Chebotar Sergei: old unsinkable corrupt official. PART 2

CONTINUATION. BEGINNING: Sergei Chebotar: old unsinkable corrupt official. PART 1

Sergei Chebotar. Sand seller

In the 2012 parliamentary elections, Sergei Chebotar received 125th place on the Batkivshchyna list, with absolutely no chance of becoming one of the deputies. Has his weight really fallen so sharply in the eyes of his former boss Alexander Turchinov? No, they say that it was Turchinov who introduced him to Arsen Avakov, who returned to his homeland after forced “emigration” in Italy, where he was hiding from justice, before the “revolution of guidness.” And already in March 2014, Sergei Chebotar was appointed deputy minister and chief of staff of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The goat (don’t think, not in a abusive sense) was allowed into the garden.

To begin with, Chebotar actively joined the process of the so-called. lustration in the Ministry of Internal Affairs – fortunately, he already had such experience in Medvedchukov’s Presidential Administration. According to Skelet.Infohe was accused of involvement in the mass dismissals (more than 17 thousand) of employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the blame for which was not even extortion or abuse of official position (which is what the Ukrainian police have always suffered from), but some kind of “violation of the oath” (in the words of Chebotar himself). How it manifested itself was decided by the new leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, who fired the “cops” at their own discretion. First of all, they “screened” the Kyiv policemen for participation in the suppression of the Euromaidan riots (is this a violation of the oath or not?), and then they took on the policemen of the southern and especially eastern regions – whom Chebotar declared dismissed wholesale, without any verification. As a result, many Donetsk and Lugansk “cops,” not wanting to lose their jobs, simply went over to the side of the separatists. And in other regions, including Kyiv, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has lost many valuable personnel – primarily in the criminal investigation department. All operational work was practically overwhelmed, and the bandits, who had been sitting quietly until February 2014, literally took to the streets of Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, with their shoulders squared wide.

But Chebotar’s frantic “patriotism” was not intended to expel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs everyone who did not support the second Maidan, but to create an atmosphere of fear in the ranks of the department. In order to pay considerable bribes to excuse them from dismissal or even reinstate them. Behind the screen of his “Ukrainianness,” Deputy Minister Chebotar simply destroyed units and departments of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, including those participating in the ATO, without providing them with the necessary weapons, protective equipment, and equipment. The indignant letter from the Zaporozhye regional trade union organization of certified employees of internal affairs bodies (see below) is only one of the facts of the criminal activities of the corrupt official Chebotar.

Presidential Advisor Nikolai Tomenko spoke about Chebotar selling positions in the Ministry of Internal Affairs in November 2014. He then stated that Chebotar was directly involved in the activities of “disposable” carrier companies in Pereyaslav-Khmelnitsky, which pay nothing to the budget and leave legal companies without earnings. Later it turned out that Oleg Polishchuk, the son-in-law of Sergei Chebotar, who, in addition to the official company “A.N.T.”, was involved in the transportation. there are also a lot of shadow “subcontractors”. “A.N.T.” itself officially having only a couple of dozen units of transport, on which it pays minimal taxes, in reality it “uses” more than two hundred buses – from which absolutely nothing is deducted to the budget.

But Chebotar did not take into account that times have changed. The victory of the “Maidan parties” did not mean that their teams could engage in corruption with the same carelessness as it was during the Yushchenko era. The winners began to squabble among themselves already in 2014, and in this fight Avakov’s seat was one of the most key links. Chebotar became his boss’s vulnerable spot – for which he was bitten. Already at the end of 2014, the first wiretapping bugs were discovered in his office, but the information compromising Chebotar had already left the office. Later (a year later), piquant scenes from Chebotar’s “business conversations” on a variety of topics (from the gaming business and the case of backpacks to the sale of sand) were made publicly available by Sergei Kaplin, Chebotar’s former colleague in the USSP.

