Andrey Ivanchuk. Yatsenyuk’s friend and lobbyist for Kolomoisky’s interests

One of the most interesting characters in the current Verkhovna Rada is Andrei Ivanchuk. Ukrainian media at different times called him either the “cashier” of the Popular Front, or a “close friend of Arseniy Yatsenyuk,” or the “director of parliament.” Experts say that today he is the main contender for the role of “gray eminence” in the circle of our Prime Minister. This is not strange, because they have known each other since childhood and on the path to power and “big money” they also walked together. What lies in the past of one of Yatsenyuk’s closest associates, and what role does he play in parliament today?

“Side by side with Yatsenyuk”

Andrey Ivanchuk was born in Ivano-Frankivsk in 1973. The “fatal” acquaintance with the future Prime Minister of Ukraine Yatsenyuk took place in the city of Kolomyia, where Arseniy Petrovich studied at school for a year. Their parents were close friends with each other and often met during family holidays. Together, future politicians studied at the Faculty of Law at Chernivtsi University. While still a student, they, together with Valentin Hnatishin (the son of the former governor of the Chernivtsi region), founded the audit company “Yurek-audit”. One of their first clients was the Chernivtsi Machine-Building Plant, which was subsequently captured by Ivanchuk. By the way, when he was president of the Yurek-Audit company, Arseniy Yatsenyuk received the nickname “Senya the scammer” – they say that he was awarded it by the Chernivtsi crime boss Valery Chinush, one of whose companies he served. By the way, his company “Nadina” was engaged in the illegal supply of petroleum products to gas stations, law enforcement officers “got wind” of this and wanted to imprison Chinusha, but, thanks to Yatsenyuk and Ivanchuk, he managed to avoid criminal liability. Another eminent client of their company was Mikhail Papiev (former regional governor, ex-governor of the Chernivtsi region and current MP from the Opposition Bloc).

In the 90s, Andrei Ivanchuk was engaged in teaching – he was a teacher at the department of criminal law. At the same time, he held the post of deputy head of the board of the regional branch of Bank Aval in Snyatyn. He was promoted to this position by Arseny Petrovich, who at that time already held the post of deputy head of the board of the entire bank. In 2006, a year after Yatsenyuk’s appointment as Minister of Economy, Ivanchuk was “unexpectedly” appointed vice president of the Energy Company of Ukraine.

In 2007, Yatsenyuk becomes speaker of parliament and, of course, helps his friend rise. At his suggestion, in 2008, Ivanchuk was appointed director of the state enterprise Ukrinterenergo. True, he did not stay in this position for long – he went into politics, heading the Front of Zmin party. During the presidential elections in 2010, he also headed the election headquarters of Arseniy Yatsenyuk. After the Batkivshchyna and Front of Zmin parties united, he was elected deputy head of the party. In the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation he holds the post of head of the committee on economic policy.

“Sugar” interests

Andrei Ivanchuk’s interests in business are quite narrow. They apply to sugar production, agriculture, media and fuel trade. One of his main business partners is ex-regional representative Valery Kalestin. The media dubbed him a “defector deputy,” because he, having entered the Verkhovna Rada on the Our Ukraine list, fled to the Party of Regions in 2007.

The Kalestins and Ivanchuk jointly own the trading houses Agrocenter, Technocenter, and Techno-Center. Plus”, “Galplast+”. Through them they own several sugar factories (Vladimirtsukor, Gorokhovsky Sugar Factory). Ivanchuk personally led one of these factories from 2004 to 2007. In 2011, businessmen managed to profit from a sugar tender held by the Agrarian Fund. One of them was won by the Vladimirtsukor plant. From the Agrarian Fund he received UAH 170 million for the supply of 20 thousand tons of sugar from beets. The deception was that, according to the terms of participation in the tender, Vladimirtsukor had to submit documents according to which the plant leases facilities for processing cane, not beets. As a result of the deception, the plant did not supply sugar from beets to the agricultural fund, and a case was opened against the director of the company, Felix Bogdan, according to the materials of which the plant caused damage to the state in the amount of UAH 170 million.

