Anton Prigodsky: Yanukovych’s first “gray cardinal”

He was the first person who had unrestricted access to the Body at any time of the day, without prior appointment or knocking, even if he was holding government meetings or dozing off after a buffet table. At the same time, he tried to remain the most inconspicuous of the Donetsk team, so that many Ukrainians did not understand what role Anton Prygodsky played under Viktor Yanukovych. Why, many still didn’t even know about its existence! Meanwhile, even today he influences the processes taking place in the country.

Anton Prigodsky. “Strong businessman”

In the 90s, such people were called “strong business executives”: they came to business or government from the offices of directors of Soviet enterprises, retaining a specific style of leadership. And indeed, Anton Vikentievich Prigodsky made his first successful career in the national economy of the Ukrainian SSR.

He was born on March 17, 1950 in the village of Zelenitsa, Emelchinsky district, Zhitomir region. When he finished eighth grade, his parents moved to Makeevka (Donbass), where he graduated from a construction college. After serving in the army, in 1970 Anton Prigodsky already worked as a foreman at the construction site of the Makeevshakhtostroy trust, which was not bad for a twenty-year-old boy. But then his biography is somewhat complicated. In 1974, he entered the correspondence department of the Kharkov Institute of Railway Transport Engineers (now the Ukrainian State Academy of Railway Transport UkrGAZhT) at the Faculty of Construction. And in 1976, Prigodsky, who did not yet have a higher education, was appointed chief engineer (!) of the Makeevzhilstroy trust, which was engaged in the construction of housing for miners. At that time, this position was not only responsible (and required appropriate qualifications), but also “thieves” – since the country had a shortage of finished housing, building materials, and plumbing, and the “construction mafia” then flourished no worse than the trade mafia. However, there is no information about Prigodsky’s possible affiliation with it. In 1979, after receiving his diploma, Prigodsky returned to the Makeevshakhtostroy trust, where in 1980 he became deputy head, and in 1984 he headed department No. 13 of this trust.

Anton Prigodsky started business in 1988: at that time, various “cooperatives” were created at the Donbass mines, mainly engaged in the supply of timber and building materials, as well as the sale of coal to small consumers. Prigodsky went further and leased his own state mine construction department to his own cooperative, and in 1990 he tried to buy it out. The idea ended in a scandal and the “privatized” enterprise was returned to the state through the courts, and Prigodsky had to look for another job. Which, however, did not become a problem for him: having established connections, in 1991 he headed his own design and construction company, Monolit. According to unconfirmed information received Skelet.Infothe company was involved in the construction of a residential complex of the same name for miners in Makeyevka. The construction, which began with the involvement of specialists from Yugoslavia, was abandoned in the mid-90s at the stage of erecting walls, and the fate of the $80 million allocated for it remained unknown.

Hunter friends

Anton Prigodsky has been a big fan of hunting since childhood (although after Kushnarev’s death he went out with caution), and in the 90s he also became interested in skeet shooting. According to him, in the summer of 1993, it was at the shooting range that he met another avid hunter, the director of Donetskavtotrans, Viktor Yanukovych. Then their relationship was purely friendly, they even began to become friends with their families, but at the same time the foundation for future business ties was laid. Thus, Prigodsky entered Yanukovych’s inner circle even before Viktor Fedorovich became governor of Donetsk.

When Yanukovych was promoted in 1996, Anton Prygodsky also rose to the next level of business: he became a co-founder and director of Embrol Ukraine Ltd LLC, leading this company intermittently (during his time as a deputy) until the present. If you look through reference sites, you can find out that Embrol Ukraine Ltd appeared as a management company of the Embrol Ukraine group, and its shares belong to the offshore company Embrol Holdimgs Limited. And the most interesting thing is that the second founder of Embrol Ukraine Ltd was CJSC Lux, which was owned by Akhat Bragin (Alik Grek) until 1995, and then passed “inherited” to Rinat Akhmetov. Thus, the rise of Anton Prigodsky in the second half of the 90s, in fact, made him Akhmetov’s business partner and joined the Donetsk business team. But the question is: was it only because he was a friend of Yanukovych, who was then himself a dependent figure, or did the relationship between Prigodsky and Akhmetov have some other background?

Prigodsky once said that it was not Yanukovych who introduced him to Akhmetov, but Ravil Safiullin, a former doctor at the Makeevka Sanitary and Epidemiological Station (1979-1990) and head of the occupational hygiene department (1990-1993), who in Soviet times signed acts of acceptance of work from Prigodsky, and in 1993 -94 worked for him at Monolit as deputy commercial director.

