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Public Designation of Oligarch and Former Ukrainian Public Official Ihor Kolomoyskyy Due to Involvement in Significant Corruption
PRESS STATEMENT
ANTONY J. BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE
MARCH 5, 2021
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Today, I am announcing the public designation of oligarch and former Ukrainian public official Ihor Kolomoyskyy due to his involvement in significant corruption. In his official capacity as a Governor of Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk Oblast from 2014 to 2015, Kolomoyskyy was involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law and the Ukrainian public’s faith in their government’s democratic institutions and public processes, including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit. While this designation is based on acts during his time in office, I also want to express concern about Kolomoyskyy’s current and ongoing efforts to undermine Ukraine’s democratic processes and institutions, which pose a serious threat to its future.
This designation is made under Section 7031(c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2020. In addition to Ihor Kolomoyskyy, I am publicly designating the following members of Ihor Kolomoyskyy’s immediate family: his wife, Iryna Kolomoyska, his daughter, Angelika Kolomoyska, and his son, Israel Zvi Kolomoyskyy. This action renders Ihor Kolomoyskyy and each of these members of his immediate family ineligible for entry into the United States. https://www.state.gov/public-designation-of-oligarch-and-former-ukrainian-public-official-ihor-kolomoyskyy-due-to-involvement-in-significant-corruption/ 1/4 4/4/2021 Public Designation of Oligarch and Former Ukrainian Public Official Ihor Kolomoyskyy Due to Involvement in Significant Corruption - Unite…
This designation reaffirms the U.S. commitment to supporting political, economic, and justice sector reforms that are key to Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic path. The United States continues to stand with all Ukrainians whose work drives reforms forward. The Department will continue to use authorities like this to promote accountability for corrupt actors in this region and globally.
For more information, please contact [email protected].
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M A R C H 3 1 , 2 0 2 1 Secretary Blinken’s Call with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba https://www.state.gov/public-designation-of-oligarch-and-former-ukrainian-public-official-ihor-kolomoyskyy-due-to-involvement-in-significant-corruption/ 2/4 Kolomoisky: Zelensky is our common victory with Avakov https://news.liga.net/politics/news/kolomoyskiy-zelenskiy-nasha-obschaya-s-avak ovym-pobeda May 02, 2019 Oligarch Igor Kolomoisky said that the Volodymyr Zelensky’s victory in the presidential elections of Ukraine is a "common victory" for him and the Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov. Kolomoisky said this in an interview with Bihus.info. When asked if Avakov congratulated him on Zelensky's victory, Kolomoisky replied: "Avakov and I constantly communicate ... Therefore, we believe that this is a common victory." Denis Bigus asked how long this "partnership in the context of elections" has been going on. “We do not have a partnership over the choice of Zelensky, we have a Zelensky fan club. We are supporting Zelensky. We supported Yulia (Yulia Tymoshenko, - ed.) together. We fought against Petya (Petro Poroshenko, - ed.) ", - answered Kolomoisky. When asked from what moment Avakov began to "fight against Petya", the oligarch replied: “I don’t want to answer for him. But if you asked me when he had an “irreversible process”, when Petya “crossed the Rubicon”, it was when there was a story about his son (“Avakov's backpacks criminal case”, - ed.) At the same time, Kolomoisky called the "case of Avakov's backpacks" "a contrived story". 4/4/2021 Коломойский: Зеленский – наша общая с Аваковым победа - новости Украины, Политика - LIGA.net
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Коломойский: Зеленский – наша общая с Аваковым победа
02.05.2019, 19:54 13048 20
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Олигарх Игорь Коломойский заявил, что победа на выборах президента Украины Владимира Зеленского - "общая победа" его и министра внутренних дел Арсена Авакова. Об этом Коломойский сказал в интервью Bihus.info.
На вопрос, поздравил ли Аваков его с победой Зеленского Коломойский ответил: "Мы с Аваковым постоянно общаемся… Поэтому мы считаем, что это общая победа".
Денис Бигус поинтересовался, давно ли продолжается это "партнерство в контексте выборов".
"У нас нет партнерства по поводу выбора Зеленского, у нас есть фан-клуб Зеленского. Мы болеем за Зеленского. Мы и за Юлю (Юлию Тимошенко, - ред.) болели вместе. Мы болели против Пети (Петра Порошенко, - ред.)", - ответил Коломойский.
На вопрос, с какого момента Аваков начал "болеть против Пети", олигарх ответил: "Не хочу за него говорить, но я бы, если бы у меня спросили, когда у него произошел "необратимый процесс", когда Петя "перешел Рубикон", то это когда по поводу сына история была ("дело рюкзаков Авакова", - ред.)
