Oleksiy Fedorychev said that his adversaries are using foreign authorities to get around favorable court decisions for him. The AS Monaco owner claimed there was nothing to worry about despite his assets being seized by Italian law enforcement.
Italian authorities seized millions of dollars worth of properties from AS Monaco's owner, Oleksiy Fedorychev, in July. The businessman has now talked about the case for the first time since the news broke out.
Relate to a case in Ukraine, the authorities seized company shares worth around €3 million and four real estate units worth around €38 million, among which is the historic Castle of Torre del Gallo, Il Corriere della Sera wrote.
Fedorychev was recently interviewed by Nice-Matin, where he detailed his view on the situation.
"I will respond with facts. I must first say that I'm very surprised to be introduced as a Russian oligarch. I'm not an oligarch because I did not get rich through political connections or the privatization of a state-owned company. I built my company not in Russia but in Ukraine, starting from nothing, through hard work and with the help of my partners and a remarkable team," Fedorychev began.
While the businessman is classified as having both Russian and Hungarian citizenship in the Ukrainian registry, he denies having a Russian passport.
"I'm also not Russian but Hungarian. I have an official document issued by the Russian Embassy in Hungary in April this year which confirms this," he said. "Additionally, I've not visited Russia for over 10 years, and before that, I always applied for a visa to enter Russia as a citizen of the European Union."
In December 2022, Ukrainian authorities committed searches in the port of Odesa, Ukraine, ultimately seizing hundreds of thousands of tons of Ukrainian grain from a company called TransInvestService, whose co-owner is Fedorychev.
The local Prosecutor's Office suggests that a Moldovan border crossing of Dyakove-Halmeu was used to illegally export Ukrainian grain through companies registered in Hungary, Czechia, and Romania.
"There is no reason to worry. The procedure initiated in Italy was at the request of the Ukrainian authorities, who have been investigating a dispute of an exclusively commercial nature that occurred in 2014 for several years," Fedorychev explained. "While this procedure began more than 7 years ago, I have no criminal statute. Logically, because I have not committed any offense."
"Since 1996, I have invested more than $1 billion in Ukraine's infrastructure. My partners and I have built one of the best port terminals in Europe. As there are practically no such terminals in Europe, I am faced with forces that want to take over my assets," he said. "This is precisely what the latest news is linked to, and the response it deserves will be given in the near future in the legal field."
68-year-old Fedorychev was sanctioned by the Ukrainian government for a period of 10 years in 2022, which includes trading restrictions, blocking of assets, and various suspensions.
"At this stage, I can only tell you that the Ukrainian justice system has already ruled in my favor more than 50 times by defeating the attempts of these forces to seize the assets that I own in this country. My adversaries are now trying to get around this obstacle by abusing foreign judicial authorities," Fedorychev concluded.
