and is used to top up lifecell subscriber accounts. The corporate rights of Ukrtower LLC (an operator of towers, indoor coverage systems in business centers, shopping malls and hotels), a subsidiary of the Turkish holding Turkcell, were also arrested.