При этом Коломойский назвал "дело рюкзаков Авакова" "надуманной историей".
Читайте также: Внезапный финал: как САП закрыла дело рюкзаков Авакова
Вадим Ребрина
13048 https://news.liga.net/politics/news/kolomoyskiy-zelenskiy-nasha-obschaya-s-avakovym-pobeda 1/4 4/4/2021 Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors | U.S. Department of the Treasury
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE TREASURY
Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors
January 11, 2021
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s O ice of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) took additional action against seven individuals and four entities that are part of a Russia-linked foreign influence network associated with Andrii Derkach. Russian agent Derkach was designated on September 10, 2020, pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 13848, for his attempt to influence the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
“Russian disinformation campaigns targeting American citizens are a threat to our democracy,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin. “The United States will continue to aggressively defend the integrity of our election systems and processes.”
TREASURY TARGETS DERKACH’S INNER CIRCLE
Since at least 2019, Derkach and his associates have leveraged U.S. media, U.S.-based social media platforms, and influential U.S. persons to spread misleading and unsubstantiated allegations that current and former U.S. o icials engaged in corruption, money laundering, and unlawful political influence in Ukraine.
Former Ukrainian Government o icials Konstantin Kulyk, Oleksandr Onyshchenko, Andriy Telizhenko, and current Ukraine Member of Parliament Oleksandr Dubinsky have publicly appeared or a iliated themselves with Derkach through the coordinated dissemination and promotion of fraudulent and unsubstantiated allegations involving a U.S. political candidate. They have made repeated public statements to advance disinformation narratives that U.S. government o icials have engaged in corrupt dealings in Ukraine. These e orts are consistent with and in support of Derkach’s e orts, acting as an agent of the Russian intelligence services, to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election.
Kulyk, a former prosecutor for the Prosecutor General’s O ice of Ukraine, formed an alliance with Derkach to spread false accusations of international corruption. Onyshchenko, a fugitive from Ukrainian justice due to charges of corruption, provided edited audio tape copies of https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1232 1/3 4/4/2021 Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors | U.S. Department of the Treasury purported audio recordings of conversations between former Ukrainian and U.S. o icials, which Derkach released between May and July 2020 to discredit U.S. o icials and influence the U.S. elections. Telizhenko, a former low-level Ukrainian diplomat, orchestrated meetings between Derkach and U.S. persons to help propagate false claims concerning corruption in Ukraine. Dubinsky, who serves alongside Derkach in Ukraine’s parliament, joined Derkach in press conferences designed to perpetuate these and other false narratives and denigrate U.S. presidential candidates and their families.
Kulyk, Onyshchenko, Telizhenko, and Dubinsky are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having directly or indirectly engaged in, sponsored, concealed, or otherwise been complicit in foreign influence in a United States election.
TREASURY TARGETS DISINFORMATION APPARATUS SUPPORTING DERKACH
NabuLeaks and Era-Media TOV are media front companies in Ukraine that push false narratives at Derkach’s behest. Derkach has been the de facto owner of Era-Media-related companies since the 1990s. More recently, Derkach created the NabuLeaks platform to disparage the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). NABU was created in 2015 as one of three specialized anti-corruption bodies in Ukraine. Derkach and Dubinsky have lobbied against NABU in an e ort to replace NABU leadership, discredit NABU as an organization, and deny their own corrupt practices.
NabuLeaks and Era-Media TOV are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for being owned or controlled by Derkach.
Derkach has also used a network of media professionals and assistants to operate these entities, supporting his influence campaign centered on cultivating false or unsubstantiated narratives and spurring corruption investigations in both Ukraine and the United States.
Petro Zhuravel is a key member of Derkach’s media team. He acts as Derkach’s media manager, and serves as website administrator for NabuLeaks, a cornerstone of Derkach’s election influence platform. Zhuravel provides technological support that underpins Derkach’s online activities. Zhuravel owns Only News and Skeptik TOV, which are media front companies in Ukraine that spread disinformation. These entities host websites that are part of a network of news sites that are controlled by Derkach’s media team and that help spread Derkach’s disinformation. https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1232 2/3 4/4/2021 Treasury Takes Further Action Against Russian-linked Actors | U.S. Department of the Treasury Dmytro Kovalchuk is a long-time supporter of Derkach. Most recently, he served in the ranks of Derkach’s media team, where he provided profiles on U.S. political figures.
Anton Simonenko served as Derkach’s assistant for nearly a decade and helped Derkach hide financial assets. Simonenko continues to be one of Derkach’s closest associates.