Another sugar factory owned by Kalestin and Ivanchuk, the Gorokhovsky Sugar Factory, also got into trouble. Having taken out a loan of UAH 15 million from Oschadbank, the plant management had no intention of repaying it. As a result, the bank filed a lawsuit demanding that the plant be declared bankrupt, but it was rejected, and a little later local media reported that the plant had completely ceased operations.

The partners have a small business in the city of Rohatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. Their TV and radio station “Zakhid” is located there, as well as the “Elite Center” restaurant, which is now registered to completely different people. Ivanchuk’s sphere of interests also includes an agricultural association and an oil base in Western Ukraine. This is not strange, because one of the first common business projects with Kalestin was the Ukrainian Oil and Gas Company, which supplied petroleum products.

“Poverty is only based on documents”

According to the documents, Andrei Vladimirovich was generally on the verge of poverty. In 2012, he, being the manager of several companies mentioned above, declared a total annual salary of 12 thousand UAH. His declaration also included two cars, a yacht and a large country house, registered in his wife’s name. The most interesting thing here is that the maintenance of all this property costs much more (even for one month) than all the official income he received in a year.

His “family” mansion is located in the village of Ivankovichi. By the way, in this small settlement there is not a single house worth less than $2 million. In the media, Ivanchuk’s mansion is compared to “a small Mezhyhirya” – it is surrounded by a double fence, on the territory there are a lot of surveillance cameras, guest houses and even enclosures for animals (thank God – not for ostriches).

In this whole situation, law enforcement officers and government officials should be interested in the question “where does Ivanchuk get the money to maintain the mansion and the adjacent territory (1.3 hectares), if, according to the declaration, he earns pennies?”

“Feats” in the Rada

Fight

In June 2013, Andrei Ivanchuk got into a fight on the sidelines of the Verkhovna Rada with MP Igor Skosar (formerly a member of the Batkivshchyna party).

According to the politician, Skosar insulted him in a telephone conversation, calling him a “faggot.” Hearing this, Andrei Vladimirovich “exploded” and punched Skosar in the face, knocking him down. The brawl occurred in front of other people’s deputies, but did not continue. According to sources, in addition to the direct insult, Ivanchuk was also angry with Skosar because of his departure from the Batkivshchyna party.

Button coding

In May 2014, Andrei Ivanchuk was convicted of “button pushing.” The handy people’s deputy managed to vote for five colleagues at once in the Verkhovna Rada. Until this moment, no one had succeeded in doing this. At least, no one was able to capture such massive facts of falsification on camera.

The bill, for which Ivanchenko voted so actively, was supposed to decide the fate of the upcoming presidential elections. According to it, a norm should have appeared in the legislation allowing for the removal of district election commissions from the territory of cities (the decision was related to the situation in eastern Ukraine).

Lobbyist for Kolomoisky’s interests?

One of Ivanchuk’s secret “chefs” is called Igor Kolomoisky, with whom he is connected through the Techinservice company (production and sale of bioethanol additives).

In January 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law reducing the quorum required to hold a general meeting of a joint stock company. According to it, the quorum for holding shareholder meetings will be reduced from 60% + 1 share to 50% + 1 share. The previous rule allowed Kolomoisky to completely control Ukrnafta, appointing his own managers and not paying dividends to the state. So, Andrei Ivanchuk did his best to slow down this bill, either refusing to consider it at a meeting of the economic policy committee (of which he is the head), or dissuading the people’s deputies of his faction from voting. Despite the fact that the bill was adopted, Kolomoisky was then left with a small “loophole,” which he took advantage of, disrupting the vote in the Rada on February 10. And all thanks to Ivanchuk.

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During his time in power, Andrei Ivanchuk has repeatedly been exposed to criminal fraud; recently information appeared in the media that opposition forces intend to open a criminal case against him due to his involvement in corruption schemes at state-owned enterprises. Apparently, this seriously frightened him, and he hastily sent his wife and daughter to Monte Carlo. It looks like he intends to emigrate from the country and is actively preparing a springboard for this. Whether this is so is not yet known, however, the fact that he greatly annoyed someone and they intend to “drain” him is visible to the naked eye.

Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info