12/01/2000
Mr. A.M. Karpeev
City Prosecutor
1, Pavlyuchenko Street
The City of Sevastopol
Dear Sir,
The criminal case against the scientists of the Institute of Biology of Southern Seas of the Ukrainian Academy of Sciences Dr. S.A. Piontkovski and Ms. G.N. Piontkovskaia as well as the insufficiently qualified coverage of the case essence by the media produced a sharp resonance in scientific community not only in our country but also in some foreign countries - the partners in scientific research collaboration.
Considering the objective directions of the investigation authorities aimed at the drawbacks in the organization of work on the international grants and agreements, the limitations and flaws in the existing mechanisms for protection of the intellectual property and potential commercial interests of proprietors of scientific-technical information, we consider it necessary to bring to your attention the following considerations regarding this case.
In our opinion the primary reason for legal collisions, realized in criminal charges against Dr. S.A. Piontkovski and Ms.G.N. Piontkovskaia according to Article 80 p. 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, consists in the disparity between the regulations and procedures of the intergovernmental agreement, regulating the realization of the international financial grants, and the existing routine of settling the financial matters between foreign partners and physical and legal entities in Ukraine. Thus, in particular:
1. According to the intergovernmental treaty on the INTAS grant, signed by Ukraine and European Union, the payments to the Grant's participants in the Ukraine are made in US dollars (Article 6 of the Agreement and items 2.5 of the INTAS Instruction on Payment of Grants).
2. As per Article 80 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, cash assets of the international Funds cannot be used as the means of payments. These are the assets of the individual grants initially allocated for the specific scientists, which is stipulated by the intergovernmental treaty.
3. As per item 1.4 of the international treaty, the participants of the grants cannot bear the financial responsibility for the transfer of money, since the fund is solely responsible for it (intergovernmental instruction of INTAS on the cash transfer). The letters of the INTAS governing body as of 10/21/99 and 10/26/99 indicate that the fund decided on transferring the money for all participants into the account of the project manager (i.e. S.A. Piontkovski' account) with the aim of their further allocation for the participants of the grant.
4. In view of the above, as well as the absence of the self-interest reasons and the intent to conceal the currency operations from the supervision authorities in the activity of the IBSS scientists S.A. Piontkovski and G.A. Piontkovskaia within the framework of the international grants INTAS and the Darwin Initiative, we address you with the request to dismiss the criminal case No. 101 on legal bases and in regard with corpus delicti.
Academician Valery N. Eremeev
Acting Director
Institute of Biology of Southern Seas
Dr. Yury N. Tokarev
Deputy Director
Acting Chairman of the Scientific Council
Institute of Biology of Southern Seas
Academician George E. Shulman
Chief
Animal Physiology Dept.