Zhuravel, Kovalchuk, and Simonenko are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for having materially assisted, sponsored or provided financial, material or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, Derkach. Only News and Skeptik TOV are being designated pursuant to E.O. 13848 for being owned or controlled by Zhuravel.
The Treasury Department encourages the American people to confirm information received via social media intelligently by going to multiple trusted sources for news and information, particularly when the source or suspected source of the information is from outside the United States. More information specific to the U.S. 2020 election and disinformation campaigns can be found here: https://www.cisa.gov/rumorcontrol.
As a result of today’s designations, all property and interests in property of these targets that are subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked, and U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in transactions with them. Additionally, any entities 50 percent or more owned by one or more designated persons are also blocked.
View identifying information on the individuals and entities sanctioned today.
###
https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/sm1232 3/3
4/7/2021 UPDATES: NABU detectives arrest Avakov's son, police reportedly block them (VIDEO) | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice
REFORM WATCH UPDATES: NABU detectives arrest Avakov’s son, police reportedly block them (VIDEO) By Oleg Sukhov. Published Oct. 31, 2017. Updated Oct. 31 2017 at 4:08 pm
Employees of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau arrest Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's son Oleksandr on Oct. 31. Photo by Politeka.net The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine on Oct. 31 arrested Oleksandr Avakov, the son of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, in Kyiv in a corruption case, Ilya Kyva, a former advisor to Avakov, told 112 Ukraine television. The report was con rmed to the Kyiv Post by a source close to the investigation. The source spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the press about the issue. The arrest of the son of Avakov, arguably Ukraine’s second most powerful person, is the most high-pro le action by the NABU since the detention of State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov in March and in uential ex-People’s Front party lawmaker Mykola Martynenko in April. The NABU said in a statement that it had arrested a former deputy interior minister, a representative of a rm that won a contract to supply backpacks to the Interior Ministry, and a private person. The Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper said, citing its sources, that the former deputy interior minister detained by the NABU was Serhiy Chebotar. Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative project said, citing its sources, that the rm representative was Volodymyr Lytvyn, CEO of IT company Turboseo. Ukrainska Pravda reported that notices of suspicion had been led for Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar. The Interior Ministry denied the corruption accusations. “A hybrid war continues in Ukraine that is aimed at discrediting politicians who are committed to reforming and cleansing state institutions, including law enforcement,” the ministry said in a statement. “…The NABU is involved in political, not legal, activities, which is unacceptable and must be immediately corrected.”
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/anti-graft-bureau-arrests-avakovs-son.html?cn-reloaded=1 1/2 4/7/2021 UPDATES: NABU detectives arrest Avakov's son, police reportedly block them (VIDEO) | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s son Oleksandr and ex-Deputy Interior Minister Serhiy Chebotar negotiate an allegedly corrupt backpack supply deal. Arsen Avavkov also commented on the accusations on Facebook. “Neither my son nor the rms co-founded by him have taken a single kopeck from the Ukrainian budget,” he said. “And Oleksandr Avakov will pass through necessary procedures and prove this in court… Pressure on me by the organizers of today’s actions against my son and my former subordinates will not succeed.” Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court said it would not consider Oleksandr Avakov’s arrest on Oct. 31 because the working day was over and would likely consider it on Nov. 1. This was seen by critics as a sign of political interference in the judiciary. The bureau conducted searches at premises that belong to Avakov in Kharkiv on Oct. 31. Volodymyr Rysenko, an activist of the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, said on Facebook that police o cers had completely surrounded the premises and were blocking NABU detectives inside in what he saw as an e ort to obstruct them. He published video footage of the police surrounding the building. Lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko said that National Guards had been brought to the NABU building in Kyiv in another apparent e ort to thwart the bureau. Leshchenko said that the NABU had been ready to charge Oleksandr Avakov in early 2017 but Chief Anti-Corruption Prosecutor Nazar Kholodnytsky had been dragging his feet on approving the notice of suspicion for him. Kholodnytsky, who is accused of being in uenced by the Presidential Administration and denies the accusations, authorized it only now amid a conl ct between President Petro Poroshenko and Avakov, Leshchenko added. Igor Lutsenko, a lawmaker from the Batkivshchyna party, said on Facebook that Avakov should be suspended from his job during the investigation. The