Anton Yanchuk
The transformation of specialized anti-corruption bodies into new instruments of corruption was one of the main “achievements” of the outgoing regime. A striking example of this is the short but scandal-filled history of the Asset Tracing and Management Agency (ARMA), headed by Anton Yanchuk. Many call this structure “raiders in law,” but the most indignant questions are not the “expropriation” of property and enterprises, but their transfer to the management of dubious companies.
ARMA developed its most vigorous activity in the summer of this year 2019, as if the outgoing government decided to hastily fill its pockets with everything it could. However, the new Rada and the new Cabinet of Ministers have already started working, a new Prosecutor General has been elected, and Anton Yanchuk continues to sit in the chair of the director of ARMA, managing his schemes. And the hopes of Ukrainians that the new government will punish the corrupt officials of the old regime are fading every day.
Collective farm lawyers
Anton Vladimirovich Yanchuk was born on July 11, 1984 in Kyiv, into a family of hereditary Soviet lawyers. His grandfather, Vasily Zinovievich Yanchuk (1925-2006), after the Great Patriotic War, studied at Kiev University. Shevchenko, where he then remained for graduate school and in 1954 defended his dissertation on the topic “Financial liability of the parties under the MTS agreement with the collective farm.” In today’s Ukraine, after many years of “decommunization” and the portrayal of the Soviet past solely as an “empire of evil and terror,” the phrase “collective farm” and “lawyer” seems like an absurd joke to many. But, contrary to Vyatrovich’s tales, the Soviet lawyer Vasily Yanchuk made his career in collective farm law. And this is not a joke either: Vasily Zinovievich, having become a professor at Kyiv University. Shevchenko actually taught a course on “collective farm law” there, and also became the author of the textbook “Soviet collective farm law.” Well, in the 90s he quickly rebuilt himself and became the author of publications on land and agricultural law.
Vasily Yanchuk
And then his son Vladimir Vasilyevich Yanchuk (1956-1999) rose to this mastered collective farm field, following in his father’s footsteps. In 1979, Vladimir Vasilyevich graduated from the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University. Shevchenko, where his father taught, defended his PhD at Odessa University on the topic “legal regime of arable land,” and also began to specialize in collective farm and then agricultural legislation. Since 1994, Vladimir Yanchuk became an associate professor at the Faculty of Law of Kyiv University. Shevchenko.
Vladimir Yanchuk
In general, we have before us another example of the fact that the parents of many post-Maidan “decommunizers” who heart-rendingly shouted “farewell to the Radiansky Union!” were Soviet bosses, lawyers, professors, party bosses, and diplomatic workers.
One of Vladimir Yanchuk’s books (library card)
Thus, the life and career of Anton Yanchuk was predetermined from the moment of birth. And although his father died very early (when Anton was only 15 years old), the help of his grandfather and the wide connections of the Yanchuk family allowed him to graduate from the same law faculty of Kyiv University. Shevchenko (2007), defend his PhD there (2010), and find a good job. Of course, there are no collective farms left in Ukraine, but land law and legal services in the field of real estate and property management have become extremely in demand.
Hereditary lawyer Anton Yanchuk got his first job at the law firm Gramatsky and Partners, whose owner Ernest Gramatsky in the 90s studied and defended his PhD at the same law faculty of the Kyiv University. Shevchenko. Here, in general, everything is clear: Anton Vladimirovich was assigned to good friends. By the way, Gramatsky is engaged not only in legal services: since 2006, he has owned the Colosseum Construction Center LLC. His law firm is also called one of the leading enterprises in the field of bankruptcy. Considering how many high-profile bankruptcies of construction companies there have been (and will continue to be) in Kyiv, this suggests that Gramatsky has a certain scheme that goes far beyond simple legal services…
Welcome to the “family”!
It seemed that all Anton Yanchuk could do was work in the company of graduates of his father’s and grandfather’s law faculty – as they say, all of them! However, for some reason, in July 2008, he moved to the MLGroup law firm (USREOU 34189188). Which, unlike Gramatsky’s company, was somehow “murky” from the very beginning, changed its names and formal founders, and indicated “fake” legal addresses. The owner of MLGroup was Pavel Petrenko, a native of Chernivtsi, who moved to Kyiv in 2001.
Pavel Petrenko
The only “dignity” of Pavel Petrenko is that he studied at the same school with Arseniy Yatsenyuk and the Burbak brothers. And he not only studied, but also became friends with them, although Petrenko is several years younger than them. This predetermined his future: Yatsenyuk’s mother, who taught at Chernivtsi University, helped Pavlik graduate from the Faculty of Law. But his childhood friend Senya helped him move to Kyiv and get a job in the legal department of Oschadbank, which Petrenko soon headed. And yet, in 2005, when the path to the highest government positions opened for his patron Yatsenyuk, Petrenko for some reason went into business – although many predicted good positions for him in ministries or largest state-owned companies. However, this corresponded to the then strategy of the emerging “Chernivtsi” clan. While Yanetsyuk was gaining a position in power, and Alexey Burbak was following him as a silent shadow, Maxim Burbak in Chernivtsi and Pavel Petrenko in Kyiv were laying the economic base of the clan by going into business.
MLGroup was just one of Petrenko’s companies. Perhaps it should have become his “sign”, defining his image as the owner of a law firm, but from the very beginning, MLGroup was associated with other, not law firms, and its activities were not entirely transparent and understandable. Petrenko created this company together with Alexander Ageev, who at that time was the owner of the transport company ZAO Zammler Ukraine (USREOU 35007717). In the spring of 2008, before Yanchuk joined MLGroup, the following changes took place: according to Skelet.InfoAgeev shared shares in Zammler Ukraine with his director Viktor Shevchenko, and also, we quote the press, “with a number of individuals who had a joint business with Mr. Shevchenko in Kyiv and the region in the field of development and warehouse real estate,” among whom Pavel Petrenko and Oleg Rachov were named. It was reported that in Bila Tserkva they are building a customs and logistics complex, and are also engaged in brokerage services for customs clearance of goods. Let us emphasize – brokerage, that is, they simply charged a fee for intermediation. Moreover, the transport company Sammler Ukraine did not even have its own fleet of vehicles.
