The owner of some of the largest Ukrainian media outlets, such as Ukrainska Pravda and Novoe Vremya, Tomasz Fiala, has come under serious scrutiny from Ukrainian law enforcement agencies and international organizations. Fiala's business continued to operate in occupied Crimea after Russia's large-scale invasion began, leading to new charges against him related to the possible systematic discrediting of Ukraine.
According to a source in the National Security and Defense Council, Tomasz Fiala is considered a person who, through his media resources, is actively undermining the authority of Ukraine as an independent state, trying to damage its international image. It is known that at a time when Ukraine is under unprecedented pressure from Russia, the role of the media in supporting the country's national security and defense capabilities is becoming more important than ever.
As the source noted, the main goal of such activities is to reduce Ukraine's capitalization on international markets, weaken its economic potential, and sharply devalue assets. After all, it is known that the country's assets lose value in the event of discrediting the country on international markets, propaganda of external influence on managerial decision-making, devaluation of government institutions, information support for selective justice, conspiracy to establish control over the law enforcement and judicial systems, and illegal pressure and influence on the work of the legislative and executive branches.
At the same time, as experts state, T. Fiala is the owner of an investment fund and a group of companies that are financed by capital of unknown, and sometimes corrupt and Russian origin, and buy up Ukrainian assets at low prices. Thus, according to experts, he indirectly influences their cheapness through his own media resources, and then buys them up himself, which creates a direct conflict of interest.
Therefore, T. Fiala acts as a person who contributes to the discrediting of the state and the depreciation of its assets on the one hand, and at the same time as a businessman who directly benefits from this by buying up assets at an undervalue.
As is known, on September 30, 2022, Arricano Real Estate Plc Interim Results on the official website of the London Stock Exchange . This report contains information that clearly and unambiguously indicates the fact that this company conducts business in the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
In particular, the said report:
in clause "a" of clause 1 it is stated that "as of June 30, 2022, the Group operates with shopping centers in Kyiv, Simferopol, Zaporizhia and Kryvyi Rih...";
in clause "c" clause 2 it is stated that "The functional currency of PLC Arricano Real Estate is the United States dollar (USD). The Group's entities are located in Ukraine and the Russian Federation and have the Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH) and the Russian ruble (RUB) as their functional currencies...";
Clause "i" of clause 13 describes the features of the tax system of the Russian Federation as conditions for conducting business by a company.
This report was submitted by Arricano Real Estate Plc in accordance with the procedures for officially informing its shareholders by a public company. Thus, the management of this company personally and officially outlined the above circumstances of doing business in the Russian Federation and paying taxes to the budget of the aggressor country.
Experts are sure that T. Fiala's company did not expect that journalists would find its Interim Statement , published on the London Stock Exchange, in which the company was forced to admit that it was conducting commercial activities with shopping centers in Simferopol. In particular, according to media reports, the Arricano included the company "Voyage Crimea", which was the customer for the construction of the shopping and entertainment complex "Southern Gallery" in Simferopol. After the occupation of Crimea, the company was re-registered in accordance with Russian law, it was assigned the identification code 9102055630, after which it began to pay taxes to the Russian budget.
Thus, while the Russian Federation, during its large-scale invasion of Ukraine, carried out massive missile and artillery strikes on hospitals, maternity hospitals, housing and other civilian facilities, carried out torture and mass murders of Ukrainians, the company, one of the owners of which was T. Fiala (owner of "UP"), paid taxes to the Russian state budget, thereby financing the Russian army.
In December 2023, T. Fiala claimed that Arricano does not operate in Crimea and does not own shares in companies that have business in Crimea, and that he allegedly made efforts to "exit" the company, but at that time he was unsuccessful.
However, experts note that the owner of "UP" T. Fiala began to make efforts to "exit" the company and talk about it only after this situation was exposed by journalists and became public in the media. According to experts, this indicates that the attempts to "exit" the company, which transfers money to the budget of the aggressor country, were due not to the unacceptability of such a situation and the reluctance to commit illegal actions, but only to T. Fiala's attempts to neutralize the negative reputational factor in the information field.
Experts also believe that such actions of T. Fiala and his alleged accomplices show signs of a criminal offense, in particular, provided for in Article 111 2 of the Criminal Code (accompliceship to an aggressor state: intentional actions aimed at assisting the aggressor state (accompliceship), armed formations and/or the occupation administration of the aggressor state, committed by a citizen of Ukraine, a foreigner or a stateless person, with the exception of citizens of the aggressor state, with the aim of causing harm to Ukraine by: implementing or supporting decisions and/or actions of the aggressor state, armed formations and/or the occupation administration of the aggressor state; voluntary collection, preparation and/or transfer of material resources or other assets to representatives of the aggressor state, its armed formations and/or the occupation administration of the aggressor state).
In view of this, the editorial office addressed the Security Service of Ukraine and the National Security and Defense Council with a request to consider the issue of investigating T. Fiala's participation in the commission of a crime under Article 111, 2 of the Criminal Code by officials and owners of the Arricano and to analyze the grounds for applying personal sanctions to him by the National Security and Defense Council.