suspects are accused of embezzling Hr 14 million in a case related to the supply of backpacks to the Interior Ministry. The prices of backpacks were signi cantly higher than market ones, the NABU said. Video footage has been published on the Internet where Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar discuss an allegedly corrupt scheme to supply backpacks to the Interior Ministry. Meanwhile, in video footage recorded by the Security Service of Ukraine and recognized by courts as genuine, Chebotar, the Interior Ministry’s State Secretary Oleksiy Takhtai and state rm Spetsvervis CEO Vasyl Petrivsky, an ex-aide to Avakov, negotiate a corrupt deal to sell sand at a rigged auction. Commenting on the accusations, Takhtai has said that he had not seen the video. In the video, Chebotar says that Avakov is also aware of the deal and is worried that the sand has not been sold yet. Petrivsky has pled guilty and has been convicted in a theft case for selling the sand. Avakov denies graft accusations, while Chebotar has resigned amid graft scandals. The NABU is also investigating Avakov’s deputy Vadym Troyan over video footage where people resembling Troyan and Chebotar discuss corrupt revenues from the tra c police and extorting money from businesspeople. Troyan denies accusations of corruption. Troyan’s house was searched in July as part of a bribery case. The Security Service of Ukraine and prosecutors said that three associates of Troyan had been arrested for extorting a Hr 1.5 million ($58,000) bribe, while he had nothing to do with the bribery. The statement was seen by Troyan’s critics as an e ort to let him escape punishment. The Novoye Vremya magazine has published an investigation on alleged tax evasion by Avakov – accusations that Avakov denies. Meanwhile, Avakov’s top ally and lawmaker Ihor Kotvitsky is under investigation over an undeclared transfer of $40 million to Panama. In 2015 Leshchenko also published a document according to which Avakov is identi ed as Italian company Avitalia’s president as of April 30, 2015. Ukrainian law bans ministers from simultaneously working as business executives. According to Avakov’s property declaration, the minister owns 100 percent in Avitalia. In his 2015 asset disclosure, Avakov declared a luxurious collection of premium wine bottles, high-end watches, pictures, including a Pablo Picasso one, and furniture, as well as Hr 265,000, $178,000 and 118,000 euros in cash.
Thank you, Rostyslav Shaposhnikov, for supporting independent journalism in Ukraine. If you have questions about your subscription, please contact us any time. Follow the Kyiv Post on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/anti-graft-bureau-arrests-avakovs-son.html?cn-reloaded=1 2/2 4/7/2021 Oleg Sukhov: Avakov must resign after all evidence of corruption | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice Oleg Sukhov: Avakov must resign after all evidence of corruption By Oleg Sukhov. Published March 16, 2018. Updated March 16 2018 at 2:01 pm
Evidence for Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's alleged corruption has been growing. Photo by Kostyantyn Chernichkin Roman senator Cato the Elder kept repeating at the end of all of his speeches “Carthago delenda est” (Carthage must be destroyed). Eventually, Carthage was destroyed by Rome in 146 BC. Like Cato the Elder, the Kyiv Post keeps repeating the truth about Ukraine’s rampant corruption. This truth is ignored by Ukraine’s powers that be and sometimes even its Western partners, who are too soft on the nation’s kleptocracy. But we will keep repeating it until we win. One example at hand: Interior Minister Arsen Avakov. We keep stating the obvious: in a normal and civilized country a minister must at least resign after such vast evidence of corruption and – at best – face criminal charges. In October Avakov’s son Oleksandr and Avakov’s ex-deputy Serhiy Chebotar were arrested and charged by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine with embezzling Hr 14 million in a case related to the supply of overpriced backpacks to the Interior Ministry. Video footage has been published on the Internet where Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar discuss a corrupt scheme to supply backpacks to the National Guard in Chebotar’s o ce. Are we so naïve as to believe that Oleksandr Avakov’s father was not aware of the deal? Ukraine’s corrupt establishment did its best to help Oleksandr Avakov, who was released by a kleptocratic court without bail. In December, a court returned Oleksandr Avakov’s passport and took o his electronic bracelet and Ukrainska Pravda reported that he was allowed to spend his Christmas holidays in Italy. Moreover, the freeze on his assets was canceled by a court in the same month. Meanwhile, in another video published on the Internet, Chebotar, the Interior Ministry’s State Secretary Oleksiy Takhtai and state rm Spetsvervis CEO Vasyl Petrivsky, an ex-aide to Avakov, negotiate a corrupt deal to sell sand at a rigged auction in Chebotar’s o ce. In the video, Chebotar implicates the minister himself in the deal, saying that Avakov is also aware of the scheme and is worried that the sand has not been sold yet. Avakov claims the video is a fake. But here’s the problem, Mr. Avakov: one of those featured in the video, Petrivsky, has already pled guilty and has been convicted to a suspended prison term in a theft case for the sand sale scheme described in the video. According to Ukraine’s court register, the video has been recorded by the Security Service of Ukraine and recognized as genuine. https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/oleg-sukhov-avakov-must-resign-evidence-corruption.html?cn-reloaded=1 