Andrey Kobolev. An inconspicuous “veteran” of the gas pipe

Andrey Kobolev headed NJSC Naftegaz, the main gas monopolist in Ukraine in 2014, immediately after the Maidan. He was the creature of ex-Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and his “kamikaze government.” Kobolev was considered a temporary candidate, but he remained in his position for more than seven years.

The head of NAC clearly fulfills the assigned tasks of his “mentor” Yatsenyuk and enriches himself at the expense of Ukrainians: he buys armored jeeps, hires security and lives in a house for $1 million.

Andrey Kobolev. “Golden” boy with his dad, a geophysicist

The biography of Andrei Kobolev is not rich in sensations and scandals. In the public domain you can find only a dry list of facts about his work activity. One gets the impression that this person is completely new to Ukrainian politics and the energy sector – a kind of unbiased TOP manager who came to big Ukrainian politics. But according to Skelet.Infothe family of the head of Neftegaz is closely connected with the energy sector.

So, Andrei Vladimirovich Kobolev was born on August 16, 1978 in Kyiv. His father, Vladimir Pavlovich Kobolev, is a well-known geophysicist in narrow circles.

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In 1968, Kobolev Sr. graduated with honors from the College of Geological Exploration Technologies of the KNU named after. T.G. Shevchenko, and 5 years later he received his education at the NNI Institute of Geology.

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After that, he got a job at the Institute of Geophysics. S.I. Subbotin NAS of Ukraine, while simultaneously studying the oil and gas shelf of the Black Sea.

Naturally, Kobolev Sr. sent his beloved son to receive higher education at the most “major” university in the country – the Institute of International Relations at the Kiev University named after T.G. Shevchenko. The very fact of studying at KIMO supports the status and belonging to a “special” caste. Even in those years, only a wealthy family could pay for a child’s education. After graduating from the institute in 2000, Andrei Kobolev received a master’s degree in international economic relations. In the midst of his studies, the young student Andryusha became interested in poker. During his final years, he earned his living for six months by playing poker. I wonder how much the young man earned and whether he declared his income?

Kobolev Jr. began his career in the Ukrainian division of the international auditing and consulting company PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). He took a job as a management consultant, specializing in strategic management and corporate change, six months before graduating. PwC is one of the “Big Four” audit companies in the world.

By the way, it was this auditing company that at the beginning of 2017 became the main defendant in the scandal between PrivatBank and the NBU. PwC assessed the collateral in Privat at several times higher than their actual value, and also provided the services of both an appraiser and an auditor, which caused a conflict of interest.

While the son was learning the basics of knowledge and taking his first steps in his career, things went uphill for Kobolev Sr. In 2003, he took a leading position at the Institute of Geophysics – head of the department of seismometry and physical properties of the Earth’s composition. Thanks to this, he gained access to the entire array of geological exploration data across the entire territory of Ukraine. During this period, Vladimir Pavlovich, succumbing to a new trend among high ranks, became a Knight of the International Order of St. Stanislaus – a “sharashkin office” under the leadership of the Grand Master Chevalier Pavel Vyalov, which lured money from the rich.

Grand Master of the International Order of St. Stanislaus, Chevalier Pavel Vyalov, ordains Kobolev as a Knight of the Order

After 4 years, Vladimir Kobolev and several other employees and managers from the institute registered the Institute of Applied Geophysics CJSC. They acted, of course, as private individuals. The joint-stock company allowed them to explore the oil and gas shelf of the Black Sea, like the palm of their own. Of course, the caring father promoted his son. By pure chance, Andrei Kobolev will come to work at NAC, and then even head it.

Difficult guys

In 2002, when Andrei Kobolev was still working as a strategy consultant at PwC, and his father was active in scientific work, the affairs of NJSC Naftogaz thundered throughout the country.

