Arsen Avakov: criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs

In Ukraine, no one has been surprised for a long time by previously convicted presidents and prosecutors general. And if the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were not so corrupt and did not close criminal cases for bribes or on command from above, then now we could have an officially former Minister of Internal Affairs. Moreover, in the biography of Arsen Avakov there were enough criminal episodes to last for more than one “walk”! It’s simply amazing how a person who has had such a difficult relationship with the law all his life has been standing guard over it for three years now, having gained a reputation as the most “indispensable” government minister!

Arsen Avakov. How did a Soviet engineer become a banker?

Really, how? A quarter of a century ago, at the turn of the political and economic eras, citizens of the crumbling USSR sincerely believed that with the fall of the “dictatorship of the Communist Party” and the transition to “market tracks” everyone would have a chance to become a millionaire – they just needed to wash and sell the notorious apples more diligently, wash and sell. But it turned out that millionaires (not in coupons, of course) are not those who wash apples, but those who transport them in large wholesale, or privatize and then rent out entire orchards. What helped a simple Soviet engineer Arsen Avakov take the first step into big business, and eventually become one of the hundred richest people in Ukraine, become one of the minister-oligarchs of the “post-Maidan” governments – with most of their business located abroad? This will be sorted out Skelet.Info.

Arsen Borisovich Avakov was born on January 2, 1964 in the village named after Kirov (now Binagadi), located on the outskirts of Baku (Azerbaijan), in the family of military pilot Boris Surenovich Avakov (1936-1995). His father was an ethnic Armenian and from birth bore the surname Avakyan, but “Russified” it at the flight school. His mother Tatyana Matveevna Avakova also “Russified”: in 2014, information appeared from supposedly her fellow countrymen that her maiden name was Tanya Gabaraeva from the village of Tilian, Znaursky district of South Ossetia. People say that this may explain the overly aggressive hostility that Arsen Avakov has towards the former Georgian president: during the August War of 2008, the Znaursky district suffered a lot from the soldiers of Mikheil Saakashvili.

However, this is just an assumption: as you know, Avakov has never been distinguished by good manners and restraint – which is not at all surprising, given his past.

Cube from Skelet.Infofor the mood:

The pilot’s family often moved from place to place (republics of the USSR, Czechoslovakia), ending their nomadic lifestyle only in the 70s, firmly settling in Kharkov. Arsen graduated from school there, and his parents got him a job as a preparator at the Kharkov Polytechnic Institute (now the National Technical University) at the Department of Automated Control Systems, where he later studied. Further, in Avakov’s biography one can observe some confusion: there is no information about his service in the army, it is stated that in 1987 he began working as an engineer at the Water Protection Research Institute, and at the same time it is said that he only received a diploma in systems engineering in 1988. But an engineer without a diploma was unthinkable in Soviet times, unlike the current ministers without a diploma!

And here comes the most interesting part! In all versions of Avakov’s biography that I could find Skelet.Infohis business career began in 1990 with the establishment of Investor JSC, his first and most important enterprise (then Investor acted as a founder and shareholder of other enterprises, turning into a holding company).

And already in 1992, Avakov earned so much money that he needed his own bank – and he (more precisely, JSC Investor) established JSCB Basis. In just two years, from an engineer with a salary of 250 rubles to a banker! In the West, films are made and books are written about such geniuses, but for some reason our hero stubbornly kept silent about which golden apples he got rich on.

The secret became clear years later, although information about Avakov’s activities in the early 90s is very sketchy – he is one of the most “cryptic” oligarchs of Kharkov. So, in 1990, Arsen Avakov, together with Gennady Gaev (born 1963) and the previously convicted Alexander Konovalov (born 1949), created the joint-stock company “Investor” – in which Konovalov, and not Avakov, played the main role. And their first business was not apples, but non-ferrous metal, which was “mined” somewhere by Avakov and Gaev, and sold by Konovalov for currency or barter. However, in addition to the proceeds for the metal, “Investor” also had considerable finances of unknown origin, for the commercial use of which “Investor” JSC was started (at that time there were not many OA in the country). According to rumors, it could be money from one of the Kharkov organized crime groups.

