Dmitry Firtash. The story of a Ternopil billionaire

Meet Dmitry Vasilievich Firtash. The man who controls the entire gas business of Ukraine for more than 15 years, as well as the most mysterious Ukrainian billionaire. He is the main enemy of Yulia Tymoshenko and a longtime friend of the number 1 crime boss in the world, wanted by the FBI, Semyon Mogilevich. He is called the face of the Kremlin in Ukraine.

The story of Dmitry Firtash is about how to use the chances sent by fate.

Dmitry Firtash. The Great Tomato Road

Dmitry Vasilyevich Firtash was born in the village of Sinkov, Ternopil region, into a poor family. His father was a driver and taught at a local driving school, and his mother, a veterinarian and economist by training, worked as an accountant at a sugar factory. The family’s main source of income was greenhouses where tomatoes were grown. The Firtash sold them at the local market and sometimes managed to travel with the goods to the Baltic states and Belarus. In one of his interviews (by the way, Firtash gives them very rarely), Dmitry Vasilyevich said that, in fact, he did not have a childhood, because all the time he stood at the market and traded when his peers went to the seaside. During the season, the family had up to 5-6 thousand income from selling tomatoes. At that time, you could buy a Zhiguli car with this money. With this kind of work, the Firtashs, by the end of the 80s, collected about 40 thousand rubles in their savings book – fabulous money for a Soviet person. By the way, when in the future Dmitry Vasilyevich asks his parents for money to promote his business, they will refuse, citing the fact that they do not want to take risks.

After school, Dmitry Firtash graduated from the Krasnolimansky Railway Vocational School, and later from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine. In 1984-1986 he served in the army. During his service, he was awarded the VDNH bronze medal “For achievements in the development of the national economy of the USSR” and the Order of the Badge of Honor. And here is a small problem: this medal was given for the best work presented at the All-Union Agricultural Exhibition or the Exhibition of Achievements of the National Economy of the USSR. Among the recipients are scientists, party leaders, and production leaders. It is not known how the conscript soldier received it.

After the service, Firtash returned to his native village and decided to start his own business – growing roses. But this matter required the use of various chemicals, and the future oligarch did not want to spoil his health. I also tried raising arctic foxes, but that didn’t work out either. Therefore, he went to Chernivtsi and got a job as a driver in the fire department of the Chernivtsi shoe factory. And he immediately fell under the beneficial patronage of the city’s fire chief, Yuri Konstantinovich Guley, who knew Firtash’s father and uncle. But his entrepreneurial spirit made itself felt – the newly minted driver began selling felt boots on the side. Apparently, I realized that honest work at a state-owned enterprise will not bring good money. For theft, he was sent to the bullpen, they even wanted to initiate a criminal case, but Guley was able to get away with it. As a result, Firtash was fired; in total, he worked at the enterprise for only a short time – 5 months. However, Yuri Guley did not leave his protégé without support. He gave him a “six” and introduced him to the sugar and gasoline trade.

By this time, Dmitry Vasilyevich was already married to classmate Lyudmila Grabovetskaya, and they had a daughter, Ivana.

Milk deal

Although things were going well for the young entrepreneur, he decides to go into “big” business, fortunately, he has the acumen and established connections. By connections we mean acquaintance with Marina Kalinovskaya, her husbands Zinovy ​​and brother Pyotr Moskal. By this time, the family couple was already fully engaged in entrepreneurial activity or, as they said in those days, speculation. The Kalinovskys sold canned food and juices. At the helm was Zinovy ​​Kalinovsky, a former shop worker at the Chernovtsy bytkombinat. In the late 80s, he received a serious leg injury and retired, Marina Kalinovskaya began to lead. Dmitry Firtash immediately joined the “team”. He was assigned small tasks – to bring and deliver goods, negotiate transfers, sometimes he simply acted as Marina’s driver. Everything lasted until the Kalinovskys decided to create a company – KMIL – short for “Kalinovskaya Marina and Lyubov” (the last word is the name of Kalinovskaya’s close friend – Lyubov Svinyako). After this, things went uphill, and Firtash miraculously became Marina’s indispensable assistant. The company’s first major deal was concluded in 1988. This was the delivery of a huge batch (4000 tons) of powdered milk to Uzbekistan. Dmitry Vasilyevich earned about 50 thousand dollars from this deal. Many believe that after this he went to Moscow to establish business connections. However, Firtash remained in Chernivtsi until mid-1992, driving a donated “six”. The newly made partners lived in perfect harmony, simultaneously purchasing a small cannery, opening a company providing transportation, and the European restaurant.