The first was the case with the name of Igor Bakai, the initiator of the creation of NJSC Naftogaz and its former chairman of the board. Investigative Department of the State Tax Administration (the head of the tax office at that time was Mykola Azarov (more about him in the article Mykola Azarov. Survivor)and the head of the investigation department was Svyatoslav Piskun (read about him – Svyatoslav Piskun. Scandalous and unsinkable) accused him of embezzling state funds on an especially large scale. Azarov “complained” to President Leonid Kuchma about Bakai, who was stealing for himself and not into the presidential “common fund.” By the way, we were talking about 770 million hryvnia. The thieving chairman of the board of NAC was not brought to justice, but was punished according to a different “law” – he was left with nothing. It was rumored that Bakai went around and borrowed money from everyone he knew. The grief-stricken manager was replaced by Igor Didenko, deputy head of the board of Naftogaz. However, he also “got burned” by approving the “bill offset” between the state generating company Dniproenergo and the privatized regional power companies. The operation was performed in favor of Grigory Surkis (Read the information about him: Grigory Surkis: how to divide Ukraine like brothers) and its financial institution “Ukrainian Credit Bank”, causing damage to the state in the amount of 550 million hryvnia. The next NAC was headed by Vadim Kopylov, Nikolai Azarov’s deputy who came from State Tax Administration. Kopylov decided not to take risks: after holding out for 2 years, he “gave” the chair to Yuri Boyko (Read about him in the article YURIY BOYKO – “UNTOUCHABLE”) by order of President Kuchma. Boyko, knowing the fate of his predecessors, decided to invent ingenious schemes for theft and laundering of public funds into offshore companies. Also, someone had to service NJSC corporate securities, attract foreign loans and be responsible for international financial transactions. By the way, none of the leaders of NAC had a foreign diploma or, at worst, an MBA qualification.

So, Boyko began by officially announcing new vacancies at NAC: they were recruiting consultants-specialists in international finance and corporate law. They took two people – Andrei Kobolev and Yuri Vitrenko (son of the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party of Ukraine Natalia Vitrenko, More details about him in the article by Yuri Vitrenko. Oil and gas business tycoons). Kobolev at that time was 24 years old, and he immediately became the chief specialist of the department of corporate finance and pricing policy of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, and 26-year-old Vitrenko took a higher position – assistant to the deputy chairman of the board Alexander Kovalko (son-in-law of Anatoly Kinakh). At that time, Kovalko oversaw the “new” strategy of NAC. Is it true, Skelet.Info I still haven’t figured out which one. The guys were protected by sister Kovalko, who then worked with them at the auditing and consulting company PwC.

Andrey Kobolev, debts and gas stranglehold

In 2006, Andrei Vladimirovich was promoted and headed his own department of corporate finance and pricing policy at NAC. After working for 2 years, he received a new appointment and became an adviser to the chairman of the board of Naftogaz, Oleg Dubina. This is where Kobolev’s abilities came in handy. The first issue that Dubina and his adviser took up was the restructuring of NAC’s Eurobond debt. They were repaying the debt on $500 million bonds issued in 2004. Rumor has it that it was Kobolev who came up with the ingenious scheme with the intellectual support of Vitrenko. So, the “specialists” decided to restructure the external debt by formally exchanging Eurobonds and other obligations for new Eurobonds. Speaking in numbers, securities with a yield of 8.12% were simply exchanged for new ones with a yield of 9.5%. The procedure involved a foreign company, Squire Capital Limited, registered in Cyprus six months before the start of the restructuring.

Kobolev participated in the signing of a gas contract with Gazprom that was unfavorable for Ukraine in 2009. True, not in the most direct way. According to many, the deal was completely carried out by Yulia Tymoshenko. Then, by agreement with Vladimir Putin (*criminal), Ukraine received gas from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) for $450, despite the fact that the initial negotiations included a price of $235-250. Of course, a 20% discount was also prescribed, but it did not save the situation. At the same time, from the “Lady Yu” market removed the trader RosUkrEnergo (50% of the shares belong to Gazprom and Centragas Holding AG; the owners of the latter are Dmitry Firtash and Ivan Fursin – read about them in the articles DMITRY FIRTASH. HISTORY OF TERNOPIL BILLIONAIRE And Ivan Fursin: how Lyovochkin’s friends milked and are milking Ukraine), depriving the company of 11 billion cubic meters of gas located in the Naftogaz underground storage facility. In fact, without the participation of the chairman of the board of Naftogaz Oleg Dubina, his adviser Andrei Kobolev and first deputy Igor Didenko, this deal would not have taken place. It was their signatures that “gave” Ukraine the highest gas price in Europe. Kobolev and Didenko provided blank sheets with the signatures of Naftogaz officials, on which Gazprom representatives wrote their conditions. Moreover, it was Andrei Vladimirovich who calculated the terms of the financial benefits of the deal.

In fact, Kobolev has always been more of a financial advisor to Didenko than to Dubin himself. But the men managed to remain in the shadows.

Dubina said that both Tymoshenko and President Yushchenko put pressure on him. Allegedly, they forbade him to sign a contract with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), where gas was priced at $235. Thus, all the cones fell on Tymoshenko. True, Didenko also came under attack: under Yanukovych in 2011, he was sentenced to 3 years with the sentence suspended for the same period. But Kobolev came out unscathed.

