A court in Ukraine upheld the Justice Ministry claim to confiscate the assets of Greek-Russian businessman Ivan Savvidis and his wife Kiriaki
Ukraine’s High Anti-Corruption Court upheld the claim of the Justice Ministry to confiscate the assets of Russian-Greek businessman Ivan Savvidis and his wife Kiriyaki, the Anti-Corruption Action Center (ANTAC) NGO, which supported the lawsuit, reported on February 8.
The decision was made by a panel of three judges.
In a statement posted on its website, the Ukrainian Justice Ministry said that the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine had accepted its request on Thursday to seize the Savvidis’ assets in the country.
The seizure was made under the Ukrainian law on sanctions.
Savvidis “is a Russian entrepreneur of Greek origin who has close ties to the Russian government and the ruling United Russia party. [He] is the president of the Federation of Greek Communities of Russia, through which he provides ideological support for the actions of the aggressor state by glorifying the president of the aggressor state and military personnel participating in military operations in Ukraine. The specified activity has a permanent and long-term nature and has been carried out since 2014,” the Justice Ministry statement said.
The confiscated assets include all of the shares of PentoPak, a private joint stock company involved in polyamide food packaging, and all of the authorized capital of the Ukrainian subsidiary of food-packaging company Atlantis-Pak.
Savvidis, who was born in Soviet Georgia in 1959 to Pontic Greek immigrant parents, was a Russian MP from 2003 to 2011 with Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party. He is a member of a foreign relations committee that advises the Russian president.
In summer 2023, the Trap Aggressor project of the StateWatch think tank listed Savvidis among 25 oligarchs whose companies serve the Russian military-industrial complex and whose assets had not yet been confiscated by Ukraine, yahoo.com reported.
Savvidi’s confiscated assets include 100% of the corporate shares of PJSC Pentopak, which is one of the leaders in the production of packaging for meat and sausage products, and 100% of the corporate rights of its subsidiary Atlantis-Pak Ukraine.
ANTAC said that Kiriyaki Savvidi’s wife is the nominal owner of a number of companies in Ukraine, although her husband actually owns the business.
Savvidis founded Agrokom Group, which owns meat processing and packing plants, greenhouse facilities, and a sparkling water factory.
The businessman holds both Russian and Greek citizenship.
In Greece, Ivan Savvidis owns a port, the PAOK football club, properties and real estate as well as media companies.
When, in my active banking career, people like Savvidis approached me about a possible banking relationship, I always declined. Internally, my documentation would read as follows: shady character; cannot really be assessed as regards creditworthiness; possible political and/or reputational risk; risk assessment not possible.”
There were some exceptions where people whom I had disqualified turned out to be rather successful. Ok, that hurt. But the upside was that I never had to deal with people like Savvidis in a confrontational way.
Banks have morals?
Plenty of banks were/are involved in money laundering, price and interest fixing, insider trading, bribing decision makers, etc.
Or overlending, knowing all too well they would receive a bailout, as in the case of Greece.
But I guess that was above your pay grade.
So the High Corruption Court and Injustice Ministry of Ukraine are seizing Savvidis’ assets for the crime of having been an MP in the United Party of Russia for 8 years, presently an advisor to the Russian Federation President on the Foreign Relations committee (which is good for Greece and Cyprus), a Russian patriot but also a patriotic investor in Greece, and head of the Federation of Greek Communities of Russia through which – Ukraine assumes – he successfully brainwashes the Greeks of Russia since everyone knows Greeks are notoriously stupid and incapable of forming their own opinions.
Clown World indeed.