PRAGNUM helped the client avoid additional tax charges and, as a result, protected the owners and top management from criminal prosecution.

Everyone remembers the days of the “bank falls” when, due to certain financial difficulties, the NBU introduced temporary administration into banks, which sold loan portfolios to restore the bank's solvency. The sale process consisted of selling the most attractive lots first, then combining the “uninteresting” portfolios into one lot and selling them at a huge discount. Financial companies bought such lots and then started working with specific debtors or reselling individual small parts of the lots to third parties.

It would seem to be a normal business activity that allows the state to recover at least some of the funds of the bankrupt bank, and the financial market to operate and make a profit. However, the tax authorities had a slightly different opinion and noted that the sale of such assets to individuals was illegal and charged additional taxes and penalties in the amount of more than UAH 50 million. It is clear that such an amount could not be ignored by the pre-trial investigation authorities, which immediately began to take investigative and search actions, including sending requests, conducting interrogations and searches with the seizure of everything relevant and irrelevant to the case.

In order to protect the client's interests, PRAGNUM's attorneys appealed the tax assessment notice and, within the framework of the court case, obtained a number of opinions (from an expert and a legal specialist) and submitted the relevant case law, which allowed to win the case in court and prove the legality of the client's actions. The peculiarity of this dispute was that the tax authority directly referred to the position of the Supreme Court in similar cases, where the Court sided with the controlling authority, not the taxpayer. Nevertheless, PRAGNUM's attorneys managed to prove the tax authority wrong.

At the same time, expert opinions and court decisions were submitted within the framework of criminal proceedings with the relevant motions, which completely relieved the tension of the client's owners and top managers.