Number of Illegal Takeovers Decreased by Almost 20%

At the same time, the portion of illegal takeover cases that go to court fell as well.

15 December 2021

The first ten months of 2021 saw 614 illegal takeovers. This is 18% less than during the same period in 2020 when 751 illegal takeovers were reported.

Illegal takeovers and cases brought to court in 2020-2021
Item	January–October 2020		January–October 2021
	Recorded	Brought to court	Recorded	Brought to court
Falsification of documents submitted for state registration of legal entities and private entrepreneurs, Art. 205-1	562	334	416	216
Hindering of lawful business activity, Art. 206	118	1	122	2
Illegal seizure of property of a company, institution, organization, Art. 206-2	71	0	76	4
TOTAL	751	335	614	222

The number of illegal takeovers has been decreasing every month since May. While there were an average of 70 illegal takeover cases per month at the beginning of the year, there were only 17 in October 2021.

However, the number of cases that go to court is lower than last year. In 2020, 45% of all illegal takeover cases went to court, but this year it is 36%.

The most frequent court cases involve Article 205 of the Criminal Code—forgery of documents submitted for state registration of legal entities and PEs. This year 416 cases were registered under Article 205-1, of which 216 were sent to court.

Cases under Article 206 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on hindering of business activity and illegal seizure of property are rarely heard in court. A total of 198 proceedings were opened under Articles 206 and 206-2, but only six went to court.

The highest raider activity in recent years was recorded in 2020 with 849 takeovers.

Illegal takeovers and cases brought to court in 2015–2021
Year	Document forgery, Art. 205-1		Hindering of lawful business activity, Art. 206		Illegal seizure of property, Art. 206-2		TOTAL
	Recorded	Brought to court	Recorded	Brought to court	Recorded	Brought to court	Recorded	Brought to court
2,015	140	67	120	9	30	1	290	77
2,016	228	130	127	0	78	2	433	132
2,017	292	169	189	2	82	4	563	175
2,018	269	186	161	0	70	3	500	189
2,019	478	222	158	3	130	5	766	230
2,020	635	381	124	1	90	0	849	382
2,021	416	216	122	2	76	4	614	222

Source: Opendatabot

Subscribe to Opendatabot analytics with Telegram channel

Opendatabot chanel