13 changes to defeat raiding in Ukraine

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Kyiv, September 29, 2016. Draft Law 5067 is to eliminate raider schemes that exist in Ukraine. It is the result of a six-month work of the Commission on complaints against state registrars. “The Commission has been working since January 1. Over the first six months, we studied almost all raider schemes that exist in our country. Based on the results, we created a working group which developed a draft law closing any raider scheme,” stated Pavlo Moroz, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, at a briefing held at Ukraine Crisis Media Center. According to him, the draft law is currently pending at a specialized committee, and there is a risk that it may be blocked. The next consideration is scheduled for next Wednesday.

Fake court decision

According to him, one of the schemes involves registration of a property or business entity on the basis of a fake court decision. The draft law provides interaction of property and business register with court decision register so that registration under a fake court decision becomes technically impossible. “Court decision register is not ready for such interaction yet. That is why we have stipulated that a notary or a state registrar should go to court to obtain a copy of the decision,” noted Mr. Moroz.

Strengthening criminal liability

The deputy minister stressed that it is necessary to enhance criminal liability of not only the state registrar, but also an applicant and persons involved in raider attacks. They also introduce responsibility for forgery of documents in property sphere, similar to forgery of documents in business. “Applicants are responsible for providing false information. Customers and executants will also be brought to justice,” said Mr. Moroz.

For business

The draft law demands notarization of signatures on the protocol which approves the decision of the company’s meeting. Another provision makes it impossible to open a new chapter under the same object in order to register it for another person.

Protection

Mr. Moroz noted that there were cases when hackers damaged computers of notaries and state registrars, stole keys to the registry and carried out registration. Now the key to the registry will be on a separate carrier. “It will be technically impossible to hack and get the state registrar’s electronic key. Even if they hacked into a computer, they will not be able to get the key. Now they may steal only physically, but it is more difficult,” explained the deputy minister.

Control and monitoring functions of the Ministry of Justice

The Ministry will be able to immediately transmit any transgression to all interested parties and law enforcement agencies if they notice a transgression on the part of the state registrar during the monitoring process. “Now we can only consider a complaint against the registrar. If there is no complaint, we cannot do anything,” added Mr. Moroz.

The principle of extraterritoriality

The deputy minister informed that they are going to narrow the principle of extraterritoriality by equating the rights of all state registrars. Now notaries and state registrars will conduct registration actions only within a region. An exception is made only for a notarial act relating to heritage.

They also want to increase the term for submitting a complaint from 30 to 60 days.