Sergey Lagur: Who will get the treasures of “Continuum”? PART 1

The deeper the abyss of the Ukrainian economy, the more fiercely and inventively the oligarchs fight for the remaining resources and flows. Now even between competing groups at the very top of the pyramid of power: not long ago they stood side by side on the Maidan, and now they are trying to throw each other out of business. And behind their backs, partners who have been developing a joint business for many years are settling scores with each other.

Recently, an oligarch was attacked again Nikolay Martynenkowho has been hit with more surprise inspections, charges, lawsuits and criminal cases in the last two years than he had seen in the previous twenty years of quiet life in Ukraine under Kuchma, Yushchenko and Yanukovych. Now the court has frozen Martynenko’s share of the authorized capital in three of his companies, including Vortex LLC. This incident is being commented on in light of the ongoing “cold war” between the oligarchs of the presidential “family” and the oligarchs from the entourage of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, which includes Martynenko.

But will it affect other co-owners of Vortex and Martynyuk’s partners? Among them, journalists named the former co-owner of WOG Petr Dyminsky, the heirs of the co-owner of the Continuum group Igor Eremeev and the mysterious Lanna Lagur (that’s what the media called her), who was immediately listed as a possible relative of Sergei Lagur, another co-owner of Continuum. It would seem that this question can already be answered in the affirmative, since the name of this company and the names of its co-owners have been heard too often in various corruption scandals lately. For example, as it became known Skeleton.Infothe capital’s prosecutor’s office is investigating the activities of Vog Aero Jet LLC (one of the companies in the Continuum group) and the Bank of Investments and Savings, which is directly connected to it and is owned by former Continuum managers. We are talking about possible fraud involving colossal sums related to tender agreements between Vog Aero Jet and Ukrzaliznytsia, as well as the illegal transfer of foreign currency abroad. However, there are serious doubts that this case, like many others, will even be brought to court. After all, Sergei Lagur and his partners have gotten out of even worse stories.

Sergey Lagur. A Man from Nowhere

Lagur Sergey Nikolaevich was born on October 15, 1962 in Kyiv. He had two apartments registered in the capital: one in a nondescript Soviet nine-story brick tower at Novgorodskaya-1, and the other in a slightly newer ten-story panel building at Tatarskaya-38. Apparently, he could have spent his childhood in the first apartment, and he could have received the second one during the times of the Ukrainian SSR or bought it in the early 90s (it is unlikely that such housing would have interested him later, when he became a millionaire). Interestingly, this database of Ukrainian residents does not contain any information about his parents. It is also known from the scanty biography of Lagur himself that he is single. Is it really possible that one of the richest people in Ukraine is a lonely orphan? Well, if you do not count his supposed family ties with the mysterious “Lanna” Lagur.

It is worth making a clarification here: our fellow journalists made an inaccuracy, and then spread it in various publications: in fact, “Lanna” is called Liana, and she is a co-owner not only of “Vortex”, but also of the construction company “RIEL”. Another owner and director of “RIEL” is Rostislav Melnik – who, in turn, together with his wife Oksana Melnik is a co-owner of BIS-Bank (they each have 9.63% of the shares). Well, among the other owners of BIS-Bank, we will see Sergey Lagur (17.5%) and his partners in the “Continuum” group. Stepana Ivakhiva (17.5%) and Petr Dyminsky (5.67%). That is, Liana Lagur and Sergey Lagur are connected not only by their last name, but who they are to each other remains an intriguing mystery…

Well, where he studied, whether he graduated from any university, what he did in the 80s and what he did in the 90s, Sergey Lagur never told anyone. He also had no childhood or youth friends who could tell him the details of his life. This is another very secretive and non-public oligarch of Ukraine with an impenetrable dark past – who stood out against the background of his business partners: the now deceased Igor Yeremeyev, the still living Stepan Ivakhiv and Petro Dyminsky, who left them in time. This led to the emergence of conflicting rumors about who Sergey Lagur is and how he entered the business of Yeremeyev and Ivakhiv. For example, some sources Skeleton.Info They claim that in the 90s, Sergey Lagur was a member of one of the Kyiv organized crime groups, and then began investing the gangster’s cash in the oil business. Other sources claim that he came from law enforcement agencies or special services, but they are divided in their opinions as to whether Lagur was a “werewolf in uniform” or an embedded “mole”. One thing is clear: in any of these options, it is better not to advertise such a past.