In 1992, “Investor”, through the Basis bank, began investing money in many promising projects. And here the following events occur: law enforcement agencies arrest a certain Valshonok, director of the Potok company, associated with Investor JSC, accusing him of theft on an especially large scale. Alexander Konovalov turned to Gennady Kernes (Read more about him in the article by Gennady Kernes. Dark pages of the past of the Kharkov mayor), who was then having an affair with Oksana Gaisinskaya (his future wife), the daughter of Deputy Prosecutor General Yuri Gaisinsky. Through Kernes and Oksana, he gives Gaisinsky several gifts, including paying for his vacation in a sanatorium at the expense of Investor JSC. This was a careless step: investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs appeared and began to file a case against Konovalov himself – for bribes. The Investor itself was under threat of collapse, whose accounts could be seized.

Gennady Gaevoy

And then suddenly everything was resolved in the best possible way for Arsen Avakov. At the end of 1992, Alexander Konovalov was killed with two shots at point-blank range. According to the official version, which Avakov himself adheres to, Konovalov was killed by his own security guard in order to rob the boss and escape with his wallet and watch to Donetsk. This guard was found dead a few months later, so they pinned the murder on him. However, a former member of the Ukrainian and American mafia of the 90s, Leonid Roitman (Lenya Long), in one of his “revelations” stated that Konovalov was allegedly ordered by Avakov, and the order was carried out by the people of the criminal authority Alexander Milchenko (Sailor). Whether this is true or not, after the death of Alexander Konovalov, Investor JSC remained at the complete disposal of Arsen Avakov, who became the main shareholder and owner of the company, and his faithful companion Gennady Gaevoy.

Load condensate in barrels!

Not all Ukrainians know that the “Ahmad” brand tea sold in Ukraine, considered one of the best in the country, appeared here thanks to Avakov: in 1994, “Investor” began importing this tea, and in 1999, he opened the “Ukrainian Tea Shop” in Kharkov Ahmad Tea factory, which was engaged in parking imported loose tea. It is interesting that tea connoisseurs consider Kharkov’s Ahmad to be frankly unimportant, and there are also rumors that Avakov had a hand in creating problems for the import of Ahmad’s main competitor to Ukraine, Dilmah tea (packed in Sri Lanka by the direct manufacturer) , which has almost disappeared from the shelves of Ukrainian stores since 2015.

However, it was not tea that made Arsen Avakov one of the richest oligarchs in Ukraine, but gas condensate produced in the fields of the Kharkov and then Poltava regions. Avakov got into this business in the mid-90s, and he alone knows how and through which people. It is only known that until 1996 this topic was the responsibility of the Kharkov group, headed by the then chairman of the regional council, Alexander Maselsky. There is information that they were closely acquainted (perhaps the acquaintance took place through Maselsky’s son-in-law Alexander Yaroslavsky, more details about him in the article Alexander Yaroslavsky: three marriages of the Kharkov “king”), moreover, Maselsky favored Avakov and provided him with some support.

Alexander Maselsky (center)

Avakov greatly abused this support, as evidenced by the initiation of a criminal case in the 90s regarding the theft of gas condensate from the Balakleyskoye field of the Shebelinkagazdobycha State Public Institution, for which the prosecutor’s office “pushed” him. Complete information about the case has not been preserved (it was closed and “lost” even before the first Maidan), but sources involved in it reported that a scheme was in operation according to which the official condensate production was underestimated, and the difference went to Avakov’s enterprises Investor-Neftegaz LLC and CJSC “Investor-Atika”, as well as the associated JSC “Enterprise of the Kharkov region “Refinery”” and CJSC “Factory for the production of fuel additives”.

