Law Enforcement Requires Cameras to Be Turned Off: 'Nor Zovq' Issues Statement

'Nor Zovq' company has issued a statement regarding the searches conducted within the company, stating:

“Since the revolution of 2018, the established government announced that competitive abuses present in the economic field would be eliminated, granting everyone a genuine opportunity to conduct business under equal conditions. The positive results of this new policy have indeed been felt by 'Nor Zovq' throughout its operations. Consequently, not only businesses have benefited, but consumers as well, as during this new political climate, our company managed to significantly decrease the prices of the products sold, causing serious concern for other interested private entities.

Their anxiety became even more apparent after 'Nor Zovq' established a new supermarket in the Nor Nork area, following which numerous strange incidents began occurring, aimed at obstructing the supermarket's operations — including masked individuals cutting the supermarket's pipeline at night to halt its functioning.

Of course, we successfully removed these obstacles and restored the company's normal operations. However, after that, coincidentally, on February 20, 2023, investigative officers from the RA Investigative Committee, along with operational staff, simultaneously initiated searches at 29 supermarkets owned by 'Nor Zovq', as well as in offices and the residences of employees.

While this fact was unexpected and undesirable, we acknowledge that law enforcement agencies may receive certain misled, false, and unverified information from various sources, including from individuals concerned about the successful operations of our company's supermarkets, which requires verification.

We also understand that searches, including the seizure of certain items, may serve as a verification measure. This fact does not concern 'Nor Zovq' since in a legal state, no one, including our company, should be immune to such inspections.

However, we must specifically note that the manner of conducting these searches raises significant concerns for our company and its management, as they exceed legal boundaries and introduce numerous doubts and unanswered questions.

In particular: 1. Before conducting the searches, law enforcement agencies demanded that the surveillance cameras in the supermarket areas be turned off. Question — if law enforcement agencies are confident that they are conducting a legal search without allowing any violations of the law, why are they asking to turn off the cameras beforehand, especially if they will ultimately seize the media from these recording devices?

2. As a result of the searches, not only were the company's accounting documents and computers seized, but mandatory cash register machinery for selling goods and the server containing the accounting software (POS) were also taken, which disrupted the company's normal operations. Due to the seizure of the server, the company has been deprived of the ability to: 1. manage accounting records, 2. settle obligations toward suppliers, 3. account for assets, 4. make monetary transfers for settling credit, tax, and other obligations, 5. submit statements serving as the basis for taxation to the tax authorities, 6. receive goods in its 29 stores and warehouses, 7. calculate and pay salaries for around 1600 employees, 8. perform other vital functions.

Question — if the objective of the search is solely to verify and gather relevant data, why are law enforcement agencies seizing the server containing the software, rather than just the information contained therein, which they were fully able to obtain and thus the Company would not be deprived of access to a program essential for its daily operations?

Moreover, for several days, we have been requesting through motions addressed to law enforcement agencies the return of that server or at least a copy of the program extracted from it, which has yet to be fulfilled.

It is unimaginable that law enforcement agencies are unaware of the serious obstacles they have created for our company and the massive financial damages incurred, from which numerous questions once again arise regarding why our company’s ordinary rights are not being upheld and what real objectives all this is pursuing.

We expect that the criminal proceedings conducted against 'Nor Zovq' do not exceed the limits of legality and that the rights guaranteed by law to the operator with around 1600 employees will be strictly upheld during this process. Otherwise, the situation creates extremely unfavorable conditions for 'Nor Zovq' compared to competitors.”