1/2 4/7/2021 Oleg Sukhov: Avakov must resign after all evidence of corruption | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice The Takhtai-Petrivsky video appears to be part of the same series of videos from Chebotar’s o ce as the one that is being investigated by the NABU in the backpack supply case. In another video being investigated by the NABU, Avakov’s deputy Vadym Troyan and Chebotar discuss corrupt revenues from the tra c police and extorting money from businesspeople. Troyan’s house was searched in July as part of a bribery case. The Security Service of Ukraine and prosecutors said that three associates of Troyan had been arrested for extorting a Hr 1.5 million bribe, while he had nothing to do with the bribery. The statement was seen by Troyan’s critics as an e ort to let him escape punishment. Despite all of this, Avakov, Takhtai and Troyan remain on their jobs. Even worse: Avakov on March 3 destroyed a protest tent camp in front of the Verkhovna Rada, unmasking himself and showing his true face: that of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s Interior Minister Vitaly Zakharchenko, who cracked down on EuroMaidan demonstrators. As many as 112 protesters were arrested by the police, and at least 19 of them received heavy head injuries. Avakov’s re-named Berkut riot police humiliated veterans of the war with Russia by forcing them to kneel, and the police also stole or destroyed the protesters’ property. Avakov is lying that there was a court warrant for that. No, there was only a search warrant. There was no court ban on the protest that would have given the police the authority to demolish the camp. Worse still: Avakov has completely buried Ukraine’s fake “police reform,” with an overwhelming majority of corrupt and incompetent police o cers staying in the police. A question for Ukraine’s Western partners: do you still think you can deal with these people without tarnishing your own reputation? We keep saying: Carthage must be destroyed. And it will be.
Thank you, Rostyslav Shaposhnikov, for supporting independent journalism in Ukraine. If you have questions about your subscription, please contact us any time. Follow the Kyiv Post on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn.
https://www.kyivpost.com/article/opinion/op-ed/oleg-sukhov-avakov-must-resign-evidence-corruption.html?cn-reloaded=1 2/2 4/7/2021 Corruption accusations dog Avakov, Ukraine’s top cop | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice Corruption accusations dog Avakov, Ukraine’s top cop By Oleg Sukhov. Published March 30, 2018. Updated March 30 2018 at 10:52 am
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov faces numerous accusations of corruption and other crimes, which he denies. However, he has kept his job and faced no charges since his appointment in February 2014, given that he is arguably the second most powerful person in the country after President Petro Poroshenko. See a related story here. Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, with his passion for luxury and love of Italy, has a lifestyle little in keeping with a state o cial whose government salary in 2017 was a mere Hr 710,000 ($27,300). His declaration is an extravagant assortment of paintings, watches and wines, including some bottles worth more than $10,000 each. Avakov explains his wealth by the diverse business activities he has been carrying out despite having been in politics for more than 15 years. At the same time, Avakov’s career has been plagued with corruption scandals ever since he entered politics in 2002, when he became a member of Kharkiv City Council’s executive committee. When he was an opposition politician under President Viktor Yanukovych, he escaped corruption charges by eeing to Italy, saying that the 2012 case against him was politically motivated. But ever since the EuroMaidan Revolution brought Avakov to power in February 2014, he has had to use his political clout to fend o numerous accusations of graft. Arguably the second most powerful person in Ukraine as top cop in charge of 225,000 law enforcement o cials, he has kept his job and escaped prosecution, despite growing evidence of corruption. Avakov, who has always denied all accusations of corruption, did not respond to a request for an interview. Extravagant wealth Avakov’s asset declaration exposes his taste for luxury. The minister aunts a collection of 2,652 Ukrainian, Russian, Austro-Hungarian and Roman copper, bronze, silver and gold coins from periods ranging from the 2nd century B.C. to the 21st century, as well as 24 European and American gold coins from the 18th to 21st centuries. Avakov also boasts a collection of 754 French, Italian, German, Austrian, Ukrainian, Spanish, American and Chilean wines, including a bottle of 1945 Chateau Mouton-Rothschild. A three-liter bottle of it was sold at a Christie’s auction for over $114,000 in 1997, The Telegraph reported. Avakov also owns a Pablo Picasso lithograph and photogravure, a collection of paintings by Ukrainian artists, and Rolex Daytona, Vacheron Constantin and Jaeger LeCoultre watches. In 2017, Avakov also purchased a 26-room 566-square-meter villa with a swimming pool on the Mediterranean Sea coast in Italy for $900,000, saying it was for his wife’s tourism business. Avakov lives in a spacious mansion surrounded by a 3-meter fence and surveillance cameras in a large Interior Ministry compound near Kyiv called the Fortress, according to a 2016 investigation by the Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative unit. He has not included it in his asset declaration, claiming that he lives in a 78-square-meter hotel room.
