Ukraine Fines U.S. Firm over AgroTech Acquisitions

Ukraine punishes an American company on untested AgroTech purchases in connection with large agricultural conglomerate UkrLandFarming.

The Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine has fined U.S.-based TNA Corporate Solutions LLC a sum of UAH 2.2 million due to carrying out a series of uncoordinated acquisitions of 14 AgroTech and agricultural companies previously under the holding of AgralandFarming. The ruling, which was announced on the committee business website, has put the developing Ukrainian AgroTech industry under increasing regulatory pressure.

Among the acquired firms are Agrarian Perspective LLC, Agrarian Holding Avangard LLC, Agrotech Distribution Company LLC, Spring 21 LLC, and SAAN-AGRO LLC, and a few more companies associated with the businessman Oleg Bakhmatyuk. Based on the LIGA360 system, the last beneficiary of these assets is U.S. citizen Nicholas Piazza.

The case serves as an addition to the past controversies of Piazza. In 2022, he and Bakhmatyuk were defendants in a suit against Gramercy Funds Management, which alleged that some 1.9 billion US dollars' worth of assets had been removed out of UkrLandFarming Plc and into offshore trusts by him and Bakhmatyuk. In October 2024, a confidential settlement silently resolved the lawsuit.

In the meantime, Bakhmatyuk, based in Vienna, is still on the wanted list in Ukraine, also accused of misappropriation of a UAH 1.2 billion stabilization loan issued to VAB Bank in 2014 as well as a historically huge bribery case of UAH 722 million.

The decision highlights how Ukraine is determined to control the foreign participation in its strategically important AgroTech ecosystem, making the mergers and acquisitions transparent.