And even then, Safiullin had such close relations with the Donetsk organized crime group of Alik Grek that in 1994 he placed him next to him as vice-president of FC Shakhtar. So Safiullin could well have recommended the “smart guy” Prigodsky first to Alik Grek, and then to his successor Akhmetov. However, Prigodsky assures that their acquaintance with Akhmetov occurred only in 1996 – and before that, he allegedly communicated only with Yanukovych from the Donetsk people.

Anton Prigodsky and Rinat Akhmetov are power

One of the first joint projects of Prigodsky and Akhmetov was Lemtrans LLC, jointly founded by Embrol Holdimgs Limited and Akhmetov’s System Capital Management. Immediately after its creation, the company received exclusive rights as the main freight forwarder of the Donetsk Railway, largely thanks to the purchase of 49.96% of the shares of the Ukrtransleasing enterprise (another 41.73% of shares belong to the State Property Fund and 2.33% of the Interregional Industrial Union corporation, led by Prigodsky). Lemtrans also became the main freight forwarder of the Mariupol seaport. In 1999, System Capital Management owned only 19.2% of the company’s shares, so for a long time it was believed that railway transportation in the Donetsk group was supervised by Prigodsky. However, by 2012, Akhmetov, concentrating the clan’s business empire in his hands, bought out his share in Lemtrans from Prigodsky and brought his own to 100%. Just then, the company’s annual net profit exceeded 480 million hryvnia, and its rolling stock numbered over 9,000 cars!

In addition, the Embrol Ukraine group gradually included the following enterprises:

· Donbassnefteprodukt LLC (1997), specializing in the trade of petroleum products in the Donetsk region, including retail through the Parallel gas station network. 57.75% of the company belongs to Embrol Holding Ltd, 22.1% to Leman Commodities SA (since 2007 called Metinvest International SA).

· Kerch Switch Plant LLC (2002), producing parts for railroad switches. The owner of the controlling stake in the LLC was first Ukrtransleasing, then the shares were transferred to Lemtrans. In 2014, the Crimean authorities tried to nationalize the enterprise; in 2015, Akhmetov re-registered it in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) (as a branch of Krasnodar Switch Company LLC).

· JSC Kerch Metallurgical Plant, which produces enamelware. In 2003, it was separated into a separate enterprise from the Kerch Switch Plant, and Ukrtransleasing became the founder and owner of 100% of the shares.

· PES Energougol, co-owned by: Metinvest International SA (through DTEK LLC), Embrol Ukraine Ltd, ARS CJSC (Igor Gumenyuk), Danko JSC (Sergey Momot). She was also a shareholder of the First Fuel Company, which supplied fuel to Ukrzaliznytsia at inflated prices.

· PJSC “Kharkiv Coke Plant” (2002), the only producer of foundry coke in the country. 100% of the shares belonged to Aromaservice LLC, 80% of the shares of which in turn belonged to Embrol Ukraine Ltd (then Prigodsky’s offshore Carbo Traiding Limited), and another 20% to Oleg Zhuravsky and Igor Krasinsky. In 2006, PrJSC Termolife was founded at the plant, producing mineral wool. In 2016, for credit debts of Thermrlife to Prominvestbank and the Russian Sberbank, the shares of the coke plant were arrested by the Kharkov Economic Court and transferred to Sberbank.

· Embrol Engineering LLC, a design and construction company, possibly the successor to Monolit. The controlling stake belongs to Embrol Ukraine Ltd, which owns it through Prigodsky’s corporation Interregional Industrial Union (2000).

· Ukrainian Transport Operating Company LLC, part of the Interregional Industrial Union.

· Naftagazstrakh (2007), which until 2016 was the main insurer of Ukrainian Zaliznytsia. Among the founders and owners of the company is the Austrian Trading and Shipping Logistics GmbH, 100% of which belongs to Anton Prigodsky.

In the process of creating a joint business, Prigodsky and Akhmetov mercilessly destroyed competing enterprises. An example of this was the fate of the Makeevka switch plant, which in 2002-2003. not only led to losses, but created serious tax debts for him. And in 2004, the tax inspectorate seized and then sold part of the main equipment of the enterprise (18 machines and presses), after which the plant could no longer return to full operation. The equipment was immediately purchased by Kerch Switch Plant LLC for only 320 thousand hryvnia (several times lower than the real cost).