Dmitry Firtash. Start of gas business

Firtash began traveling to Moscow only at the end of 1992. Initially, the purpose of the visit was to sell food products abroad. In fact, Firtash was looking for new partners to conclude larger deals. To do this, he stayed at the Moscow Rossiya Hotel, which was famous for its motley contingent. Dmitry Vasilyevich spent hours in the hotel restaurant and scouted out future partners. And the fish took a bite – he met a man from the Ministry of Trade of Turkmenistan. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the country was sorely short of food, but there was a lot of gas, which Turkmenbashi did not know what to do with. It was then, in 1993, that Firtash’s brilliant “provisions in exchange for gas” scheme was born, which marked the beginning of the gas history of Ukraine. So, Dmitry Vasilyevich decides to supply food to Turkmenistan and receive gas in return. First delivery, according to Skelet.Info, was worth $1 million. However, everyone understands that it is simply impossible to enter the energy supply market. The KMIL company did not have sufficient assets to trade gas on a national scale. Of course, connections helped. And the first person worth mentioning is Vladimir Nikolaevich Galazdra. His role was short in the life of the aspiring tycoon, but significant. Thanks to this man, KMIL received its first gas contract.

Vladimir Galazdra was a member of the board of the Poltava Mining and Processing Plant, a member of the Finance and Credit group, which was controlled by the BYuT oligarch Konstantin Zhevago (read more about Konstantin Zhevago in the article KONSTANTIN ZHEVAGO. THE RISES AND FALLS OF A DOLLAR BILLIONAIRE) and ex-Minister of Housing and Communal Services Alexey Kucherenko. But the greatest interest for the Firtash-Kalinovskaya tandem was another position of Vladimir Nikolaevich – he was also the director of the small enterprise “Bari”. In the future, it will become the basis of the Finance and Credit empire, and in the 90s it was a tiny part of the Intergas empire of Igor Bakai. Through Galazdra, Dmitry Firtash meets Bakai – this is the second most important person in the life of the future gas tycoon. And the stars aligned: he had a quota for gas supplies to Ukraine, issued by the first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk. The scheme worked like this: Firtash supplied food to Turkmenistan, bought gas there, and then resold the fuel to Bakai in Ukraine. It should be noted that Bari is a joint Ukrainian-Swiss enterprise in terms of ownership. By a strange coincidence, the RosUkrEnergo company will later be registered in the Swiss canton of Zug.

In the meantime, in 1998, Bakai initiated the creation of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and became the first chairman of the board. After this, Bakai’s close friend Alexander Volkov began to supervise the Bari company.

Now businessmen have an open path to the gas market through the barter scheme “provisions in exchange for gas.” By and large, NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine never participated in the Ukraine-Turkmenistan gas scheme; everything was done by small intermediary firms, such as Bari or KMIL. And then there was a very interesting distribution of fuel: NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine supplied gas to the “non-profitable” sector – budgetary organizations, regional gas companies, government agencies, and small intermediaries – to the profitable industrial sector. Thus, the state got the crumbs from the supplies, and the intermediaries skimmed the cream, sending billions into the pockets of Bakai and Firtash.

And already in 2000, the Chernivtsi company KMIL, which had been selling juices and canned food for a long time, received a license “For the right to carry out business activities in the supply of natural gas at an unregulated tariff.” The case is unprecedented. But even more unprecedented is the fact that literally six months later, KMIL receives an offer of cooperation from a major Russian gas trader, Itera, and its president, Igor Makarov.

5 gas companies of Firtash

And it seems like, what else if the small company KMIL has all the cards on its hands, or rather an offer from Itera and Igor Makarov himself. If you are Dmitry Firtash, and your colleague Marina Kalinovskaya, then you can.

