Do you do business, interact with a large number of contractors or participate in public procurement? Then with a high probability it can happen so that one day law enforcement officers will block the company's accounts through the court. This usually happens when an enterprise receives funds from local governments, utilities or state-owned enterprises, while law enforcement is investigating the misappropriation or misappropriation of funds by their officials.
What are the features of canceling the seizure of bank accounts in 2023? You can find out in the article: How to cancel the seizure of bank accounts in criminal proceedings?
Law enforcement monitors the movement of funds to the accounts of the company, and from the company to other contractors. And then go to court with long lists of different legal entities and their accounts for arrest, attributing to each enterprise involvement in the theft of funds or their subsequent legalization for cash.
Therefore, if your company appears somewhere in this chain, even as a result of the normal execution of contracts, the court may take the side of the investigator and seize the accounts without checking the real grounds for this. When the court decision reaches the bank, the accounts will be blocked immediately and the company's activities will actually be stopped. Next we will analyze how to act in such a situation.
How to lift the seizure from the company's accounts?
Neither the investigator nor the prosecutor has the right to seize the accounts on their own. To do this, they go to court. Accordingly, the arrest can be lifted only in court.
✅ Get acquainted with the court decision and case materials. To begin with, you need to get a court decision. Sometimes a representative of the company is summoned to a court hearing, where the investigator's request to seize the accounts is resolved. After the hearing, you will receive a court decision, as well as be able to review the case file.
But in practice this happens rarely and you will have to find out the details of the court decision from the bank that serves the company. Then it is necessary to get acquainted with the decision and materials of the case in court.
✅ Apply to the court to lift the arrest. From the court decision and materials you can find out what the court was guided by during the arrest. These are usually general phrases that the company may be involved in a crime, as well as reprints of articles of the Criminal Procedure Code on the seizure of property.
The preparation of the petition must be approached thoroughly and provide the maximum number of arguments to refute the assumptions of the investigator.
What arguments should be used in court?
- ✅ Absence of suspicion. The investigator did not raise any suspicions against the officials of the enterprise in committing any offenses in these criminal proceedings, which indicates a lack of connection with the persons involved in the case. For example, this argument was used by the Holosiivskyi District Court and lifted the seizure from the accounts of LLC (case 752/17033/18 of 18.02.2020)
- ✅The reality of business transactions with the contractor against whom the criminal proceedings are being investigated.
Attach evidence that will confirm the performance of the contract with the contractor (copies of contracts, acts of work performed / services provided, consignment notes, explanations of persons involved in the performance of the contract). This will help to confirm the absence of any illegal actions on the part of your company, as well as confirm that the seized funds were obtained legally and have no signs of physical evidence.
- ✅Inappropriate subject of appeal. If the management of the enterprise is not officially suspected, then the enterprise has the status of a person whose property has been seized. In such a case, only the prosecutor, not the investigator, has the right to apply for the seizure of the account. Violation of the arrest procedure can also be a reason for its cancellation. The High Anti-Corruption Court also drew attention to this (case №991 / 5486/20 of 13.07.2020)
- ✅ Other grounds. Depending on the situation, it is possible to note the absence of damages; lack of civil action; delaying the investigation of the case with the aim of hindering the legitimate economic activity of the enterprise, which leads to significant material losses (see the decision Pechersk District Court in the case №757 / 10997/19-k from 07/18/2019, Shevchenkivsky District Court in case №761 / 23190/20 of 05.08.2020).
A well-prepared petition to lift the arrest from the accounts is a guarantee of a positive court decision.
What to do next if the court lifts the arrest?
Monitor the execution of court decisions. After receiving the court decision, it is necessary to ask the court to send the decision for execution to the bank where the company is served.
Why can't you send the decision to the bank yourself? The fact is that only the prosecutor and the court are authorized to send the court decision to the bank. At one time, such an order was determined by the National Bank. The prosecutor will not do this, so it is worth asking the court, because it is the court that is obliged to take measures to enforce its decision.
Conclusions
It is quite possible to cancel the seizure from the company's accounts in criminal proceedings. Properly selected arguments for the court and control over the execution of the court decision will allow the company to get out of an unpleasant situation with minimal losses.
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