Since 1996, Avakov’s gas business has expanded: Investor established Energia-95 LLC, whose shareholders also included Ashot Amiryan (Vice President of Investor) and Igor Kotvitsky (Avakov’s former secretary, promoted by him to his closest assistant. Information about him: Igor Kotvitsky. Rich people’s deputy, or Arsen Avakov’s “wallet”). Then Nadra LLC appeared, which was owned by Alexander Dymenko and Alexander Kariman – also Avakov’s trustees, Investor-Poisk, Solo LTD and other enterprises. For several years, they successfully “milked” several deposits: Denisovskoye, Ogultsovskoye, Narizhnyanskoye, Maryinskoye and Sakhalinskoye. In 2004, a criminal case was opened against Kotvitsky and Kariman, but it was closed immediately after the Maidan.

Through Investor-Neftegaz LLC, the extracted gas was supplied to CJSC TPP-3 and CJSC Teploset TPP-4 – these two companies were specially created by Avakov to lease Kharkov CHPP-3 and CHPP-4: it was impossible to privatize heating plants, so they parasitic intermediaries were placed on the neck. Another interesting thing is this: CHPP-3 supplies the industrial giant Turboatom with electricity and heat, and at the beginning of the 2000s Avakov came up with a plan for its privatization through debt to CJSC CHPP-3 (a typical scheme of that time). But, apparently doubting his own capabilities, Avakov proposed implementing this “for two” scheme to Konstantin Grigorishin (Read more about him in the article by Konstantin Grigorishin. Honored oligarch of Ukraine and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)), and even planned to sell him a 50% stake in CJSC CHPP-3.

However, Grigorishin’s privatization of Turboatom failed before it even began, despite the full support of Avakov, who served as governor of Kharkov from February 2005 to February 2010. And after 2010, the director of Turboatom, Viktor Subbotin, reached an agreement with the new leadership of Kharkov (Kernes and Dobkin, more details Mikhail Dobkin: Gepa is on the hook for dopa) on the termination of the lease agreement for CHPP-3 by CJSC CHPP-3, with the return of the heating plant to the ownership of the city.

Avakov, whose business was then subjected to a massive attack on all fronts, did not cling too much to CHPP-3, and it soon became clear why: CJSC CHPP-3 had a debt of 340 million hryvnia to NJSC Naftogaz. But how and why, if Avakov’s structures supplied their gas to CHPP-3 using cunning schemes? Obviously, these were the consequences of using another scheme, according to which Avakov companies again managed to “cheat” the state.

What was Arsen Avakov running from?

On October 31, 2012, in Kharkov, the head of the board of Investor JSC, Alexander Motylevsky, who had worked in the company since the mid-90s, committed suicide. His death was resonant not only because at that very moment the main defendants in the next criminal case of “Investor” (Avakov, Amiryan, Kotvitsky, Gaevoy) were on the run in sunny Italy, where they had managed to withdraw a significant part of their capital. This is how, in fact, Avakov’s Italian business appeared, which continues to operate there today (Read more about this in the Dolce vita article by ARSENA AVAKOV: ITALIAN BUSINESS AND OFFSHORE). So, while Avakov and his closest partners and assistants were breathing in the Mediterranean breeze, in Ukraine Motylevsky had to take the rap for everyone, and they began to call him to the investigators. In his farewell note, Motylevsky accused Avakov of setting up his employees, and called Amiryan a bad word. In this regard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs opened another criminal case (incitement to suicide), in which it promised to interrogate Avakov as a suspect. In response to this, Avakov immediately retorted from Italy that Motylevsky was muzzled with interrogations and threats by investigators from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor’s office, carrying out the order of the “regime.”

In this skirmish, almost unnoticed, information from the Ministry of Internal Affairs slipped into the media that several versions of suicide notes, as well as a knife with traces of blood, were found in the apartment of Motylevsky, who allegedly jumped out of the window. But these new announced facts did not affect the course of the investigation, and two months later, Avakov, elected on the BYuT list to the Verkhovna Rada, returned to Kyiv – where he was protected by parliamentary immunity and the status of an opposition politician. Yet the question is not why did he return, but why did he flee?