However, for now these are just unconfirmed rumors. But in their perspective, Lagur’s favorite hobby – tennis – takes on a new interpretation. He has been involved in it since at least the 90s, he was a sponsor of tennis clubs and championships, and then headed the Tennis Federation of Ukraine.

A rather atypical sport for the “brotherhood”, who prefer boxing and wrestling. However, tennis is the “signature” sport of Soviet diplomats and the KGB: Lavrentiy Beria was the first to take up the sport, introducing the entire Lubyanka to the racket. And in the 90s, tennis was almost the main sport in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) – since the Kremlin leadership of that time amused itself with it. Therefore, vague doubts arise: is it by chance that the oligarch Lagur, who literally appeared out of nowhere in the late 90s, with a completely cleaned-up biography, is a fan of tennis?

Presidents of the Ukrainian Tennis Federation Andrey Medvedev (*criminal) and Sergey Lagur

One of the first surviving mentions of him in the media dates back to November 2001, where Serhiy Lagur is called a member of the supervisory board of the NPK Galichina (Drohobych Oil Refinery) and the head of Ukroptservis LLC. It is known that this company has existed since at least 1993, and in the 90s, the future Minister of Ecology of Ukraine worked there Nikolay Zlochevsky and future oligarch Boris Belikov (now the owner and head of Ovostar Union). A little later, the head of Nadra Bank Igor Gilenko (who fled Ukraine in 2008) will briefly tell journalists the following about one of the main shareholders:

Sergey Lagur: Who will get the treasures of “Continuum”?

Apparently, Sergey Lagur was involved in metal and coal in the 90s, since in the 2000s he had already switched to oil and oil products. In fact, the team of partners Yeremeyev-Ivakhiv and Lagur-Dyminsky was formed around the Drohobych refinery “Galichina”, the first workshops of which were built back in the days of the “good Caesar” Ferdinand.

This happened in the period 2000-2001, when the second package of shares of “Galichina” was launched for privatization, and as a result of cunning manipulations, 42% ended up under the control of Petro Dyminsky, the owner of the companies OOO “Nadezhda” and “Europa-II”. Dyminsky then boasted of his huge connections in the regional and city administrations of Lviv, as well as his friendship with the people’s deputy Igor Nasalik (current Minister of Energy of Ukraine) and Nikolay Katerenchuk, with whom he had close business ties. Already in 2002, when tax audits began at Galichina, Dyminsky hid these shares in his Kyiv firms Ukrprommettorg LLC and Ukrsim LLC, and he himself resorted to the help of Nasalik and Katerenchuk. When Katerenchuk became deputy chairman of the State National Research University in 2005, all the tax raids on Dyminsky’s firms, understandably, ceased.

Petr Dyminsky

And so, during the second privatization of Galichina, Dyminsky launched the Continuum group of companies of Yeremeyev and Ivakhiv into the enterprise, which created the Western Oil Group joint venture (West Oil Group or WOG). Their businesses merged according to an intricate scheme, as a result of which Sergey Lagur became one of the co-owners of Continuum, and thus the triumvirate of Lagur-Ivakhiv-Yeremeyev was formed. Dyminsky, together with this trio, became a co-founder and co-owner of the created WOG gas station network, which began with 14 gas stations of Ivakhiv and Yeremeyev, and now owns about 500 gas stations and 32 oil depots.

The subsequent raid on the Galichina refinery by tax and law enforcement agencies was not accidental. It was not only about the intricate schemes created by Dyminsky, Eremeyev and Lagur, according to which wholesale flows of petroleum products went through some subsidiaries of the Continuum group, were sold at retail through others, and the funds received went into the shadows through still others. According to the information available to us, Skeleton.Info information, the oldest oil refinery in Ukraine (and perhaps in all of Europe), whose products barely reached even the Soviet GOST standards, was used by Continuum not only for its intended purpose. Oil re-export schemes were carried out there, imported gasoline was converted into domestic (bypassing duties), and fascinating financial scams were also arranged, including with bank loans.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUATION: Sergey Lagur: Who will get the treasures of “Continuum”? PART 2

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