Sergey Ignatovsky // How the OP protected the schemes at the OPP
On March 22, NABU handed suspicions to the former head of the State Property Fund Dmitry Sennichenko. Law enforcement officers accuse him of creating a criminal scheme to earn money at state-owned enterprises, when the head of the State Property Fund appointed the right people to the supervisory boards, who then created conditions for cooperation with certain companies. For which they received a generous reward, and the state lost billions, writes Censor.
At the same time, law enforcement officers released audio conversations, from which it becomes clear that the organizers of the criminal group were on good terms with the President’s Office. On the recordings, they mention the former head of the Office of the President Andriy Bogdan and presidential aide Sergei Shefir.
Unfortunately, most of the members of the criminal gang are now abroad. The ex-chairman of the State Property Fund Sennichenko is somewhere in the suburbs of Valencia. Pavel Prisyazhnyuk, whom Censor.NET sources called Sennichenko’s curator from the authorities, in Vienna, Andrei Gmyrin, who worked closely with the President’s Office for several years, has been to Kiev, but spends much more time in Dubai.
These people could tell much more about their cooperation with the Office of the President of Ukraine. But this is unlikely to happen in the foreseeable future.
However, Censor.NET has documents that nevertheless shed light on such cooperation and indicate that Bankovaya was aware of making money from the OPP and OGCC.
Among other things, this is the testimony of the former deputy head of the State Property Fund, Sergei Ignatovsky. He worked at the Fund for only 9 months (from October 2019 to July 2020), but during this time he managed to find himself at the epicenter of the IPF schemes. In the materials of the investigation, he is not listed as a member of a criminal group, but passes as a witness, since he was a member of the supervisory board of the OPP.
According to Ignatovsky, OPP was appointed to the supervisory board in 2019, since the members of the board were mainly current employees of the State Property Fund. Together with him, Vladislav Voitenko was appointed to carry out contacts with the directorate of JSC OPP. “Voytenko was brought in by Denis Kudin, since they worked together at the VOG. Kudin recommended Voitenk’s candidacy and said that he understood business processes. Since someone needs to constantly work with the management of JSC “OPZ” Voytenko was appointed to this position. Ruban L. was also appointed to the position of a member of the Supervisory Board. Ruban was also nominated by Kudin. Ruban used to trade oil products,” Ignatovsky said in his testimony.
It follows from them that Sennichenko advised him Kudin as a person who would advise him on the structuring of state-owned companies, although at that time neither Kudin nor Ruban with Voitenko had yet worked at the State Property Fund. Therefore, Sennichenko held working meetings with these persons and Ignatovsky in the Vatra restaurant on Gorodetsky Street in the center of Kyiv.
Denis Kudin // How the OP protected schemes at the OPP
Voitenko and Ruban are also not considered by the investigation as participants in the criminal scheme. They did not know about Sennichenko’s intentions, what will become clear later.
But actually, the former head of the State Property Fund met with the participants in the scheme in other institutions – Mustard or Champion Hall in the Parkovy Exhibition Center, where the office of the Servant of the People party is located. Although the main communication between the participants of the scheme took place through WatsApp or little-known messengers.
According to the investigators, in the first days after being appointed to the position in September 2019, Sennichenko met with his longtime university acquaintance Sergey Bayrak, shared with him his intention to make money at state enterprises and asked him to find those who had already cooperated with the State Property Fund. A few days later Bayrak told Sennichenko about Gmyrin, and in early October the three of them met at the NOW and Champion Hall restaurants. The latter institution is associated with the owners of the Agro Gas Trading company, whose interests Gmyrin represented.
Andrey Gmyrin
In November-December, the aforementioned trio met with AGT owners Vladimir Kolot and Alexander Gorbunenko to discuss the scheme. At the same time, it was agreed on the appointment of Nikolai Sinitsa, recommended by Gmyrin, as the director of the plant.
In January 2020, Sennichenko informed his deputy Ignatovsky that the members of the board of the OPP needed to be replaced. He also said that he “had a political patron – Andrei Gmyrin, who will defend and lobby Sennichenko in front of the top political leadership of the state.”
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
Ignatovsky’s testimonies also indicate that Sennichenko said that he and Gmyrin communicate with the Office of the President, and therefore “it is necessary to cooperate with Gmyrin and fulfill some political will of the Office of the President of Ukraine that they will nominate any candidates for senior positions in state-owned companies” .
After this conversation, Sennichenko gave Ignatovsky a candidacy for acting. chairman of the board – director of the plant Nikolai Sinitsa, noting that it was proposed by Gmyrin.
