The occupiers continue to make money at the former "Rollton" plant near Kyiv

In the summer of 2022, when Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine had been going on for several months, the Security Service of Ukraine shocked the world with the news that one of the budget-forming enterprises of the Bila Tserkva community continued to be controlled by individuals associated with the aggressor country. It was about the Rollton instant noodle factory. The owner turned out to be a Cypriot company, which simultaneously managed an enterprise in Russia and had citizens of this country in its management. But the Cypriots, together with the Vietnamese, turned out to be more dexterous than the Ukrainian law enforcement officers and quickly sold the Ukrainian plant to another company from Cyprus. It just turned out that in fact the owners of the Ukrainian Rollton remained the same and their connections with the occupiers can be confirmed by extracts from the registers of Cyprus.

Until July 2022, the founder of the Ukrainian manufacturer Rollton was Mareven Food Europe LLC, which in turn belonged to Mareven food holdings limited from Cyprus. As of today, according to Cypriot registries, there are at least two people in the management of the Cypriot holding with ties to Russia. This is secretary Leila Beydieva, who has Russian citizenship, although she lives in Cyprus. She has held this post since 2016. Another person is the Vietnamese Trong Duong Nguyen living in Moscow. He has been the Director of Mareven food holdings limited since May 2022.

During checks by the SSU regarding connections with the occupying country in the summer of 2022, the Cypriot Mareven food holdings limited announced that it had sold the Ukrainian plant to another company, Jelmont LTD. Moreover, according to the agreement, the new owners abandoned the Rollton trademark and had to establish production under a new name.

Subsequently, the Antimonopoly Committee also became interested in whether the owners were trying to evade responsibility by selling the Ukrainian plant during the investigation. But over time, the case was closed and no more questions arose at the plant in Bila Tserkva. Although in vain.

According to extracts from Cypriot registers, it was possible to find out that the new owner of the Ukrainian enterprise - Jelmont LTD - has exactly the same address as another Cypriot company, which was among the founders of Mareven food holdings limited. We are talking about the company Sucheno limited, whose secretary until July 2020 was the Russian citizen Leila Beydiyeva mentioned above. Both Jelmont LTD and Sucheno limited have the same registered address in the capital of Cyprus, Nicosia.

At the same time, the owner of 100% of the shares of Jelmont LTD is the Vietnamese Tran Tuan Minh. A person with the same name and the same registration in Ho Chi Minh City used to be the director of the mentioned “Mareven food holdings limited”.

That is, a new company has become the legal owner of the Ukrainian plant, but it is managed by the same people as before. Moreover, their connection with Russia has not gone away, because the above-mentioned Leila Beydiнeva and Trong Duong Nguyen remain in the management of Mareven food holdings limited.

The latter company is currently the owner of a factory for the production of instant noodles in the Moscow region. There they continue to produce goods under the Rollton brand.

From the audit report of the company Jelmont LTD, it was also possible to find out that it bought a plant in Bila Tserkva in July 2022 for 4 million 850 thousand dollars. The money for this purchase was taken from a third party, whose information, however, was not provided. In 2023, Jelmont LTD fully paid the lender for this purchase.

The same report notes that Jelmont LTD is completely dependent on investment from investors. At the same time, in 2023, she was able to buy another company, this time in Poland - Estonetico investments Sp. z.o.o for about 4 million dollars, which were also taken by a third party.

The legal entity currently managing the Ukrainian plant is Euro Food Service LLC. Before the purchase by Jelmont LTD, it had the name Mareven Food Europe LLC, consonant with the Cypriot parent company.

After the change of owner, as already reported above, the Ukrainian company abandoned the Rollton brand. Now the factory in Bila Tserkva produces Reeva noodles.

With the same trademark, Euro Food Service is trying to advance in the European markets. Thus, in December 2022, a press release for the Moldovan press reported that Reeva would conquer the Moldovan market. True, in the illustration for the press release, for some reason you can see the logo of the Mareven company, which seems to have nothing to do with the Ukrainian manufacturer.

In April 2023, a similar press release appeared in the Latvian press, which stated that the manufacturer Rollton was launching a new brand REEVA in Latvia.

Ukraine, Moldova and Latvia are long-time allies in the fight against the imperial desires of the Russian Federation. Chisinau and Riga also support broad sanctions against this country. They will probably be interested in the information that the Ukrainian plant, in the third year of the war, continues to be led by people associated with the aggressor. Not to mention the fact that Ukrainian law enforcement officers were in a hurry to close the case of terrorist financing by the company that owns the plant in Bila Tserkva. The documents published above should prompt the SSU to return with inspections to the enterprise trying to outwit the intelligence service.

Author: Olena Dobrodiy