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/corruption-accusations-dog-avakov-ukraines-top-cop.html 1/6 4/7/2021 Corruption accusations dog Avakov, Ukraine’s top cop | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s mansion in the ministry’s Fortress compound near Kyiv. (Copyright © 2017 RFE/RL, Inc.) He has denied accusations of wrongdoing, saying that he rents part of the mansion legally. Business empire Avakov, an ethnic Armenian born in Baku, Azerbaijan, started o as a businessman in Kharkiv in the violent 1990s, a period of messy and chaotic business con icts. Avakov and his business partners Oleksandr Konovalov, Igor Kotvitsky, Gennady Gaevoi and Igor Morkotonov built a business empire that comprised Investor Group, Bazis Bank, natural gas elds, the Vostorg supermarket chain, the Akhmad tea factory, ATN television, the Saltove bread factory and a mozzarella plant near Rome.
https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/corruption-accusations-dog-avakov-ukraines-top-cop.html 2/6 4/7/2021 Corruption accusations dog Avakov, Ukraine’s top cop | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice
Gennady Gaevoi, a business partner of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov and vice president of Avakov’s Investor Group. Along with Avakov, he was put on Interpol’s wanted list and arrested in Italy as part of a case into allegedly illegal land privatization in 2012. (Ukrafoto) Konovalov was initially the main partner, but he was killed in 1992. Businessman Leonid Roitman and Avakov’s ally-turned- opponent Gennady Kernes, now mayor of Kharkiv, have publicly accused Avakov of killing Konovalov to take over his assets — a claim denied by Avakov. He was investigated in the case but it has seen no progress. In the 1990s and 2000s, natural gas embezzlement and tax evasion cases were opened against some of Avakov’s rms. They were closed after the 2004 Orange Revolution, when Avakov allied himself with Viktor Yushchenko, who became president. Bank fraud? When Yushchenko appointed Avakov as governor of Kharkiv Oblast in 2005, numerous regional state rms and agencies started depositing their funds at Avakov’s Bazis Bank, triggering new accusations of corruption. After Yanukovych, a political enemy of Avakov, came to power in 2010, Avakov ed to Italy in 2011. Bazis Bank declared bankruptcy and started the process of liquidation in 2012. However, its depositors did not receive any money and are still suing the bank. The Prosecutor General’s O ce has opened an investigation into the case. In 2014 the courts returned Bazis Bank to Avakov’s family. But in 2015 the bank was transferred to Yevhen Pylypenko, who appointed a supervisory board that comprised his son Yuriy, a former security guard at Bazis Bank; Yana Yelantyeva, a previously unemployed person, and Kyrylo Anokhin, a student without any previous work experience, according to an investigation by the Slidstvo.info show. Bazis Bank then started selling o its assets, including to o shore rms, while the depositors still received no money. Land schemes In 2012 the Prosecutor General’s O ce charged Avakov with abuse of power by illegally privatizing 55 hectares of government land worth more than Hr 5.5 million and illegally changing the registered purpose of the land. The land, near the town of Pesochyn near Kharkiv, was privatized without Cabinet authorization, the Prosecutor General’s O ce said. Oleksandr Nechyporenko, head of the Kharkiv District, said he had been pressured to privatize the land and refused, while Yuriy Olekseyenko, who headed the state land agency’s branch in Kharkiv Oblast, said his signature on the privatization documents had been forged. Avakov was put on Interpol’s wanted list when he ed to Europe in 2011. An Italian court arrested Avakov in 2012 but refused Ukraine’s extradition request. Avakov said the case was a political vendetta by Yanukovych. According to a ruling by Kharkiv’s Kievsky District Court, 700 hectares of land were acquired by fraud using fake documents in Kharkiv Oblast. Kharkiv Oblast police said then the ultimate buyer of the land was Avakov’s Investor Group. After Avakov became interior minister in February 2014, the case was closed, and the police investigators looking into it were red. The High Commercial Court also ruled in 2011 that Avakov’s Investor Group had illegally acquired 18 hectares of forestland in Kharkiv Oblast’s Dergachi District in the early 2000s. The court con scated the land. After Avakov became interior minister, High Commercial Court judges Malvina Danilova and Tetiana Danilova from Kharkiv canceled the 2011 decision in May 2014 and transferred the land back to Investor group, which transferred it to Lisova https://www.kyivpost.com/ukraine-politics/corruption-accusations-dog-avakov-ukraines-top-cop.html 3/6 4/7/2021 Corruption