Poroshenko says that he didn’t avoid taxes and asks to separate him from the other participants of the "offshore scandal"

The main purpose of Prime Asset Partners Limited (BVI) in British Virgin Islands was the creation of special venture (SPV) for the transfer of business to the management of Rothschild Bank rather than minimizing the tax base as the other participants of "Panama papers" scandal do. It was stated by the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko at the press conference in Tokyo today, - informs Interfax-Ukraine.

"I did not do it to minimize taxes, it was a fully public action. This company has not received a single penny from Ukraine," - said Poroshenko

"There is a difference in cases in Russia, Iceland and the rest of the world: we had an absolutely transparent process and its purpose was to separate business from politics and establishment of trust. There is no other way of the creation of an independent transfer of the company to the well-known bank," - added the head of the Ukrainian state.

Poroshenko stressed that the new company had no authorized capital and opened accounts, as the principled position was lack of operations through it, and the only purpose was to send the well-known assets of the President into the "blind" trust of the bank with a good reputation which also put forward certain conditions to create such a SPV.

According to him, Roshen corporation is one of the best in Ukraine and its ownership structure never had any offshore structure.

The President recalled that as soon he became the President, he declared his readiness to sell his business but no buyers were found because of the war in Ukraine and arrest some assets in Russia. The Head of State added that there was no legal obligation to sell the assets but he wanted to be the first politician in the country who would be absolutely separate business from politics transparently by a mechanism which was used by politicians all over the world.

Answering the question on the investigation in connection with "Panama papers", Poroshenko expressed the opinion that no investigation was needed in relation to him as there were no sales operations and all other operations and objectives were transparent.

"But if you want to investigate, then you are welcome," - said the President.

Poroshenko said that the agreement on the transfer of his shares in Roshen into Rothschild "blind" trust had already been signed and he could not terminate during his presidency.

As previously reported, Anna Babinets’ investigation "Double Life of President" for Slіdstvo.Іnfo programme said that the President Petro Poroshenko had not transferred his assets to the trust but started restructuring of Roshen assets by creating three offshore companies. A number of political forces on the basis of this publication expressed the need for the impeachment of President Petro Poroshenko.