On January 15, 2020, an article: “Lebediev’s dangerous business: Diesel plant is operating with fire safety violations,” which was subsequently reprinted by a number of other media outlets with reference to the original source, was published on the 24tv.ua portal.

This article is an absolute fake and contains a number of factual statements that are untrue and cause significant damage to the business reputation of the Aurum Group, and its owner Alona Lebedieva.

In addition, a number of statements can be deemed as knowingly false reports of a crime, which may be the basis for bringing the person, who has spread such information, to criminal responsibility in accordance with article 383 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

The content of the news story entitle us to believe that such an article can be posted at the request of people, who are trying to illegally take the Diesel Plant LLC over, of which we informed with a letter dated November 29, 2019: to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, the Chairman of the Business Protection Commission, the Chairman of the State Tax Service, Ag. Chairman of the State Fiscal Service of Ukraine, Business Ombudsman, Prosecutor General of Ukraine, Prosecutor of Kyiv, Director of State Bureau of Investigations, Head of the Main Department of the SFS in Kyiv. In this case, the actions of the Editorial Staff may be deemed as aiding a crime, under article 206-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Considering the above, Aurum Group demands to publish an immediate retraction of the information posted on the 24tv.ua website “Lebediev’s Dangerous Business: Diesel plant is operating with fire safety violations”

(https://24tv.ua/en/opasnyiy_biznes_lebedevyih_dizelnyiy_zavod_rabotaet_s_narusheniyami_pozharnoyibeznog39_bezharnoy_be).

At the same time, we draw the attention of the media and the public to the fact that the information published contains unreliable and distorted data on the activities of the companies included in the structure of Aurum Group:

  1. Aurum Group companies have never produced or traded weapons.
  2. Alona Lebedieva independently manages companies, in which she is a direct or indirect participant.
  3. CJSC “Sveskyi Pumping Plant” has not participated in tenders for the supply and has not supplied industrial pumps and units of its own production to enterprises of the military-industrial sector of the Russian Federation.
  4. According to the decree of the Economic Court of Dnipropetrovsk Region dated November 26, 2019 (Case No. 904 / 8028/14), PJSC “Diesel Plant” was liquidated. So, PJSC “Diesel Plant” cannot do business, including leasing out the property. “Heron-Trade” LLC is the owner of the premises located in the city of Kryvyi Rih, at the address: Elektrozavodska st., 34, part of which it leases to “Diesel Plant” LLC. “Aurum Trans” LLC does not take any premises of “Diesel Plant” on lease at all.

Diesel Plant LLC has never been a member of the “circle of interests of the “Yanukovych’s family” and has not been owned by P. Lebediev. At the same time, we draw your attention to the fact that Diesel Plant LLC began production of railway freight cars only at the end of 2017, therefore it could not have any business relationship with “Premier Leasing” LLC. Information on the forced collection of wages from Diesel Plant LLC for the period from 2013-2015 under court decision contradicts the reality due to the fact that Diesel Plant LLC did not do any business during this period.

5.Heron-Trade LLC has never refused to correct violations, which were detected by the SES during the audit, as well as at the time of adoption of decision by the Kyiv District Administrative Court Heron-Trade LLC corrected all violations that were detected during the audit, which became the basis for the Sixth Administrative Court of Appeal to cancel the listed-above decision adopted by the Kyiv District Administrative Court, since the first-instance court had not examined evidence in full regarding violation elimination at the site, in respect of which the SES appealed to the court.

We draw the attention of the media that an objective information exposure provides for the comment from the company, which is mentioned in the news story. Aurum Group has not received any request from the 24tv.ua editorial office; due to this, we assume that the editorial staff has biased the preparation of this news story in advance. In addition, this is also indicated by the fact that the author of the publication has not verified the facts, which he uses in the story.

Press Office of Aurum Group