Highrock Holdings. It turns out that Igor Makarov owned a controlling stake in the Highrock Holdings holding. Firtash wanted to become one of the shareholders and, of course, received a block of shares. True, today both actors deny involvement in the holding. The reason is simple: Highrock Holdings is the brainchild of the structure of Semyon Mogilevich, the number 1 crime boss in the world, wanted by the FBI. The development strategy of the holding and all gas schemes “Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)-Ukraine-Turkmenistan” was determined by Igor Fisherman. By the way, when Pavel Lazarenko was Prime Minister of Ukraine, this man was officially listed as his adviser. And another interesting detail – the Highrock Holdings company was founded by Olga Schneider, the wife of Semyon Mogilevich, and the directors were Galina Telesh, the ex-wife of a mafioso, and Dmitry Vasilyevich. When the FBI put Mogilevich and Fisherman on the wanted list in 2002, Firtash inherited control of the entire structure. After that, he gradually ousts Itera and Igor Makarov from the gas market (coinciding with Vladimir Putin (*criminal)’s rise to power). This is argued by the fact that Turkmenistan asked for gas not only food, but also money, and Highrock Holdings worked only according to the established “provisions in exchange for gas” scheme.

It is worth mentioning another company that is involved in the gas scheme and played an important role in it – Highrock Properties Ltd. It is a subsidiary of Highrock Holdings. It was established by the personal lawyer of Semyon Mogilevich, Zeev Averbukh-Gordon. The representative office in Ukraine was headed by Dmitry Firtash. At this time, Naftogaz Ukraine is supervised by Yuriy Boyko. He is considered a protege of the Derkachs (Leonid Derkach – Chairman of the SBU; and his son Andrei), one of the most influential clans, weakened after the “cassette scandal”, which had close ties with Mogilevich. Dmitry Vasilyevich and Yuri Boyko become not only partners, but also best friends.

Six months after registering Highrock Holding Ltd, Marina Kalinovskaya and Dmitry Firtash, without notifying even their closest relatives, unexpectedly decided to legalize their relationship. Apparently, the marriage was fictitious and was equally necessary for both partners. The business nature of the union was also emphasized by the fact that Bari director Vladimir Galazdra and his wife Svetlana acted as witnesses to the newly-made spouses at the registry office.

Eural Trans Gas (ETG). A year later, both companies became obsolete. And in 2002, Zeev Averbukh-Gordon registered the Eural Trans Gas company in Hungary (Chabdy village), with an authorized capital of 12 thousand dollars. This was done on the instructions of Dmitry Firtash. The founders were three unemployed Romanians, who then “bought out” Averbukh-Gordon’s shares. In 2004, Eural Trans Gas was headed by the former Minister of Education of Hungary Andras Knopp. According to unverified information, he was one of the shareholders of Highrock Holdings. Before joining the gas business, Andras Knopp was the director of the tobacco company Reemtsma, which was controlled by Semyon Mogilevich. After its creation, Eural Trans Gas immediately received a contract from Gazprom to transport Central Asian gas. Since 2003, it has the exclusive right to supply Turkmen gas to Ukraine. For its services, ETG received 38% of the gas, that is, about 13 billion cubic meters per year. By selling fuel on the domestic market, the company captured 57% of the Ukrainian gas market.

RosUkrEnergo (RUE). This is the first offshore company since Ukraine’s independence with such a scale. It was created in 2004 with an authorized capital of 35 thousand dollars. Registered in Switzerland as a joint venture of 2 financial organizations – the Gazprombank group and Centragas Holding, co-owned by Dmitry Firtash (90%) and Ivan Fursin (10%). The agreement to create this company was concluded with the participation of the then Prime Minister of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych, the Russian government, the management of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and Gazprom. According to the data that Yulia Tymoshenko will later provide, it turns out that Yuri Boyko himself was involved in the creation. Although there was no doubt about this, because Firtash and Boyko are long-time friends and colleagues, as well as proteges of Semyon Mogilevich in Ukraine. So, the goal of RosUkrEnergo is to replace ETG as Gazprom’s intermediary in transporting Turkmen gas through Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). This is due to the fact that Firtash urgently had to hide his connection with Mogilevich.

