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L. Kozachenko is charged one more crime
On April 5 Procurator General's Office made a decision about bringing in an additional indictment to the ex-Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Leonid Kozachenko, about reception of a bribe in an especially large size.
In particular, the indictment concerns the receiving by the General Director of UkrAgroBusiness Joint Venture Leonid Kozachenko of 106 registered ordinary shares, for a total worth of 1,497,600 hryvnias, from foreign companies Novartis AG and AstraZeneka Holdings B.V.
The indictment reads that L. Kozachenko, while holding the General Director's position of company UkrAgroBusiness, claimed from representatives of the above mentioned companies - Martin Genrich, Peter Heiz and Piet Smiths - to pay him a bribe, so that UkraAgroBusiness returns in a priority order its debt for supplies of plant protection chemicals, which had arisen during 1997-1999.
The document further reads that in August 2000 Kozachenko received from the Authorised Representative of company Novartis in Ukraine Yu. Zastavnyi a bribe in the form of 53 registered shares of UkrAgroBusiness, with a face value of 14,128 hryvnias each, for a total worth of 748,784 hryvnias.
On October 5, 2000 in Kiev L. Kozachenko received the second bribe - 53 shares of UkrAgroBusiness for the same worth - from the Authorised Representative of AstraZeneka Holdings O. Tyshchenko.
The Procurator's document informs that Kozachenko was notified of the new charges on Saturday.
Commenting on new accusations of his client, the attorney for L. Kozachenko I. Usenko has said that "Procurator's Office has provided neither complaints of the "victim" companies, nor any other proofs on the essence of the new charges".
"The issue of gifting the shares was discussed in a general meeting of UkrAgroBusiness in the presence of the mentioned representatives of the foreign companies, as they were also co-owners of UkrAgroBusiness", Usenko continued.
According to him, the extra charge is illogical and discrepant, as, when put together with the charge of tax evasion, it comes to an absurd accusation of non-payment of tax from the received bribe.
L. Kozachenko was earlier accused of the non-payment of tax from the sum of the above-mentioned shares.
5.33 hryvnias = $1