And she is from Yermak? Why was Elena Duma approved as the head of ARMA

Yulia Sokolovskaya is a fellow countrywoman and friend of Elena Duma. She, being the Minister of Social Policy, appointed her director of the Social Insurance Fund. Now Sokolovskaya works as deputy head of the head of the OP Andrey Yermak, writes Censor.

On June 30, the Cabinet of Ministers appointed Elena Duma as the head of the National Agency for Asset Search and Management (ARMA). Until recently, she held the position of deputy head of the Chernihiv Regional State Administration.

Two days before the appointment, Duma won the competition for the position of director of Arma. During the competition, representatives of anti-corruption organizations warned about the choice of her candidacy.

Bad forecast and “cross on ARMA”

Transparency International Ukraine spoke out against Duma’s appointment as head of ARMA.

TIU published the text on its website “Elena Duma’s appointment could put an end to ARMA”which accused the Duma of lacking the necessary professional experience, in particular related to criminal justice.

And the presence of close political ties. In 2019, the Duma took direct part in the campaign of then Ukrainian presidential candidate Volodymyr Zelensky.

As TIU reports, public activists have discovered her connections with the former head of the SBU, Valentyn Nalyvaichenko.

The former head of the Chernihiv regional state administration, Anna Kovalenko, is a co-founder of the NGO “Anti-corruption movement of V. Nalyvaichenko”, and Elena Duma served as her deputy.

In addition, Duma had business contacts with the former head of the Crimean department of the SBU, suspected of treason, Oleg Kulinich. Elena Duma allegedly promoted “his interests” in the Chernihiv region, although the organization does not provide any details.

But the biggest marker, TIU notes, indicating the commitment of the head of ARMA is her participation in 2019 in a joint press conferences with the American businessman of Ukrainian origin Sam Kislin, a financial donor to Rudolph Giuliani, and a lawyer for former US President Donald Trump.

“That is, 4 years ago, the future head of ARMA took direct part in attempts to discredit her country and the current US president, who, for his part, supports our country in every possible way both in confronting Russian aggression and in anti-corruption promotion.”— TIU emphasizes.

Who is Elena Duma?

Elena Duma was born in 1980 in the city of Khmelnytsky, Vinnytsia region, graduated from the law faculty of the Kyiv National University named after Taras Shevchenko. Based on the information she submitted to the competition in ARMA autobiographiesis a professional civil servant, since 2006 she has constantly held various positions in ministries and other government agencies, which she changed every year or two, sometimes resigning after a few months.

For example, from the end of 2008 to mid-2010, she was deputy director of the legal department of the Ministry of Environmental Protection. And from September 2010 to February 2011, she worked in the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, as head of the department for relations with the Verkhovna Rada.

Then less than six months in the Executive Directorate of the Kyiv City Branch of the Social Insurance Fund for Temporary Disability.

The longest time she worked was in the State Registration Service, from the end of 2011 to 2015.

Elena Duma changed her last name three times. She was Litvinyuk, Faydevich and Kholevitskaya.

Litvinyuk is the maiden name of the ARMA chairman.

Earlier, Litvinyuk Lidiya Mikhailovna, a resident of Khmelnik, with whom Duma has common property, appeared in her declarations. Lidiya Litvinyuk is also a co-owner of Khmelnitskaya Central Pharmacy LLC.

From approximately 2001 to 2012, the current head of ARMA bore the surname Faidevych. For six years (from 2007 to 2012), Olena Faidevych was a paid assistant to the MP from the Our Ukraine – People’s Self-Defense bloc Volodymyr Moysik, who has been a judge of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine since 2016.

From 2001 to 2006, Faydevich was officially listed as the director of OOO Avers, which specialized in the sale of building materials. In 2009, as the director of Avers, Elena Faydevich gave comment one of the real estate websites, advised on how best to choose plumbing for the bathroom.