Having a foreign candidate with an impeccable reputation, Ignatovsky interviewed Sinitsa, decided that he had the proper profession and agreed on his appointment.
“Indeed, it was necessary to change the management of OPP JSC, since unhealthy work developed there, the plant’s income was transferred to the trade union, which transferred them to sports clubs (in particular, BC Khimik),” Ignatovsky notes in his testimony.
BC “Khimik” was created under the OPF, its co-owner is Sergei Nazarenko (he was also the chairman of the board of the plant at that time). Interestingly, the legal entity of the NGO BC Khimik began to be liquidated in 2020. In 2021, according to the Tribuna website, Superleague clubs and the federation will financed this season for Khimik. Although in previous years, 70 million hryvnia per year was spent on the club from the funds of the OPF.
In late 2019 – early 2020, Sennichenko Voitenko and Ruban, who were lobbied by Sennichenko, already went to the OPF to lobby the necessary suppliers of fuels and lubricants and others. Nazarenko told Ignatovsky about this, and he, in turn, told Sennichenko, who did not like it. After that, Ruban and Voitenko stopped communicating with the deputy head of the State Property Fund and no longer went to the plant, but did their job when they were invited.
Sennichenko and Ignatovsky present the new director of the Dnepr Hotel
But in February-March, Sennichenko himself told Ignatovsky that Voitenko and Ruban were walking around the plant, catching members of the board of OPZ JSC and agitating for Sokar to be the winner of the supplier competition under the tolling scheme.
As you know, at the beginning of 2020, representatives of Socar were brought to the OPP by the then head of the President’s Office Andriy Bogdan.
Bogdan brought the Socar delegation to the OPF
After that, Sennichenko initiated the replacement of Voitenko and Ruban on the supervisory board of the OPP, and Voitenko was transferred to the supervisory board of the OGCC (which also appears in the same NABU case).
In his testimony, Ignatovsky points out that the then supervisory board of the OPP did not oppose in any way, but even contributed to the competition for a supplier on a give-and-take basis. But, according to him, with the appointment of the Sinitsa plant, the new director began to have misunderstandings with the board, and already Sennichenko began to insist on replacing the composition of the board.
After that, Ignatovsky received from the head of the State Property Fund the candidacies of new members of the board: Zamsha, Severin, Grach, Sevastyanov. As stated in the testimony of the Deputy Chairman of the State Property Fund, Sennichenko shouted at him and demanded to appoint the indicated persons, because Gmyrin and the President’s Office put pressure on him.
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
In his testimony, Ignatovsky also mentions the role of Olga Batova, who later became acting. head of the State Property Fund, and at the time of the action on the OPF was Sennichenko’s personal assistant and monitored the implementation of his instructions. As you know, Batova left the FGI only in the summer of 2022. Ignatovsky also points out that Sennichenko ordered him to communicate with the aforementioned Sergei Bayrak on business processes.
As the Deputy Chairman of the State Property Fund recalls, since May 2020, Sennichenko stopped communicating with his deputies, although he used to do this up to 10 times a day, and instead spends his days meeting with Pavel Prisyazhnyuk. This person is now featured in the NABU case on Sennichenko. The companies associated with it (EPI Group, Belanto) received money from OGCC. Sources of Censor.NET called Prisyazhnyuk the informal curator of Sennichenko. Ignatovsky, in his testimony, indicates that this is a person who was given from the President’s Office to deal with economic issues. At a meeting on the Electrotyazhmash plant, Sennichenko even introduced Prisyazhnyuk as a person from the President’s Office.
In his testimony, Ignatovsky indicates that after a short conversation he realized that Prisyazhnyuk was a “rogue” and asked Sennichenko to limit their communication. At the same time, the witness recalls her conversation with the head of the State Property Fund, where he asked where Prisyazhnyuk came from. And Sennichenko answered him that he was “given by Sergiy Shefir, an assistant to the President of Ukraine.” To which Ignatovsky said that Shefir did not have the authority to lead the head of the State Property Fund, and Sennichenko replied that he needed a political “roof”.
In addition, Sennichenko introduced Sergey Sizonenko to Ignatovsky, who will help with appointments to positions in a state-owned company in the agricultural sector.
Taking into account the testimony of Ignatovsky, at the end of 2019, Andrey Bogdan tried to start the IVE trade company, owned by Alexander Rovt, at the OPF. The American had plans to manage the plant, to which the witness should explain to him that for the time being this is a state-owned enterprise. At the same time, Agro Gas Trading, which was the supplier at that time, due to additional agreements, began to raise the terms of the contract by several dollars, so that it was unprofitable for the OPP to change the supplier. But since there were questions about the victory of AGT at the previous competition, Ignatovsky began to prepare a new competition.
