Poroshenko says use of offshore accounts should be impossible in Ukraine

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko says he wants to make it impossible to use offshore accounts in Ukraine, according to news portal 112.ua.
”I plan to introduce a reform that will make it impossible to use offshore accounts in Ukraine,” he said at the Japan National Press Club on Wednesday, 112.ua wrote.
Commenting on the Panama Papers leak, the president stressed once again that his assets had been transferred to a ”blind” trust.
”Tax havens are usually used secretly to minimize taxes. And in this case, immediately after I became president, I announced that all my business assets would remain in a transparent trust with the world`s largest investment bank, Rothschild,” Poroshenko said.
According to him, Rothschild does not manage assets of Ukrainian origin, and that was why lawyers prepared relevant documents, and they officially and publicly transferred his assets to management by the transparent, ”blind” trust, to separate his property from political activity for the period of his presidency.
He said the procedure was very transparent and it was used not to minimize tax liabilities, but to ensure the management of property in a trust fund.
”It [the trust] wasn`t created in Ukraine. It is used to transparently separate the Ukrainian president`s business from any economic impact. I believe that this differs from all those accusations made against other politicians with offshore accounts on those Panama Papers,” Poroshenko said.
Poroshenko also said he planned to regulate the issue of the use of blind trusts in Ukraine.
”By the way, this will be the next step in the reform. [It will provide] openness, transparency and simplicity of steps that will have to be done to use such blind trust funds for asset management,” he said.
As UaPosition reported earlier, according to an investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), the Ukrainian president set up three offshore companies for managing assets, including Roshen Confectionery Corporation, but did not specify this information in his declaration of property.
However, Poroshenko said that asset management functions had been transferred to appropriate consulting and law firms.
”I`m the first official in Ukraine who seriously takes the issues of income declaration, tax payment, and conflict of interests, and solve them in the framework of Ukrainian legislation and private international law,” he said.
He added the consulting and law firms would provide all details regarding these issues.
In turn, Poroshenko`s Financial Advisor, ICU Managing Director Makar Paseniuk said that Roshen Confectionery Corporation, founded by the Ukrainian president, had been transferred to a trust. Paseniuk claims the Ukrainian president had nothing to do with managing that asset, or activities related to it, or its sale.

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