Kyiv Post reported that Mr Mykhailo Brodsky head of the State Committee of Ukraine for regulatory policy and entrepreneurship said that there is the evidence that Mr Volodymyr Boiko GD of Mariupol based OJSC Ilyich steel mill has sold the enterprise to Russian investors.

Mr Brodsky's statement on Thursday said “We've checked whether all the documents were properly formalized and judging from this, I could say: there is all evidence that a year ago, amid the economic crisis, Mr. Boiko sold a stake in CJSC Ilyich-Stal to Russian investors.”

Mr Brodsky added that “Therefore I would recommend that Mr Boiko not make blanket accusations, but go to court and prove that he does not recognize his signature under the documents related to the sale of Ilyich-Stal.”

Mr Brodsky denied a claim by Mr Boiko that the former is involved in an attempt to change the mill's director, as the procedure is handled by the registrars, who are subject to local authorities, while the entrepreneurship committee only supervises and controls their activity.

Mr Brodsky said that his committee had received an application on the need to ensure control over registration activities, and sent a commission to Mariupol to supervise the process.

He said “If the court proves that the signature belongs to Boiko, then one could say there has been an attempt to carry out a three-stage deception: first, the withdrawal of these production facilities from state control, later the actual deprival of the mill's employees of their right to buy stocks, and then the sale of almost the entire stockholding, but the further refusal to effect it.”

He also said that over the period of Yulia Tymoshenko's premiership, a large share of Ukraine's metallurgical industry came under the control of Russian business.

As was reported, Mariupol-based CJSC Ilyich-Stal owns 90.41% of stocks in OJSC Ilyich steel mill.

(Sourced from kyivpost.com)