accusations dog Avakov, Ukraine’s top cop | KyivPost - Ukraine's Global Voice y g p Halyavyna, a rm owned by Avakov’s wife Inna. The Public Integrity Council, a civil-society watchdog, vetoed Malvina Danilova as a Supreme Court candidate in 2017 because it said that she had consistently ruled in favor of Avakov to protect his business and political interests. She denies the accusations. In June 2016 Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court ordered prosecutors to open a case into the acquisition of the land by Avakov’s family at the Anti-Corruption Action Center’s request. In August the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine opened an investigation into the acquisition. Video footage In October 2017, Avakov’s son Oleksandr and Avakov’s ex-deputy Serhiy Chebotar were arrested and charged by the NABU with embezzling Hr 14 million in a case related to the supply of overpriced backpacks to the Interior Ministry. However, Oleksandr Avakov was released without bail due to what critics believe his father’s in uence.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s son Oleksandr (R) sits at a hearing on his arrest on Nov. 1 at Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court. He has been charged with embezzling Hr 14 million in a case related to the supply of overpriced backpacks to the Interior Ministry. However, he was released without bail. (Volodymyr Petrov) Video footage has been published on the Internet in which Oleksandr Avakov and Chebotar discuss in Chebotar’s o ce in 2014 a corrupt scheme to supply backpacks to the National Guard. Meanwhile, in another video published on the Internet, Chebotar, the Interior Ministry’s State Secretary Oleksiy Takhtai and state rm Spetsvervis CEO Vasyl Petrivsky, an ex-aide to Avakov, in Chebotar’s o ce negotiate a corrupt deal to sell sand at a rigged auction. In the video, Chebotar implicates the minister himself in the deal, saying that Avakov is also aware of the scheme and is worried that the sand has not been sold yet. Avakov claims the video is a fake. However, Petrivsky has already pled guilty and has been convicted to a suspended prison term in a theft case for the sand sale scheme described in the video. According to Ukraine’s court register, the video was recorded by the Security Service of Ukraine and has been recognized as genuine. The Takhtai-Petrivsky video appears to be part of the same series of videos from Chebotar’s o ce as the one that is being investigated by the NABU in the backpack supply case. In another video being investigated by the NABU, Avakov’s deputy Vadym Troyan and Chebotar discuss corrupt revenues from the tra c police and extorting money from businesspeople. Troyan’s house was searched in July as part of a bribery case. The Security Service of Ukraine and prosecutors said that three associates of Troyan had been arrested for extorting a Hr 1.5 million bribe, while he had nothing to do with the bribery. The statement was seen by Troyan’s critics as an e ort to let him escape punishment.
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Deputy Interior Minister Vadym Troyan. (Volodymyr Petrov) Money laundering? Avakov’s top ally — People’s Front lawmaker Kotvitsky, referred to by Ukrainian media as “Avakov’s wallet” — is under investigation by the NABU over an undeclared transfer of $40 million to Panama in 2014. Meanwhile, Avakov’s wife Inna sold her 40 percent stake in television channel Espresso TV to a rm owned by Ivan Zhevago, the son of Ukrainian oligarch and lawmaker Kostyantyn Zhevago, for $2 million at a 1,000 percent pro t. Critics, including lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, say they see evidence of money laundering in the unusual transaction and pro t in what is an unpro table industry. Tax evasion? Meanwhile, natural gas producers linked to Avakov allegedly participated in tax evasion schemes, according to an investigation published by the Novoye Vremya magazine in 2016. Avakov denies the accusations. The rms are suspected of selling gas at dumping prices in an e ort to minimize tax payments. Investor Group operates the Denisivske gas eld in Kharkiv Oblast. In 2014, 171.8 million cubic meters of gas from the eld were sold at Hr 1,800 per cubic meter, compared with the average market price of about Hr 4,000, according to Novoye Vremya.
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Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s partner Ihor Kotvitsky. (Courtesy) The magazine estimated that the budget lost Hr 82.5 million as a result of the below-market prices. Gravelit‑21, a trader that buys gas from the Denisivske eld, was founded by Anna Murashova, who features in photos posted on Facebook as an acquaintance of Avakov’s son Oleksandr and his business partner Kotvitsky. Her father is an aide to Kotvitsky.