Let’s summarize: young “specialists”, Andrey Kobolev and Yuriy Vitrenko, without sufficient work experience, for eight years with interruptions, together and separately advised the leaders of NAC. Note that Vitrenko left Naftegaz in 2004, immediately after the Orange Revolution, and then returned in 2006, but quit a year later; Kobolev worked for the corporation until 2010 – 8 years.

Andrey Kobolev and Yuri Vitrenko. Twix corporate bigwigs

In 2010, the “sweet couple”, unemployed Kobolev and Vitrenko, entered the road of big corporate finance with the company AYA Securities LLC. Just 3 years later, the private structure became famous for its attempt to “squeeze” 3 billion hryvnia from the creditors of the state company “Coal of Ukraine”! We will tell the story of this failed deal from afar.

Let’s go back to 2005, when Kobolev and Vitrenko worked for the benefit of Naftogaz. At that time, the state corporation actively collaborated with the KPSM-consulting company. It was led by a certain Vadim Ivanov from Moscow. The company was engaged in pipeline diagnostics and highway exploration. What kind of activity this is we can only guess. If we decipher the abbreviation “KPSM”, we get a combined porous mesh metal.” It is used in filters to purify liquids and gases from mechanical impurities.

So, the “sweet couple” of specialists from NAC decided to team up with Vadim Ivanov. First of all, they renamed the KPSM-consulting company to AYA Capital. To make sure no one finds the ends, its founder was an offshore company in Cyprus, Nestras Holding, which is registered at the same address as Leonid Yurushev’s offshore Bonnlack Finance Limited (read more: Leonid Yurushev. Secret “sponsor” of Arseniy Yatsenyuk). The next step is for the owners to “clone” AYA Capital and in 2006 create AYA Securities, which is registered at the same address. AYA Securities did not become offshore; Yuri Vitrenko was registered as its sole owner. He contributed 7.1 million hryvnia to the authorized capital. All other participants in the “operation” were content with little: Vadim Ivanov became a “signatory”, and Andrei Kobolev – managing director and advisor.

When Kobolev was fired from Naftogaz in 2010, he completely immersed himself in his business at AYA Securities. From now on, Andrey Kobolev and Yuri Vitrenko worked together. But! Vitrenko was always in charge.

In 2013, “AYA Securities” and the “sweet couple” thundered throughout Ukraine. They got into trouble with the state-owned company Coal of Ukraine.

In those years, Ugol Ukrainy received most of its loans from state banks, in particular from Oschadbank, Ukreximbank and Alfa Bank. Financial institutions poured about 2 billion hryvnia into the state-owned company. They issued loans without collateral – under government guarantees. Naturally, the bankers assumed that the money would be returned to them. But since 2011, Ugol Ukrainy stopped paying its bills, owing banks 1.3 billion hryvnia. After a two-year series of litigation, the state-owned company’s current accounts were frozen. The Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry announced the liquidation of Coal of Ukraine. The company’s lawyers asked the courts to restructure the loans for a period of 20 years. At the same time, AYA Securities approached the banks with an offer to buy out the debts of Ugol Ukrainy for 30% of their nominal value.

Andrey Kobolev. An inconspicuous “veteran” of the gas pipe

This is an ingenious scheme for converting the debt of a state-owned enterprise into private income. And in such scams Kobolev has no equal. However, in this scheme there must always be a high-level stakeholder who signs the order to liquidate the enterprise. This person was the former Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Eduard Stavitsky. He, of course, was entitled to a kickback. The deal was most likely to be financed by a bank close to the family of President Yanukovych.

However, the deal did not take place. Blame it all on Maidan. Kobolev and Vitrenko quickly disowned the Coal of Ukraine scheme.

Let us note that in 2014, Ukrainian enterprises owed NAC approximately 27 billion hryvnia. Of course, you had to pay for Russian gas somehow. The best way to do this is to “squeeze” money from enterprises.

Andrey Kobolev. “Old Face” NAC

In 2014, Andrei Kobolev joined the “honest” government – ​​the “kamikaze government” of Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Yulia Tymoshenko, which was desperately losing its sphere of influence.

As soon as the Yatsenyuk government was formed, they started talking about the fact that NJSC Naftegaz would be headed by the former deputy chairman of the state monopoly, Igor Didenko. For his past merits, Yulia Tymoshenko personally lobbied for his candidacy for this position. However, Yatsenyuk did not risk compromising himself in this way and turned to Didenko for advice. He recommended the candidacy of Andrei Kobolev. The guy is young, and he didn’t really shine. In any case, the general public does not know about it. True, Kobolev himself said that he sat down as the head of NAC after several interviews with Yatsenyuk. And the very idea of ​​heading NAC, according to information Skelet.Infowas given to him by ex-Minister of Infrastructure Andrei Pivovarsky (Read about him in the article by Andrey Pivovarsky. Minister of Infrastructure Collapse).