In 2007-2008, Faidevich was listed as a co-owner of the capital’s developer OOO Elitzhilstroy-Invest, which is now, according to the Youcontrol system, associated with the industrial construction group “Plant of reinforced concrete structures No. 1” of Vasily Ivanchenko and Sergey Alekseyev. And in those years it was connected with the circle of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, for some time the owners included the asset management company “Kovin Capital” of the entrepreneur from Chernivtsi Vladimir Gnatyshin, the former business partner of the former Minister of Justice Pavlo Petrenko, one of the closest associates of the leader of the “People’s Front” Arseniy Yatsenyuk.

According to data MediaGnatyshyn is also a classmate of Oleksiy Burbak, the brother of the leader of the People’s Front faction, former Minister of Infrastructure of the Yatsenyuk government, Maksym Burbak.

In 2012, the current head of ARMA took the surname Kholevitskaya and married Nikolai Kholevitsky, who previously worked as the first deputy head of the State Environmental Inspectorate of the city of Kyiv.

Elena Duma was also involved in the environmental sphere, holding various positions in the Ministry of Ecology and Natural Resources several times.

In 2016, Elena broke up with Nikolai Kholevitsky and then apparently changed her last name.

Before his latest appointment to ARMA, the crowning achievement of Duma’s career in public administration was his position as Director of the Executive Directorate of the Social Insurance Fund, held from January to May 2020.

Duma was appointed to this position by her fellow countrywoman, also a native of Khmelnik, then Minister of Social Policy Yulia Sokolovskaya. In March 2020, Sokolovskaya resigned from the ministry, and a few months later Duma lost her position as director of the Social Insurance Fund.

“The temporary commission established numerous facts of gross violations by Duma A.A. of the legislation on labor, compulsory state social insurance, other laws and regulatory legal acts of the Fund. The Board of the Fund made a decision to dismiss Elena Duma from her position (…), provided a protocol instruction to the executive directorate of the FSS to send information on the results of the work of the temporary commission of the Fund to the relevant law enforcement agencies”— the state agency Ukrinform quotes information from the website of the Social Insurance Fund.

There are no further mentions of the story of Elena Duma’s dismissal from the Social Insurance Fund.

After leaving the Social Insurance Fund, Duma got a job in the Chernihiv Regional State Administration, as deputy chairman of Vyacheslav Chaus.

And all this time she was suing the Social Insurance Fund for her reinstatement as head of the FSS. Even after the government’s decision to liquidate the FSS in December 2022 by merging it with the Pension Fund, the Duma’s legal red tape did not stop, it reached the Supreme Court, the next hearing is scheduled for September.

At the same time, Yulia Sokolovskaya, who appointed the Duma to head the Social Insurance Fund, has been working in the Office of the President as deputy head of the OP Andrey Yermak since March 2020.

It can be assumed that these connections were decisive during the competition for the head of ARMA and decisive for Elena Duma.

Why is ARMA so important now and why is Elena Duma associated with the OP?

At the request of law enforcement officers, ARMA may receive someone’s property that has been seized during criminal proceedings.

By court order, ARMA may sell it or find a temporary manager for it; the proceeds from the sale or lease must go to the country’s budget.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, more than $1.5 billion worth of property has been transferred to ARMA from Russian owners and their collaborators. However, the state’s income from their sale remains meager.

In practice, part of the seized property “disappears” even before ARMA holds a competition for a manager, while the other part is sold at competitions organized by ARMA at prices that are several times lower.

What’s wrong with ARMA?

theft of seized property

As it turned out during the meeting of the Temporary Investigative Committee in the Verkhovna Rada, investigating the activities of ARMA, from the moment of seizure of property by a court decision until the moment of its transfer to the management of ARMA, no one is responsible for its safety and creates favorable conditions for theft.

In practice, it turns out that ARMA, in an advertisement for the sale of an asset or the search for a manager for it, notes the property that was indicated in the text of the court order on arrest.

At the same time, whether it is really fully present or only on paper, ARMA representatives with the manager usually verify only after signing the sale or management agreement, when they go to the site.