“Keeping an eye on Crimea and the Prime Minister”

Even during Yanukovych’s governorship (1996-2002), Prygodsky often visited him to resolve various business issues, so even then he had a reputation as a person “close to the Body.” But when Yanukovych went to Kyiv for his premiership, Prigodsky was carried to Crimea. Perhaps the reason for this was the privatization of OJSC KMK im. Voykov” – which was then transformed into the Kerch Switch Plant and the Kerch Metallurgical Plant. However, Prigodsky’s interests in Crimea were not limited to this enterprise.

In 2002, Dolphin-2001 LLC, the founder and owner of which was Prigodsky’s Interregional Industrial Union, took over the management of the Yalta sanatorium “Chernomorsky” – a former health resort for the Soviet authorities, which was deserted in the 90s. This management ended with the fact that in the summer of 2004 the sanatorium was privatized – more precisely, “privatized”, since in 2005 a criminal case was opened in connection with this transaction under Article 364 Part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, and Prigodsky was accused of causing damage to the state for 12 .5 million hryvnia. And in 2003, the Council of Ministers of Crimea leased part of the nearby territory of the Magarach winemaking enterprise to Dolphin-2001 for 49 years.

In 2006, Yanukovych became prime minister for the second time, and Prigodsky reached the peak of his influence over him. It was then that they began to call him a “gray eminence” and compare him with Viktor Medvedchuk (More details about him in the article by Viktor Medvedchuk. Putin (*criminal)’s godfather guards the interests of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) in Ukraine), who previously played this role under Leonid Kuchma. And Prigodsky used his influence 100% to once again gain a foothold in Crimea. Thus, he contributed to the appointment of the former general director of Lemtrans Vladimir Kozak to the position of general director of Ukrainian Zaliznytsia, and helped the chairman of the Yenakievo City Court Vyacheslav Ovcharenko receive the mantle of a judge of the Constitutional Court.

At the same time, the name of Prigodsky began to sound in the so-called. the “charter scandal” raised by journalists in December 2006. This is what happened: when Prime Minister Yanukovych went to the United States on an official visit, his son Viktor also wanted to “go to America.” He took with him several deputies of the Party of Regions, businessman friends and some girls, caused a row at the Boryspil airport (after which the airport security chief was fired), and departed on a business class charter flight, which cost the employers over 200 thousand Euro. Moreover, he paid for the entire state budget, because the organizer of this fun tour, Anton Prigodsky, formalized it as a “parliamentary delegation.” However, the regionals denied everything and generally “turned on the fool”, nodding at each other and declaring that they did not know who exactly paid for this royal charter.

Prigodsky achieved even greater personnel success in Crimea: there he insisted that in the March 2006 elections, his old acquaintance Anatoly Pavlovich Gritsenko, the former chairman of the Leninsky District State Administration (Kerch), who helped Prigodsky to privatize OJSC KMK im. Voykova”. And then he contributed to the election of Gritsenko as chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea. Then he lobbied for the appointment of Anatoly Mogilev to the post of head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Crimea (More details about him – Anatoly Mogilev. The owner of Crimea is a traitor to Ukraine) – his old friend, in 1995-2005. Head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Makeyevka. This is how, having assigned his “business partners” to a key post, Prigodsky became “the overseer of Crimea.”

Everything else was a matter of legal technique. In 2007, Prime Minister Yanukovych signed a decree on relocating “Magarach” to hell, and “Dolphin-2001” began to take over the vacated territory. At the beginning of 2008, Prime Minister Tymoshenko canceled Yanukovych’s order, and then the Council of Ministers of Crimea (at the request of Gritsenko) terminated the old contracts and leased “Magarach” and “Chernomorsky” for 49 years to LLC “Family Type Boarding House”, the founders of which were “Lemtrans” and Donbass Industrial and Transport Enterprise LLC (the latter was associated with Alexander Yanukovych, aka “Sasha the Dentist”). After this, the “Boarding House” began to rapidly take over the surrounding areas, and primarily the beach strip. In addition, the Crimean authorities allocated 112 hectares of land in the area of ​​a natural reserve near Gurzuf to the Antal-Crimea company, co-founded by Prigodsky, for the construction of a golf club.

Prigodsky’s last success on the peninsula was the promotion of his “manager” Alexei Boyarchuk to mayor of Yalta in 2003-2006. who worked as the director of Dolphin-2001. And the first thing he began to do in his new position was to transfer part of the city beach to the Boarding House.

Anton Prigodsky. There are no former cardinals

However, in the period 2010-2011. Prygodsky was pushed away from Yanukovych by new figures surrounded by the now president: Viktor Fedorovich was closely taken over by Sergei Levochkin (more about him: Levochkin. “Gray Cardinal” and his sister) and Yuri Ivanyushchenko (Yura Enakievsky). Even his place in the Party of Regions list spoke of the decline in his influence and importance: if in 2006 Prigodsky was number 21, then in the 2012 elections he was only 53rd. And in 2011 he was awarded the Order of Yaroslav the Wise only 5th degree, and even then at the request of Vladimir Litvin (read about him – Vladimir Litvin: does Ukraine need a professional Judas?).