When Andrey Kobolev became the chairman of the board of Naftogaz, the word “diversification”, which was new to the Ukrainian average, began to be heard with might and main. It means expanding the range of purchased and manufactured products, and reorienting the purchasing and sales markets. In Ukrainian realities, it marked the beginning of new gas supplies. To reduce dependence on the Russian Gazprom and on the price of the Tymoshenko contract, the government of Arseniy Yatsenyuk began to actively use the scheme of so-called reverse supplies of blue fuel from Europe. Ukraine, represented by NJSC Naftogaz, purchased part of the gas volume from Gazprom, and part from the largest European concerns.

But Yatsenyuk and his protégé Kobolev decided to make money from this good (it’s not possible to buy gas from the “aggressor”?) and innovative (before that, Ukraine was completely dependent on Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)) business. They entered into contracts based on openly corrupt schemes.

Among all the European supplier concerns, TrailStone unexpectedly stood out. The company supplied a large volume of gas and at a clearly inflated price. But they were silent about this, because it’s all about the average cost, and it was “according to the norms.” This is exactly what was advertised.

Yulia Tymoshenko suddenly became alarmed. She stated that TrailStone was created artificially by the Yatsenyuk government. It is headed by Ukrainian citizen Pavel Levin, who is directly related to the management of Naftogaz. Kobolev did not remain in debt. He explained that the founder of TrailStone has been working in the gas market for 15 years.

Andrey Kobolev. An inconspicuous “veteran” of the gas pipe

It was a blatant lie. According to official data, the “real” TrailStone was registered only in 2013, and not “15 years ago,” as the head of the NAC claimed. It was founded by former executives of Deutsche Bank AG together with Riverstone Holdings LLC. The latter is a large American company specializing in energy. But the point is different – Berlin-based TrailStone GmbH is collaborating with Ukraine. It is not possible to find out about this entity in the German register of legal entities – all information is classified. It is known that among its main shareholders are residents of the Cayman Islands. Moreover, the German trading company received accreditation at the Austrian gas exchange only in 2014.

2 days after TrailStone was registered on the stock exchange, Kobolev says that two foreign players will begin supplying gas to Ukraine. In the conditions of the Ukrainian bureaucracy, this is a real miracle. But not a word about the actual cost of purchases. The transactions were not subject to the government procurement law, so the monopolist did not publish their monthly volumes and prices.

And the most interesting fact: TrailStone has never traded gas. The company learned about its “purpose” when Yuri Vitrenko came to NJSC as an adviser to the head of Naftogaz. Those. the person who always supervised Kobolev suddenly became his subordinate. It turned out that Vitrenko met the future director of TrailStone during an internship at Merrill Lynch in London in 2006. Having taken a chair at NAC, the adviser decided to carry out a corruption scheme. And then as usual: Vitrenko comes up with it, Kobolev signs it.

In 2015, Arseniy Yatsenyuk said that Ukraine would buy more gas from TrailStone. But he kept silent about the fact that the price is the second highest among all gas suppliers – $388/thousand. cubic meters As a result, TrailStone takes 3rd place in terms of supply volumes to Neftegaz.

And another European trading company that supplies gas to Ukraine is London-based Noble CFL. She has a clear connection with Ukrainian officials.

Noble CFL is a subsidiary of the Hong Kong Noble Group, a company that specializes in agriculture. Noble Group has been operating in Ukraine since 2008. From 2008 to 2013, the Ukrainian representative office of Noble was headed by Ivan Miroshnichenko, a people’s deputy from Samopomich.

Ivan Miroshnichenko

In 2015, Noble became a supplier of reverse gas to Naftogaz. In February of this year, Ukraine purchased gas from the company at a record price of $402/thousand. cubic meters

Andrey Kobolev, NJSC and Ukrnafta

Without a doubt, Andrei Kobolev feels on top because of the support of high officials. In 2015, he allowed himself to set conditions for Igor Kolomoisky himself. Just after President Petro Poroshenko fired him from his post as head of the Dnipropetrovsk regional administration. Andrei Petrovich openly stated that Naftogaz is going to cut off gas supplies to the Kremenchug thermal power plant in the Poltava region, which is owned by the structures of Kolomoisky and Konstantin Grigorishin, due to debts (More about him: Konstantin Grigorishin. Honored oligarch of Ukraine and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)). A telephone conversation took place. Kolomoisky threatened Kobolev that he would seize the thermal power plant.

