The Holosiivskyi Court of Kyiv, presided by Judge E.G. Plahotnyuk, ordered “to seize intellectual property rights” over 426 sites and to block access to them. The ForkLog journal was included in this list, although the domain is listed with an extra space.
According to a notification on the site of the National Commission on State Regulation in the sphere of communications and informatization, the reason for such a decision was a criminal proceeding under the article on fraud in a particularly large size using computer technology (part 3, Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine). In the register of court decisions, the orders could not be found.
Update: as of 14:45 MSK, the link to the notification stopped working (the cached version can be viewed here). Later the link became active again.
Update: according to users, some operators have already begun blocking access to ForkLog’s site.
Update: according to media information with reference to court documents (the decision of the Holosiivskyi Court dated February 4), a certain businessman Alexander Pan filed a police report. He claimed that third parties interfered in his life “with the help of the internet”, posting defamatory information about him.
At the same time, the list of websites named in the decision does not match the list published on the site of the National Commission.
Update: Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Anton Gerashchenko confirmed that it was Alexander Pan who filed a police report about allegedly fraudulent actions against him.
Today Ukraine learned with surprise that by ruling of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv an arrest was imposed on 426…
Published by Anton Gerashchenko Thursday, February 25, 2021
He stressed that the police had already withdrawn its accompanying letter to the National Commission. Gerashchenko added that the criminal case would be checked and, in the absence of a crime, would be closed by the decision of investigators and prosecutors.
Gerashchenko also called the court decision “unfounded.” In his view, a complaint should be filed against the judge and its compliance with the post.
“Of course, there remains a big question about the adequacy of certain representatives of the judiciary, ready to yield to pressure from various fraudsters and to issue self-serving and unfounded decisions on behalf of Ukraine”, — concluded the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs.
Update: in a comment to Ukrainian media, press secretary of the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office Nadezhda Maksymets said that by the decision of the procedural supervisor the criminal case was closed, and the arrest of the intellectual property rights was lifted. The Prosecutor’s Office is conducting a service investigation into the actions of the officers of the Holosiivskyi Police Department.
Later Gerashchenko confirmed the case closure. The court’s decision will likely be overturned on appeal.
Update: according to this media, Alexander Pan, who had demanded the blocks, previously bore the surname Prochuhan. He is mentioned in numerous articles as the organizer of many fraud schemes and pyramids. His links connect him to MMM-2011, Formula Money – Golden Ratio / Formula Money Invest (FD Invest), Questra World and A.G.A.M.
Some publications speculate that he changed his surname in 2018 to escape responsibility.
In addition to ForkLog, the list includes a number of media outlets (RBC, Banks.ru) and other resources, including gist.github. The list also includes the cryptocurrency forum site forum.bits.media.
Neither the police nor the court, nor the National Commission contacted ForkLog, and we did not learn the reasons for such a decision.
According to the court’s decision, providers were required to close access to the sites immediately. The arrest could be appealed within five days.
ForkLog’s CEO Anatoly Kaplan noted that such a situation was probably created by “corrupt officials, who were paid off by real fraudsters, as we publish numerous investigations about these “people” who have connections in the police, security services and government.”
In the network, one can find information that questions the judge’s reputation. In 2020 a disciplinary case was opened against her.
Ukraine’s Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, stated that gist.github “will not be blocked.”
Partner at the law firm AURUM, Sergei Ostrovsky, said that blocking is unfounded and the phrasing “to seize IP rights” is legally untenable.
“Such decisions occasionally surface in dubious cases and court proceedings, sometimes due to a lack of qualification among the judges, sometimes — for other reasons, which one can guess,” — he said in an interview for ForkLog.
Ostrovsky also noted that the domain error in the ForkLog decision would likely prevent the block.
“In any case, all interested parties should appeal the judge’s blocking order in appellate court. I think the chances of success on appeal are slim and its reversal is a matter of time,” — the lawyer emphasised.
Lawyers noted that there are questions about the notification on the National Commission’s site.
“The court’s decision obliges operators and providers to block access to 426 sites. On the face of it, it is clear that no one seriously analyzed this list, and the decision was made on a go-to-just-switch-off-everything basis,” — said ForkLog’s senior lawyer of the practice of criminal law and business protection AO Arzinger, Alexei Zadoenko.
At the same time, such practice is common—the similar decisions unduly infringe the rights of “law-abiding companies that are not involved in the investigation,” he added.
Also, the Kyiv district court of Kharkiv ordered internet providers to block access to a number of Telegram channels.
ForkLog has contacted the police for comments.
In 2017, the Security Service of Ukraine seized cryptocurrency from the ForkLog founder, and seized all equipment from the company’s offices.
In 2019 the court lifted the arrest on the seized ForkLog office equipment.
In subsequent years, law enforcement authorities did not press any formal charges, and a significant portion of the property was never returned.
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