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
The already mentioned IVE Trade, Sokar, AGT and Ukrnaftobureniye affiliated with Igor Kolomoisky took part in this competition. The price went up during the auction. According to Ignatovsky, Ukrnaftobureniye gave $70 per ton of urea. But in the midst of the auction, Sennichenko called him and asked him to take a break. The head of the SPFU assured the deputy that the real goal of Ukrnaftoburenia was to disrupt the competition and that the proposed price offer was not profitable, which created the risk of shutting down the plant.
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
The director of the OPP, Sinitsa, then announced a break, and the next day, the State Property Fund received a letter from the management of the plant that the price of Ukrnaftoburenia was unprofitable. And after a short time, this information was confirmed by the Department of Security of the State Property Fund. Sennichenko himself sent a letter to Ukrnaftoburinia regarding explanations and justification of the price. The head of the State Property Fund was sure that Ukrnaftobureniye would not respond. After that, a meeting was held in the fund, where Sennichenko insisted on the cancellation of the competition.
From the materials of the covert investigative actions of NABU, it is already known that at that moment he was negotiating with the AGT through an intermediary. As you know, starting from 2017, the already mentioned Gmyrin represented the AGT in such negotiations.
There is an important detail in Ignatovsky’s testimony – at the meeting, Sennichenko said that an order had been received from the President’s Office to cancel the competition. After that, the head of the State Property Fund signed recommendations to the Supervisory Board of the OPP that the competition should be canceled.
“After the cancellation of the competition, about a month later, Sennichenko said that we had done the right thing, that we had canceled the competition, that the President’s Office was pleased with us, that now AGT LLC would bring us money for this. He wrote some amount of money in US dollars, I don’t remember the exact amount, but it was hundreds of thousands of US dollars. I replied that I don’t play such games and I won’t participate in this. He didn’t like my answer. according to Sennichenko, communication with the Office of the President was provided by Sergey Shefir and Timur Mindich”, — stated in the testimony of Ignatovsky.
How the OP covered the schemes at the OPF
In his testimony, he also indicated that members of the OGCC board Peter Davis, Kiyashko, Tatyana Gogenko, Natan Khazin and Artur Somov were appointed at the suggestion of Gmyrin.
Sennichenko’s former deputy says that he had conflicts with him over the appointment of heads of regional energy companies, agricultural enterprises, and Pushcha-Voditsa. And at some point, the head of the State Property Fund advised him to quit, because the OP was unhappy with him – they say, NABU and DBR are digging under him. Later, Kudin was appointed to replace Ignatovsky.
You may think that it was once. After all, the same Shefir has not been mentioned almost anywhere since the assassination attempt on him and was allegedly successfully pushed aside by Andriy Yermak from the ears of Vladimir Zelensky.
But not everything is so simple – the same Gmyrin was well received on Bankovaya already under the leadership of Yermak. And he, like Oleg Tatarov, was involved in a fake competition for the election of the chairman of the Economic Security Bureau.
After the State Property Fund, Kudin was transferred as a deputy to the Ministry of Economy, and then the newly appointed general director of Ukrnafta Serhiy Koretsky (also a native of WOG) took Kudin to his place as vice president for corporate strategy and development at PJSC Ukrnafta. As you know, in the fall, Ukrnafta was transferred from the sphere of influence of Igor Kolomoisky to the balance of the Ministry of Defense. According to the bihus.info investigation, 2 members of the supervisory board of this enterprise are connected with Andriy Yermak. We are talking about Roza Topanova and Andrey Gota. As a matter of fact, Yermak influences the head of the Defense Ministry himself and his deputy Denis Sharapov.
Since the beginning of the presidency of Vladimir Zelensky, Timur Mindich has been periodically attending some festivities of representatives of the authorities. Zelensky lived in Mindych’s apartment during the election campaign. He also celebrated his birthday there during the coronavirus pandemic, and in December 2021, Mindych was among the guests of Sinegora at the birthday party of Andriy Yermak.
Mindich with Tkach after meeting a businessman on Bankova
Mindic is associated with the career advancement of the former head of the Ministry of Regional Development, and now the head of Naftogaz, Alexei Chernyshev. Evil tongues say that the businessman allegedly has his own interests in Centrenergo and Energoatom because of Herman Galushchenko and Petr Kotin. Mindic is also mentioned in the context of the functioning of the back office of Naftogaz.
Tatyana Nikolaenko, translation Skeleton.Info
DOSSIER: Sennichenko Dmitry: how to plunder the remnants of Ukraine. PART 2