From the very beginning of his business, Arsen Avakov was constantly in trouble with the law. While other aspiring oligarchs came up with masterly legal schemes for practically legal tax evasion or made money by providing all kinds of services, Avakov stupidly “stirred the gas” or scammed gullible citizens out of their money. So, in 1998, his bank “Basis” launched the “Building the Metro Together” lottery, all the proceeds from which he promised to use for the completion of new stations of the Kharkov metro. However, where did the collected more than 10 million hryvnia go (almost 6 million dollars at the exchange rate at that time) remained unknown, this question was not even raised: the lottery was held with the “blessing” of the city authorities, which probably had a share. And another share was Asharbek Eloev, a shareholder of Basis, the founder of fifty fly-by-night companies and the Kharkov trust “Fast Money”. In 1994, this financial pyramid scammed Kharkov residents out of $2.83 million, part of which went to accounts in Basis.

In 2004, in addition to criminal cases regarding the theft of gas and revenue, cases were opened against a number of Avakov’s companies for tax evasion – but they were also closed immediately after the Maidan. Moreover, having received the post of governor of Kharkov, Arsen Avakov began to build a “roof” for his business and his circle, while not hesitating to set conditions for the Minister of Internal Affairs Lutsenko (information about him: Yuriy Lutsenko. “Terminator” of Ukrainian politics).

Arsen Avakov: criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs

And Governor Avakov immediately transferred all state and budgetary structures subordinate to him for servicing at his Basis bank, and hundreds of millions of government hryvnia began to pass through their accounts. In November 2006, Prime Minister Yanukovych accused Avakov of shortages and misappropriations of public funds amounting to 120 million hryvnia. Well, the most notorious in Avakov’s biography was the criminal case under Article 365 (exceeding official powers for personal gain), opened against him in January 2012 – so to speak, based on the belated results of his work as governor (illegal seizure and privatization of 55 hectares of land in the summer 2009). In fact, this case was incomplete: in the period 2007-2009. Avakov and his assistants “squeezed out” more than 30 thousand plots with a total area of ​​700 hectares from 9 gardening partnerships (some belonged to organizations of disabled people and “war children”) – which became the property of employees of Avakov’s companies. And this matter was very late, since Avakov and his company had already been in Italy since the fall of 2011 – which means they did not flee there because of him! Moreover, their flight was prepared in advance, with the sale of a significant part of Avakov’s enterprises, of which he had a lot. In addition to all of the above, before his flight, Avakov fully or partially owned the following enterprises:

· TV and radio company “TV+”, radio and television company “Tonis-center”, LLC “Radio “New Wave”, LLC “Radio company “Radio +”, LLC TRK “Radio-artel”

· LLC “Investor-press-agency”, LLC “Publishing house “Investor”

· JSC “Bread Factory No. 11”, CJSC “Bread Factory “Saltovsky”

· DP “Investor Elite Stroy”, JSC MZhK “Internationalist”, ASK “Spline”, LLC JV “Interbusiness”, ASP “Olkhovatka”, LLC OSK “Pyramid”

· LLC TD “Saltovsky”, LLC “Department Store “Ukraine”, OJSC “Kharkov TSUM”

· Prosyanoye Poultry Farm LLC, Staroverovsky Poultry Complex LLC

JV “Pamir Herbs”

· SE “Investor security service”

JSC Forum, LLC Lotika, LLC Investor-N, LLC Finger, LLC Veter

It is worth noting that Arsen Avakov was a co-founder of the Tonis Center and Forum LLC with Gennady Kernes and his wife Yulia Gaisinskaya – but this was back in the 90s, before these two Kharkov oligarchs quarreled with each other.

Arsen Avakov and Gennady Kernes

So what forced him to flee, and what caused Motylevsky’s mysterious suicide? Maybe an attack by the “Donetsk” – after all, in the period 2010-2011. Avakov ceded part of his gas business (in particular, Energy-95 LLC) to the companies D-tech Gaz Energy Limited (Cyprus), Energy Ditek Limited (British Virgin Islands), Boston Industrial Corporation LP – associated with Rinat Akhmetov and his close friend Ravil Safiulin (Minister of Sports). By the way, after the second Maidan, in 2014, Avakov regained most of his former gas companies, and in an original way: through the courts, which declared their sale invalid.

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Don’t forget about the scam that Avakov’s son, Alexander Avakov, pulled off with backpacks for the ATO. More details about this in the article Avakov’s son may be involved in corrupt procurement for the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Video). This matter, naturally, was hushed up.