And usually the property turns out to be “less” than stated in the court order.

opaque ARMA competitions

The most questions are raised by non-transparent tenders for the sale or management of seized property.

The Agency’s website does not contain complete information about the property that ARMA puts up for tender. To obtain it, you need to write an application to the acting head. After that, arrange a personal meeting, if you can get through to the specified contacts and come to ARMA.

The decision to select a manager is made by the ARMA commission, consisting of agency employees, based on the “best proposals” of the participants.

This procedure obviously creates ideal conditions for corruption.

imperfect legislation

The creation of ARMA in 2015 was one of the points of Ukraine’s action plan for visa liberalization (VL) with the European Union.

In the EU it has been in force since 2007. EU Council decision “On cooperation between the Asset Recovery Offices of the Member States in the field of searching for and identifying proceeds from crime or other property related to criminal activity”, which obliges all EU countries to establish a national Asset Recovery Office, as well as to organise cooperation between offices of different countries.

Ukraine was supposed to create such an office to identify and confiscate the property of the former fugitive president Viktor Yanukovych and his entourage.

The Europeans provided their consultations on the legislation for the functioning of the agency, but the Verkhovna Rada adopted the law with significant changes. For example, the current legislation obliges the manager of the arrested asset to coordinate all his actions with the owners of the property, even those under sanctions.

In practice, this rule results in the fact that the sanctioned owner actually remains in control of the enterprise.

In addition, the transfer of seized property to the management of ARMA is carried out at the initiative of law enforcement agencies, which can apply to the court with a corresponding petition. And this remains their right, not their obligation.

The court, in turn, can transfer only part of the property to ARMA management. For example, only corporate rights, without the production complex.

Often, partial arrests are imposed when there is no one or several prohibitions on the owner in relation to his property (alienation, use, disposal).

Sometimes the court does not determine in its decision what to do with the property – sell it or transfer it to the manager. In such cases, ARMA cannot do anything with this property.

In addition, there is a risk that the court will cancel the arrest at any time and return the property to the sanctioned owner.

Liquidation of ARMA is cancelled. After all, Elena Duma is linked to Yermak

For a long time there have been discussions about the need to liquidate ARMA and transfer its functions to the State Property Fund.

In February, David Arakhamia, the head of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada, proposed liquidating ARMA and transferring all seized assets to the State Property Fund. The main difference between the State Property Fund and ARMA is that all assets are handled exclusively through the public electronic system Prozorro.Sales.

In June 2023, amendments were made to the law on the State Property Fund: the Fund was given the authority to manage and sell sanctioned assets. However, the changes in the legislation did not affect ARMA, which continues to work with the seized assets in parallel, despite numerous corruption scandals.

As explained by the MP from the “Voice” party Yaroslav Zheleznyak, ARMA will continue to manage the property that was seized within the framework of criminal proceedings (National Police/SBU/BEB, etc.) and, by court order, transferred to the agency for management (usually at the request of a law enforcement agency).

At the same time, the State Property Fund will operate assets sanctioned persons, citizens of the aggressor country and its collaborators, who were confiscated to the benefit of the state under the law on the forced seizure of property rights of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) and its residents in Ukraine, and transferred to the fund by decision of the High Anti-Corruption Court.

Olga Prokopishina, translation Skeleton.Info

On topic: The selection committee has decided on the winner of the selection for the position of head of ARMA

Who is Elena Duma: what is known about the official who is aiming for the chair of ARMA director

The OP is promoting Dubovik, whose father was deputy head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs during the Yanukovych era, Zakharchenko, to the post of head of ARMA, – Shabunin

People of Soros, Saakashvili and Yatsenyuk”: who are we turning around ARMA’s head?

ARMA is robbing Ukraine and helping raiders — founder of State Watch

Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And Yandex Zen — only dossiers, biographies and dirt on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!

Elena Duma is tied up

elena duma is tied up / elena duma is tied up