Andriy Pasishnik: an effective manager of Ukrainian corruption. PART 1

Why does NABU still have no methods against Ukrtransnafta Deputy Head Andriy Pasishnyk and his high-ranking patrons, while his case has been hanging in court for a year and a half? Because the size of the largest bribes pales in comparison to the colossal super-profits received by Ukrainian corrupt officials as a result of “sawing up” budget funds through banking scams or tender machinations. But the risk of being caught red-handed there is orders of magnitude lower than when handing over envelopes or briefcases with cash. In fact, not a single tender “schemer” has ever been convicted in Ukraine – and it is unlikely that Pasishnyk’s case will give a start to this…

This story began on February 3, 2016, when the then Minister of Economic Development and Trade Aivaras Abromavicius wrote a letter of resignation due to pressure being exerted on him. According to Abromavicius himself, this pressure was exerted on him by Andriy Pasishnyk and also by the deputy head of the BPP faction Ihor Kononenko with the aim of appointing Pasishnyk as deputy minister. However, despite the submitted letter, Abromavicius continued his work as minister until the resignation of the entire Yatsenyuk government on April 14, 2016 – so his statement was more likely just a political shocker. Nevertheless, his words were not empty words: on February 24, 2016, NABU opened a criminal case under Article 344-1 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (interference in the activities of a public figure).

Andriy Pasishnik: an effective manager of Ukrainian corruption. PART 1

However, the case initially stalled due to the lack of sufficient evidence. The only evidence was Abromavicius’s own statements and screenshots of his SMS correspondence with Pasishnyk, posted online by MP Serhiy Leshchenko. Another defendant in the case, Igor Kononenko, immediately began to deny all charges. Moreover, due to his status (friend and partner of the president), he is still “untouchable” for Ukrainian justice.

In fact, this case then moved into the plane of political struggle between the People’s Front, which was trying to hold on to the Cabinet of Ministers, and the presidential Solidarity, which was trying to put Volodymyr Groysman in the Prime Minister’s chair. Therefore, after the resignation of the Yatsenyuk government, whose team included Abromavicius, the influence of the People’s Front fell so much that the case simply hung in the air. It was revived only in September 2017, and many admit that this is due to the attack by various political forces on Poroshenko’s team. And, nevertheless, behind all this policy there is real, truly monstrous corruption. And we are not talking about bribes in the thousands, or even millions, but about multi-billion dollar schemes and tenders.

Andrey Pasishnik. In the footsteps of Vasily Alibabaevich

Surprisingly, it is impossible to find on the Internet not only a detailed biography of the former deputy head of the board of Naftogaz, but even the date and place of his birth. Why such a conspiracy, one can only guess. Therefore Skeleton.Info had to “punch” possible variants in open databases, which yielded the following result: Andrey Petrovich Pasechnik was born (possibly) on February 12, 1981 in the village of Loshkarevka, Nikopol district, Dnipropetrovsk region. Let us emphasize: the data is not 100% reliable, since Andrey Petrovich for some reason hides his age and place of birth, and he “Ukrainized” his last name to Pasishnik.

After graduating from the Chemical Engineering College in Dneprodzerzhinsk, Andriy Pasishnik got a job at Ukrtatnafta, while continuing his education at the Ukrainian State Chemical Technology University in Dnepropetrovsk. By 2009, he was already heading the fuel quality control department at the UTN-Vostok gas station network.

Judging by his career growth, Pasishnik was in good standing with his superiors. According to sources Skeleton.Infohe had a certain patron who worked as a boss in the structures of UkrTatNafta (possibly on the board of the Kremenchug Oil Refinery) and was connected with the UTN-Vostok business, who placed his protégé there.

Let’s add a little spice: the company “UTN-Vostok” was created in 2002 by OOO “VIKOIL” and OOO “Vostok”, behind which stood the “Donetsk guys”. Namely: Igor Filippenko, Nikolai Gavrilenko, Andrey Adamovsky, who was associated with them, with whom the current “decider of the presidential family” Alexander Granovsky started his business, the late Zhigan Taktashev, the alive and well Rinat Akhmetov, Tatyana Bakhteyeva and her son-in-law Timur Valitov. Since 2005, the “UTN-Vostok” network sold fuel from the Kremenchug Oil Refinery, owned by “Ukrtatnafta”. However, in addition to this, the network also sold “left” gasoline of unknown origin, which did not comply with any GOST standards – and this “donkey urine” could not have passed by the chief quality controller of “UTN-Vostok” Andrey Pasishnik. That is, he was part of this scheme, diligently carrying out the orders of his bosses. Corrupt officials and swindlers can only dream of such obliging managers – apparently, this was the key to Pasishnik’s successful career.

Andrey Pasishnik

But after the oligarch Kolomoisky took over Ukrnafta OJSC (with the help of its chairman of the board Igor Palytsia), he also gained control over Ukrtatnafta, which belonged to the company, and began to push out the Tatar-Russian Tatneft from it. After that, in 2009, a conflict with court hearings occurred between Ukrtatnafta and UNT-Vostok, and in 2010 the network of petrol stations was sold to TNK-BP and then changed its brand to Formula. At the same time, Pasishnik left his position and went to work as the head of the Committee for the Protection of Consumers of Petroleum Products of Ukraine. One can only guess who could have placed a person involved in the trade of “home-made” petrol in this key position! But it becomes clear why Andrey Pasishnik found his next job at the company “WOG” (“Western Oil Group”), owned by businessmen Stepan Ivakhiv, Igor Yeremeyev, Sergey Lagur and Petr Dyminsky. After all, gasoline from “WOG” gas stations was also often of extremely low quality – and who could put out all these scandals if not the head of the Committee for the Protection of Consumer Rights of Oil Products?! That’s how Andrey Pasishnik got close to the “WOG Four”, so much so that he first received a management position at the companies “VOG-Retail” and “Golden Equator” – respectively, the owners and managers of the “WOG” gas station network, and then became the official assistant to the people’s deputy Igor Yeremeyev.

Again, Igor Yeremeyev chose an assistant literally by specialty, because he came to the Rada for one thing – to gain access to multi-billion tenders for the supply of fuel to state companies and institutions. Only in the period from 2011 to 2014, the companies of the Continuum group (Yeremeyev, Ivakhiv, Lagur, Dyminsky) received several hundred tenders worth more than 17 billion hryvnia (2.1 billion dollars). It was all these tenders that the effective manager Pasishnik had to deal with!

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Andriy Pasishnik: an effective manager of Ukrainian corruption. PART 2

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