The next scandal between Kobolev and Kolomoisky erupted over Ukrnafta. On May 26, 2015, the updated Law “On Joint Stock Companies”, specially adopted by the Verkhovna Rada, came into force. He was accepted with the aim of helping Naftogaz change the management of Ukrnafta and return it to state control. Let us remind you that 50%+1 share of Ukrnafta belongs to NJSC, and 43% belongs to companies affiliated with the Privat group of Igor Kolomoisky.

Andrey Kobolev, Chairman of the Board of Ukrnafta Mark Rollins and Igor Kolomoisky July 2015

Rollins Help: Who are you with, Mr. Rollins?

Despite the fact that the state has a controlling stake, the company is completely controlled by Kolomoisky’s management. But the leadership of NAC behaved strangely. After the adoption of the law, they did not remove the management of Ukrnafta, headed by Peter Van Hecke, did not appoint an acting person, and did not block the possibility of withdrawing funds from the company.

By his actions, Kobolev allowed Kolomoisky to take about 12 billion hryvnia from Ukrnafta from May to September 2015.

Based on this fact, the Prosecutor General’s Office opened a criminal case against the head of Naftogaz, Andrei Kobolev.

Andrey Kobolev. Cars, security and bonus

For 2014, Kobolev declared 769.5 thousand hryvnias of income, of which 763.2 thousand hryvnias were salaries. According to the declaration, the head of Naftogaz has a rented apartment, a plot of land, two cars and a jet ski. However, as I found out Skelet.InfoAndrei Vladimirovich hid a luxurious house. Cottage with a total area of ​​300 sq. m., is located almost on the shore of the Kyiv Sea, a 20-minute drive from Kyiv. The cost of such luxury housing is more than $1 million. In a good way, in order to purchase such real estate, Kobolev would have to save his salary for more than 30 years.

The estate costs the official 100 thousand hryvnia per year. This amount includes security and the work of gardeners. In addition, the complex has berths for yachts and a helipad.

Kobolev did not make excuses for his house. The scandal was gradually hushed up.

Having settled down at NAC, Andrei Kobolev decided to make the working conditions more comfortable. Otherwise it is impossible to explain the decision of the head of Naftogaz to purchase a premium armored car Mercedes Benz S600 Guard worth about 5.1 million hryvnia. The information was posted on the government procurement website Prozorro

The news of the purchase caused a resonance, so NAC began to make excuses. Allegedly, Kobolev needs the car to protect himself from the risks associated with the process in the Stockholm arbitration with OJSC Gazprom.

Only here’s a nuance: there were suggestions that the tender was registered for a specific car. That is, Kobolev first chose a car, and then the conditions for its purchase were written down. Since armored vehicles are a rare commodity, it turned out that there really was a car that Andrei Vladimirovich had his eye on. Presumably, Mercedes – Kobolev’s dream was in the Kiev Premiumauto showroom.

Presumably Kobolev wanted to buy this car

At the last moment the tender was canceled. Apparently so as not to attract attention.

Things were clearly looking up for Andrei Kobolev in 2015. And this can be seen from his declaration. The head of NAC received 6 million 105.9 thousand hryvnia in income in 2015. Of the more than six million hryvnia earned by Kobolev, according to the declaration, 1 million 105.5 thousand hryvnia were wages. Kobolev will receive another 1.4 thousand hryvnia in dividends and interest. The remaining 5 million of Kobolev’s income is related to the provision of investment banking services to him at his previous place of work before his appointment to Naftogaz. The property includes the rental of a house (287.6 m2) and a garage (42 m2) and the property includes a plot of land (1204 m2) and a residential building (274 m2).

Kobolev owns a Porsche Cayenne S (2007), a Mercedes-Benz GL550 (2008), and a Bombardier Sea-Doo RXP 255 jet ski (2006).

At the end of 2016, it became known that NJSC Neftegaz announced a new tender. The head of the company needed personal security in 2017. It was planned to create 2 security posts of 2 people each, which would work daily from 8:00 to 20:00. Security guards are “recruited” to be no older than 40 years old, with 3 years of work experience. They must also be armed to the teeth: the service provider is required to provide the guards with service firearms, rubber batons, stun guns, gas cartridges, and, if necessary, machine guns. The expected purchase cost was UAH 827 thousand. Only here there is a discrepancy. According to the law, these services can only be provided by security police officers of the National Police, and not by private entities.

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At the end of 2016, Yulia Tymoshenko announced that Andrei Kobolev and members of the board would each receive 13 million hryvnia in bonuses over the past year. Andrei Vladimirovich did not comment on her words.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info

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