For 5 years, the RosUkrEnergo scheme worked like clockwork. Yulia Tymoshenko was the first to speak about corruption and smuggling schemes in gas supplies. She tried to kick the company with all her might, but to no avail. The apogee of the war came in 2009. Then Tymoshenko promised to exclude RUE from the gas scheme. And yet she achieved this, the Russian gas monopolist switched to supposedly direct relations with NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine. Tymoshenko agreed on this directly with Vladimir Putin (*criminal). Why was Tymoshenko so against it? It’s simple: Yulia Vladimirovna wanted to return Itera and Igor Makarov to the arena, with whom she herself had the pleasure of working in the 1990s. But it didn’t work out.

Having concluded bilateral gas agreements, Yulia Vladimirovna and Naftogaz of Ukraine tried to withdraw gas from RosUkrEnergo underground gas storage facilities. This caused another scandal. President Viktor Yushchenko and the Security Service of Ukraine opposed this.

The conflict was resolved during negotiations between the company and Naftogaz of Ukraine in November 2010: RosUkrEnergo repaid all debts to Naftogaz and Gazprom, and Naftogaz, in turn, gave back the gas.

In February 2011, it became known that RUE would sell the gas received from Naftogaz to Gazprom Export and then terminate its activities. Thus came the end of Dmitry Firtash’s brilliant gas scam. But the question arises: how did such a unique scheme collapse or who is behind it? Vladimir Putin (*criminal). It was he who Firtash let into Central Asia in 2005, creating RUE. And after 4 years, Vladimir Vladimirovich will destroy Firtash in order to gain direct access to Ukraine. Yulia Timoshenko helped him in this game.

However, we note that all these years RosUkrEnergo had a patron about whom few people spoke. It was Viktor Yushchenko. If Viktor Andreevich had not given the go-ahead for the presence of RosUkrEnergo as an intermediary and then a monopoly supplier of gas to Ukraine, thus “burying” gas contracts in which the price was fixed at $50 per 1 thousand cubic meters in the period from 2002- to 2011, then NJSC Naftogaz would have paid only $25.725 billion for imported gas, and not $64.335 billion. Why did Yushchenko lobby Dmitry Vasilyevich’s company so much? There is one guess. In 2006, deputies Igor Shurma and Alexander Golub published copies of payment slips for the transfer of RUE funds to two structures in the UAE and the USA: $53 million was received by a company called Petrogaz, and $12.3 million was received by a company called Refin Commercial Company. According to the arguments of the deputies, Pyotr Yushchenko, the brother of Viktor Andreevich, is related to both companies.

Ostchem Gas Trading. Some thought that Firtash would not recover from the blow. However, the specter of RUE loomed in 2012. In Switzerland, the oligarch registered Ostchem Gas Trading. Dmitry Vasilyevich stated that this company was created within Group DF, and will supply gas to meet the own needs of the group’s chemical enterprises. However, everyone understood the real purpose of creating Ostchem. Only Firtash controls the Ukrainian gas market, and he will not give this hot spot to anyone.

Dmitry Firtash. The rise of an empire

During the heyday of the gas scheme, Firtash is actively developing his empire. He decides to invest money in the profitable chemical industry, acquiring major stakes in enterprises. The first “swallows” purchased in 2002 were “Tajik Azot” (Tajikistan) and “Nitrofert” (Estonia). A year later, the gas magnate becomes a shareholder of OJSC Rivneazot, a large producer of nitrogen fertilizers in Western Ukraine. Firtash pours several million into its modernization and receives a huge plant, the leader in Ukraine, in the production of mineral fertilizers.

In 2004, Dmitry Vasilyevich became the main investor of the Crimean Soda Plant (Krasnoperekopsk) and Crimean TITAN (Armensk). In the same year, all chemical assets of Mr. Firtash were consolidated into the OSTCHEM holding. In three years, they will move to Group DF (GDF – Group of Dmitry Firtash), which will manage the entire empire.

The heyday of Dmitry Vasilyevich’s business occurred during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych. On the sidelines they say that the future oligarch met Viktor Fedorovich in the 90s, when he supplied scarce petroleum products to the motor depot of the Ordzhonikidzeugol association, where Yanukovych then worked as general director.

In 2010, Firtash will begin to unite all Ukrainian nitrogen enterprises in order to bring them to the world stage. He acquires Concern Stirol (Gorlovka), Severodonetsk Association Azot and Cherkassy Azot, investing about 1 billion in them. UAH The idea is quite good, but in reality we have a monopolist owner who independently controls state-owned factories. Although, it is worth noting that over the course of the year, enterprises ousted foreign suppliers of fertilizers from Ukraine. Also in 2010, Group DF launched the Mezhdurechensky mining and processing plant.

