Ukraine files latest complaints against ArcellorMittal

The State Fiscal Service announced on Sept. 4 several
complaints against ArcellorMittal Kryvyi Rih, a company that has been targeted
with numerous investigations by state authorities since President Zelensky’s
inauguration in July. A “massive tax audit” of the enterprise has called into
question UAH 9 bln, related to rental payments on ore extraction and reduced
rental payments on land, as alleged by Yevhen Bambizov, the head of the office
of large taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service, as reported by the
Interfax-Ukraine news agency. ArcellorMittal controls the plant widely known as
Kryvorizhstal, among Ukraine’s biggest steel producing factories.  

The fiscal complaints were filed a day after
investigators with the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), accompanied by
environmental inspectors from other state bodies, visited the factory in Kryviy
Rih, the hometown of President Zelensky, to reportedly review its coke
production facilities. Recall, SBU officials performed several investigations
of the company in July, filing criminal ñharges of ecocide. The investigations
inflicted at least USD 1 mln in damages from production stoppages, the company
said.

The latest wave of investigations and complaints come
after Ihor Kolomoisky, among Ukraine’s biggest oligarchs and chief sponsor of
Zelensky’s presidential campaign, called for the nationalization of the Kryvorizhstal
plant in an interview published on Aug. 27 on the censor.net.ua news site. When
asked whether he supported state investigations of the plant, Kolomoisky said,
“I don’t simply support them, I believe that enterprises need to be confiscated
where there is bad ecology, returned to the state and for cleansings to occur,”
he said. In the same interview, Kolomoisky denied any interest in taking
control of any assets.

To date, Kryvorizhstal is Ukraine’s biggest state
privatization, having been conducted on an open auction in 2005 that was won by
Mittal Steel, now part of ArcellorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking
holding company.