Then, in the spring of 2008, in Bila Tserkva they created the company Zammler MLS (USREOU 35785007), whose name is too similar to Petrenko’s company MLGroup. In 2018, the company was re-registered in Kharkov – changing their legal addresses is common for the Ageev and Petrenko companies. In total, Ageev is the owner of a dozen companies, including those in which Pavel Petrenko transferred his share to reliable hands after taking the post of Minister of Justice in the Yatsenyuk government.
In general, if you dig into the community of metropolitan law firms working with enterprises, you will see that each of them not only specializes in some activity, but is also closely related to it. At a minimum, serving the interests of certain businessmen. But often these lawyers are themselves participants in this business – like Pavel Petrenko and his MLGroup.
Thus, in 2008, Anton Yanchuk did not just move to another law firm. Gramatsky’s office, created by former students of his father and grandfather, was his “family,” and he could only leave it to move to another company, where he joined another “family,” for some very good reason. Which? The connection between Gramatsky and Petrenko (or Ageev) has not yet been discovered, but there must be one. It’s just that the Chernivtsi team are very good at hiding the ends of their schemes in the water. Ukrainians are still perplexed how Maximum Burbak, who headed the Ministry of Infrastructure for less than a year (February-December 2014), managed during this time to place so many of his people in it and create so many corruption schemes that the “Chernivtsi” then fed from ports and roads , airports and Ukrzaliznytsia for another 4 years!
Yanchuk worked at MLGroup for five years, until July 2013 – longer than anywhere else! During this time, he became so close to Pavel Petrenko that he became like a brother to him – but for this it was necessary to earn his trust in the darkest matters! This is how, through Petrenko, Yanchuk became, if not a full member, then at least a very trusted man of the “Chernivtsi” clan. There was nothing left until the clan came to power, but in the summer of 2013, Yanchuk for some reason temporarily went to work for the Arzinger law firm, created by Timur Bondarev and Sergei Shklyar. Which, in particular, specialized in legal assistance to the Russian company Rosneft. Moreover, Arzinger worked for Rosneft even in 2014, in in particular in the “Kurchenko oil” case. It is also known that both before and after the second Maidan, Arzinger defended the interests of Sergei Kurchenko and the Klyuev brothers.
The fact that “Arzinger” was most closely connected with the “Chernivtsi”, and primarily with Petrenko, was eloquently indicated by the personnel appointments of the new post-Maidan government. On February 27, 2014, Yatsenyuk appointed his childhood friend Pavel Petrenko as Minister of Justice of Ukraine – securing this post for him for five years in advance, so Petrenko remained in it under Groysman. In May of the same year, Petrenko appointed Yanchuk as his assistant, and a month later as his deputy for European integration. In March 2015, Petrenko appointed Sergei Shklyar, who worked as director of Arzinger for twelve years, as his deputy for executive services. Well, in October 2014, the founder of Arzinger, Timur Bondarev, was appointed head of the Ukrainian office of Transparency International, an international non-governmental organization created and supported by global financiers (including Soros) to fight corruption. In reality, this organization uses the fight against corruption as a reason to achieve the interests of its creators and customers in different countries of the world (but in the USA its powers are limited to an “observer”).
Vitaly Kasko
And another interesting person from Arzinger – Vitaly Kasko! He headed the department of criminal law in this office, and then in May 2014, together with Yanchuk, he was called to public service and given the post of Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine! Kasko sat on it until February 2016, first next to Yaremoy, then with Shokin. By the way, claims have been made against Kasko more than once that he was slowing down the return of the assets of Kurchenko and Yanukovych to Ukraine – and why would a former Arzinger lawyer do this! And everything would have been fine, as they say, if on September 5, 2019, the new “green” government had not appointed Kasko first deputy prosecutor general of Ryaboshapka. As you can see, they are coming back.
“Watchers” of assets
An interesting fact: in his declaration for 2013, Anton Yanchuk indicated an annual income of 18.7 thousand hryvnia, that is, one and a half thousand hryvnia per month. Did the leading lawyer of MLGroup and Arzinger really receive the minimum salary? Hardly! And this meant that the newly appointed Deputy Minister of Justice for European Integration was blatantly lying to everyone – the new government, law enforcement officers, his voters, those who “stood on the Maidan.” This is how Yanchuk’s career in the civil service began, with a lie.
Considering that in reality there was no European integration in Ukraine (only its violent imitation), one could only guess what the Deputy Minister of Justice responsible for it, Anton Yanchuk, was actually doing. But it is known that he took his wife Alexandra Yanchuk (nee Khokhlova) to help him, making her the chief specialist of the Department of European Integration and Legal Cooperation with International Organizations. When Yanchuk left the Ministry of Justice, his wife continued to work there (or pretend to work).
But a clear connection between this ministry and the Arzinger law firm could be traced from all sides. So, when in 2014, Yatsenyuk’s Cabinet of Ministers ordered a reduction in “feed-in tariffs”, which would have hit the Klyuevs’ business, their lawyers from Arzinger sharply criticized this decision, and then the Ministry of Justice declared the Cabinet’s order… illegal. At the same time, Yatsenyuk himself was not at all offended by Petrenko, so the meaning of this action remained unclear to the uninitiated.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
CONTINUED: Anton Yanchuk: the last stash of “Chernivtsi”. PART 2
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