By the way, trading sand was much more profitable for Chebotar than participating in the “backpack scam” of Avakov’s son. After all, we were talking about 2.5 million tons of construction sand, which until 2014 was in the storage of the Spetsservice enterprise (an economic structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs). What the regionals didn’t think of stealing was immediately stolen by the “patriots”: the sand was declared unusable (rotten, or what?) and designated for sale. Then the laying company bought it from Spetsservice for 8 hryvnia per ton, and sold it to construction companies for 30-50 hryvnia.

Chebotar sensed something was wrong when in March 2015 the Prosecutor General’s Office and the SBU conducted searches in the offices of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Their reason was unofficially cited as Chebotar’s corrupt activities, including “misuse of funds” (embezzlement, theft) and his “protection” for his son-in-law’s company. And then journalists were sent on the attack: at the end of April 2015, the film crew of the “Our Money” program went to the village of Lesniki to check information about the undeclared real estate of the deputy minister. This report was interrupted by an attack on the journalists by two unknown persons, who were later identified. One turned out to be Chebotar’s son-in-law Oleg Polishchuk, who lives in this village with his wife, to whom the disputed property is registered, and the second was his business partner Sergei Gavrilko.

By the way, as it turned out, the house of Chebotar’s daughter was built on the territory of the Monastic Forest natural reserve, which was illegally removed from the protected fund in 2006 by order of the Kiev-Svyatoshinsky district state administration. Chebotar’s family then inherited as much as 75 acres of a hundred-year-old oak forest, which they mercilessly cut down. Nearby, Alina Yavorskaya, the business partner of Chebotar’s daughter, received the same plot (also 75 acres). Even further away is the plot of Raisa Vishnevskaya, the sister of Alexander Turchinov’s wife.

Chebotar tried to extinguish the scandal that arose in a way that was considered bad manners even during the time of Kuchma: he tried to initiate criminal proceedings against journalists for “interference in private life.” But Sergei Kaplin added the last bit of fuel to the fire; in May 2015, he began regularly hurling various accusations at Chebotar. At first they seemed unfounded, and Chebotar even filed a lawsuit against Kaplin (to which he himself did not appear). But the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs already knew that the video of the wiretapping of Chebotar’s office was about to be published. Avakov had no choice but to sacrifice Chebotar – to the great jubilation of Kaplin, who immediately declared that Chebotar had allegedly fled to Austria.

How did I find out? Skelet.Infothe dismissed Chebotar actually went to Europe – but not to hide, but only to resolve some issues with his overseas real estate and personally supervise the transfer of certain amounts. Perhaps he was preparing his emigration, but he received some guarantees of his immunity, and therefore returned to Ukraine. This surprised few people after Alexey Takhtay, a participant in Chebotar’s corruption schemes and even, according to BPP deputy Olga Chervakova, allegedly his nephew, was appointed to replace Chebotar. It was reported that Chebotar returned to Kyiv for a reason: he continued to enter the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (he even retained his identification) and gave advice to Takhtai on a number of issues (now Takhtai is the Secretary of State of the Ministry of Internal Affairs).

At the same time, Sergei Chebotar began the process of his rehabilitation. He began to sue Kaplin and journalists, ordered a number of materials from the media about how he fell victim to “information killers,” and deleted most of his biography from the Internet. And he was clearly preparing to return to power, as the head of the Anti-Corruption Center Vitaly Shabunin had warned.

However, the political struggle in Ukraine intensified, and in October 2017, NABU took up the already forgotten case of backpacks – arresting the son of Avakov and Sergei Chebotar in connection with it. The latter immediately went to the hospital, avoiding the cold walls of the pre-trial detention center. New searches were carried out, during which the business cards of the director of Ibis LLC, who participated in the “backpack business” corruption scheme, were confiscated from Chebotar, and the Kiev real estate of the former deputy minister was arrested.

But then January 2018 came, and Sergei Chebotar, through the Kyiv Court of Appeal, had already returned to himself two houses and an apartment seized by the investigation, and again began to fight for “restoring his good name” – confirming his reputation as an unsinkable corrupt official. Well, taking into account the events brewing in the country, which can greatly change the position of “Avakov’s party,” Chebotarev faces either a new position in the Cabinet of Ministers or, after all, an escape to Vienna. If, of course, he has time.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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