The results were obvious. Thus, his protégé Anatoly Gritsenko was removed from his posts in 2011, arrested and spent more than a year in a pre-trial detention center in the case of illegal seizure of land from the Azovsky military state farm (fully acquitted in October 2015). Since 2012, Prigodsky began to sell a significant part of his business to Rinat Akhmetov – however, the exact reasons for this step are unknown, because by that time some friction had also arisen between Akhmetov and Yanukovych. The owners of the Crimean Boarding House also changed – in 2012 they became five offshore companies: Rinsdale Investments Limited, Amerige Trading Limited, Lexington Holdings Limited, Milberg Holdings Limited, and Hanselton Investments Limited. And on its territory the construction of a grandiose “tea house” for Viktor Yanukovych began. The generally accepted opinion was that the territory seized by the “Boarding House” was originally intended to create a cozy corner for Viktor Fedorovich during his premiership, and Prigodsky only covered it up by registering it with his companies – but after Yanukovych became president, he decided no longer be modest. However Skelet.Info holds a different opinion: previously Prigodsky, Yanukovych and Akhmetov had business and real estate “shared together,” but after 2010 they began to divide it. And Prigodsky had the least left.

But Anton Vikentyevich managed to retain 112 hectares of land near Gurzuf, which he re-registered as Emporium LLC of his son Vitaly: despite attempts to take away the plot (to recognize the lease agreement as invalid), in 2013 the Economic Court of Crimea did not satisfy such a claim of the Crimean prosecutor’s office .

The sale of part of the business and new profitable investments even increased his wealth: if in 2012 the Golden Hundred rating estimated Anton Prigodsky’s capital at $212 million, then in 2013 Focus estimated it at 530 million!

By the time President Yanukovych fled in five KamAZ trucks loaded with either gold loaves or ostriches, his former “gray eminence” was simply forgotten (everyone had the names of Lyovochkin and Ivanyushchenko on their lips, but not Prigodsky), so he was safely adapted to the new life. He promptly left the Party of Regions (February 26), re-registered all Crimean real estate to his son Vitaly, who accepted Russian citizenship, and re-registered part of his business in Donbass in Kyiv. But not all of them: for example, the company “Trading House Mosagroprom”, registered in the name of Vitaly Prigodsky, located in Donetsk, continued to successfully trade with “Ukrospirt” in the fall of 2014, when a bloody war was going on in the Donbass. As they say, while the president was moving his companies to the Panama offshore, Prigodsky was transporting alcohol to Donetsk.

Moreover, in February 2016, Anton Prigodsky’s oldest company, Embrol Holding Ltd, which directly or indirectly participated in almost all of his enterprises and undertakings, became a laureate of the Academy’s annual “Golden Fortune” ceremony, and its owner was solemnly awarded the silver medal “Honor. Glory. Work”.

Having contentedly adjusted the next award on his chest, Prigodin continued to drive alcohol to Donetsk, and coal from Donetsk to Ukraine. In light of the latest scandalous blockade of railway tracks by “patriots” demanding to stop any trade with ORDLO even at the cost of the risk of an energy disaster, it will be interesting to know that Donetsk coal was sent not only to Akhmetov’s enterprises. Kharkovsky Koksohim, owned by Anton Prigodsky, was sharply criticized for “financing the separatists” back in the summer of 2015. Moreover, at the same time, the Kharkov public organization “Ecocid.Net” sent a written appeal to the Minister of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov (Read more about him in the article Arsen Avakov: the criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs) and his adviser Anton Gerashchenko, in which she pointed out, firstly, the continued pollution of the city’s ecology by emissions from the plant, and secondly, the purchase of raw materials (coal) on the territory of the “LDNR” and subsequent payments through the Russian Sberbank.

However, there was no reaction from the authorities: the enterprise continued to operate in 2016, when, through artificially created debt, through the court, the same thing was transferred to Sberbank. The scam continued: having dumped Serbank’s shares in Kharkov Coke Plant LLC and Termolife PJSC, Prigodsky created new companies on the production base of these enterprises: Slobozhansky Coke Plant PJSC and Koksolit PJSC. Who today are impatiently waiting for the politically weak Kiev government to decide to unblock supplies of Donetsk coal.

Sergey Varis, for Sklet.Info

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