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FRI, MAR 1, 2019
No good deed goes unpunished in Ukraine UkraineAlert by Olena Halushka and Olena Shcherban
Corruption Political Reform Rule of Law Ukraine
Nadiya Bugrova, a forensics expert with thirty-seven years of experience, says she faces politically motivated criminal charges. Credit: RFE/RL
Ukraine is in danger of backsliding, big time, and few people realize just how serious it is. This week, the Constitutional Court eliminated a law which made corrupt o cials liable for illicit enrichment. This will immediately result in the closure of sixty- ve high-pro le criminal cases. The court decision may jeopardize Ukraine’s relations with international institutions.
But that’s not all. There’s a serious e ort to undermine Ukraine’s new anti-corruption institutions underway that hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves.
The ght can be seen through the harassment that Nadiya Bugrova, a forensics expert with thirty-seven years of experience, faces. The police will likely indict Bugrova this month and she may go to jail for three years.
Her crime? She honestly assessed the value of backpacks for the National Guard ghting on Ukraine’s front lines.
Based on her conclusions, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine charged Interior Minister Arsen Avakov’s son Oleksandr with embezzling $500,000 from the state.
In 2014, Oleksandr Avakov and deputy minister Serhii Chebotar were caught on video discussing the procurement of 5,000 backpacks for National Guard soldiers.
NABU opened an investigation in 2016, and Bugrova assessed the value of the backpacks in 2017. She concluded that they did not meet the procurement requirements and revealed a number of defects. Bugrova set the real value of each backpack at around $22 instead of $115 that the state had paid. Her evaluation was key to NABU’s criminal investigation: it had to establish whether or not nancial damage to the state passed the threshold for criminal liability. Bugrova’s conclusions opened the door for criminal prosecution.
In 2018, the Specialized Anticorruption Prosecutor’s O ce watered down the case and dropped charges against Avakov’s son and Chebotar. The middleman concluded a plea deal with the prosecution and got a suspended sentence. Nonetheless, this was not enough for Avakov.
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The police started to harass Bugrova. In November 2018, her home and o ce were searched on dubious grounds. The police seized all materials related to the Avakov backpack case, even though they did not have a court warrant to do so. The police also seized materials from other cases as well as all family funds, bank cards, and cell phones of family members.
Then the police charged Bugrova on grounds absolutely di erent from the ones mentioned in the search order—$180 fraud for allegedly forging a forensic conclusion. The investigators are ready to send the case to trial.
That’s not all. The Ministry of Justice, headed by Arsen Avakov’s associate Pavlo Petrenko from the Narodnyi Front party, intended to revoke her expert license, but their plan was prevented due to publicity.
Some may try to dismiss Bugrova’s case as an outlier. It’s not. We are witnessing a full- edged attack on forensic experts. It’s hard to overstate the importance of forensic expertise in a criminal investigation. The size of the damage and the severity of the o ence depends on the conclusion of the expert. Ukraine’s courts and anti-corruption bodies cannot do their work without competent and honest forensics experts.
The state wants to block corruption-related investigations by establishing control over forensics now. We see a connection between the e ective work of NABU and the high likelihood that the future anti-corruption court will also work well and threaten the interests of the corrupt elite.
In March 2018, new amendments to the procedure codes were enacted which complicate forensic work. Courts now appoint forensic experts for criminal cases. Previously, an investigator or prosecutor could select an expert almost immediately after the crime took place.
Also, the law introduced a state monopoly on forensics in criminal cases. Earlier, private forensics experts like Bugrova could have performed such tasks. Right now only state experts are eligible, which also creates additional opportunities for controlling their conclusions. For example, the head of Kyiv Scienti c Research Institute of Forensic Evaluations tried to withdraw the forensic evaluation of his subordinate in the case of Roman Nasirov, the former tax administration chief, suspected of causing state losses of around $80 million.
The situation may get worse. Ukraine’s parliament is considering draft law 8336 which would cancel the exclusive appointment of forensics by the court for all criminal cases, apart from high-pro le corruption ones, entrench the monopoly of state forensics experts in criminal cases, and even prohibit experts from testifying in court, which will create additional opportunities for fraud.
A central pillar of independent investigations—quality forensics—is jeopardized. The serious aws in draft law 8336 must be eliminated, and the international community must watch Burgova’s case closely. Jailing her would set a dangerous precedent and send a message to forensics experts that they are not safe when fairly and properly evaluating damage to the state caused by top corrupt o cials.
Olena Halushka is the head of international relations at the Anti-Corruption Action Center. Olena Scherban in the head of AntAC legal department
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