By the way, it is alleged that Alexander Avakov is a “gambling addict.” Some facts about this in the material Avakov’s son loses large sums at cards and smokes weed.

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And yet, the most likely reason for Avakov’s escape, according to Skelet.Infoit should be considered a scam with the Basis bank. It was carried out according to the scheme of issuing foreign currency loans (with their transfer abroad) secured by their own companies, which was used by the majority of Ukrainian oligarch bankers (excluding Kolomoisky and his Privatbank). This scheme, in fact, steals depositors’ money and refinancing funds allocated by the National Bank under the guise of loans, which are not returned, but are transferred to the accounts of other companies of the oligarch banker. In the case of JSCB Basis, ordinary investors alone lost more than 600 million hryvnia! That is, Avakov fled abroad not because of political persecution, not because the Donetsk people forced him to sell part of his business to them, and not even because of past criminal cases. He fled because he stole the money of his bank’s depositors – leaving the employees of his companies and Alexander Motylevsky personally responsible for this.

Why are you Sasha Muzychko?

On February 28, 2014, the notorious UNA-UNSO veteran Alexander Muzychko (aka Sashko Bily), who in the first days after the Euromaidan went with a machine gun in his hands to “nightmare” the local authorities and prosecutors of Rivne, made another speech, at the same time promising to “hang him like a dog” new Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov.

Avakov’s reaction was not long in coming. A month later, on the night of March 24-25, 2014, Alexander Muzychko was killed during a special operation of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which, according to the official report, neutralized a certain organized crime group. Muzychko’s death caused a great resonance among members of right-wing radical organizations and, first of all, Right Sector. Some of them even threatened to take revenge on Avakov, believing that Muzychko was killed on his orders. In response, Avakov gave an interview in which he called the Right Sector bandits and stated that “real patriots are now defending the borders of Ukraine.” This conflict became the first contradiction between the winners of the Maidan

By now, this episode from the modern history of Ukraine has almost been forgotten, and yet it could be called almost iconic, and in the actions of Arsen Avakov one could see a certain trend, a pattern. Why did Avakov “run into” the “Right Sector”, was it only because of Alexander Muzychko? And this had consequences: having gained enormous fame and popularity during the events on Maidan, Right Sector stumbled on Avakov’s bandwagon – and its growth as a political force ceased. And soon he was moved by another right-wing radical force – “Azov”, which arose on the basis of the Kharkov “Patriot of Ukraine” with the broadest support of Arsen Avakov. In April-May 2014, it was only an incomplete company that “distinguished itself” during the liberation of Mariupol (by firing at a crowd of local supporters of “separatists” near a beer), in the summer it became a battalion, and then an entire regiment of special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the same time, with the active participation of Roman Zvarych (Read more about him in Roman Zvarych. Without a diploma and conscience) the creation of the so-called The Azov Civil Corps, which is already a social movement and the beginnings of a political party.

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We should not forget the “epic” showdown in Knyazhychi, where Avakov’s subordinates from various structures – KORD, police and the State Security Service – staged a shootout. Journalist Konstantin Stogniy claims that this was a “cleansing operation.” This is evidenced by footage of the police car being shot.

Knjici, shot by police Prius

At the time of the shooting, Avakov flew to Canada (it is alleged that he was still in Ukraine at the time of the tragedy and could not have known about it) and did not return to Ukraine for a suspiciously long time. Then the matter was successfully hushed up. So, apparently, we will not find out the truth soon.

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Let us note that the Azov Group of Companies practically does not participate in anti-government actions (preferring “patriotic marches”), and it also does not support many of the actions of its “like-minded people” from other national radical organizations in Ukraine. Easily recognizable banners of “Azov” with a scandalous rune (the “Azovites” themselves claim that this is some kind of Slavic symbol) can rarely be seen even at the rallies of their “brothers” from other volunteer battalions. That is, it turns out that Arsen Avakov has created his own “pocket” power and social structure (two in one bottle), which is still somewhat isolated from other right-wing radicals. I would also like to know for what purposes!

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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