Firtash goes further, he buys shares (up to 2 to 30%) of a number of regional gas companies in 10 regions of Ukraine. Thus, he began to control a third of the Ukrainian energy market.

Of course, it is simply impossible to buy such factories and regional gas companies without the support of the current government. Firtash had his own people at the “feeding trough”: Yuriy Boyko headed the Ministry of Energy and Coal, Sergey Lyovochkin headed the presidential administration, Valery Khoroshkovsky sat in the chair of the SBU, and managers of Firtash’s companies stood at the helm of key subsidiaries of Naftogaz of Ukraine (Yury Borisov headed Ukrgazodobycha, and Sergey Vinokurov – Ukrtransgaz).

A year later, Firtash realizes that in order to develop his empire, he lacks a bank that would “serve” all enterprises. For this purpose, he buys out a controlling stake in Nadra Bank. By the way, Dmitry Vasilyevich was interested in this bank in 2008, but after the apogee of the crisis, the need for it disappeared. In 2011, Centragas Holding AG and Nadra Bank signed a purchase and sale agreement, as a result of which D. Firtash’s share in the authorized capital of the bank will amount to 89.97% of the shares. The transaction amount for shares amounted to 3.5 billion. UAH (10 UAH per 1 share).

In 2011, Dmitry Vasilyevich, one of the largest employers in Ukraine, was elected Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, whose members were 10 thousand enterprises. They employed more than 5 million people, producing 70% of Ukraine’s GDP.

Like many other oligarchs, Dmitry Vasilyevich could not resist the temptation to acquire his own media assets. In February 2013, GDF MEDIA LIMITED, part of the Group DF holding group (Group of Dmitry Firtash), acquired UA Inter Media Group Limited, which unites the TV channels Inter, Inter+, K1, K2, Mega, NTN, “Pixel”, “Enter-film” and Zoom10. And in 2014, the Group DF group of companies signed an agreement with the Italian group Intesa Sanpaolo to acquire 100% of the shares of the Ukrainian Pravex-Bank.

Firtash’s empire flourished. Of course, this affected the oligarch’s income, which grew at an astronomical speed. In 2010, the businessman entered the “Top 100” of the most influential people in Ukraine, which are determined annually by the Korrespondent magazine – he took 8th place. In 2011, Dmitry Firtash took 7th place in the “Golden Hundred” ranking of the richest Ukrainians – his fortune valued at $2.25 billion, and in 2012 it took 5th place – $3.2 billion). In 2013, Dmitry Vasilyevich took 4th place in the Focus ranking of “200 richest people in Ukraine” with a fortune of $3.327 billion.

Dmitry Firtash. Scandals, assassinations and criminal cases

Smuggling. Firtash’s first serious problems with the law arose in 1995 at the dawn of his entrepreneurial career. The future oligarch was suspected of smuggling a large batch of alcohol. Law enforcement agencies established surveillance of Firtash in order to bring him to clean water. He was hiding, but his tricks did not help – in the summer of 1995 he was arrested. Marina Kalinovskaya immediately rushed to save her partner, but nothing happened: the case was simultaneously under the control of the police, the prosecutor’s office and the SBU. An accident helped get Dmitry Vasilyevich out of the pre-trial detention center. Through mutual acquaintances, Firtash’s friends gathered a policeman, an investigator and a person in charge from the SBU at one table. Three months after the feast, the future billionaire was released. By the way, the most categorical and principled on this issue was the representative of the Ministry of Internal Affairs – the head of the regional Organized Crime Control Department Ivan Nikolaevich Mirny. He refused to release Dmitry Firtash, but then agreed. Soon he became the head of the personal security of the co-owner of RosUkrEnergo.

Shooting in “European”. The European restaurant was one of the crown jewels of Firtash’s early business. A tragic story took place in this establishment in 1996, which almost took the life of Dmitry Vasilyevich. The birthday of Zinovy ​​Kalinovsky was celebrated at Evropeiskiy. All the cream of society, including the criminal one, were invited. Songs, dances, a lot of alcohol… Towards the morning, crime boss Oleg Matiego refused to pay the bill and started a showdown, threatening the staff with a pistol. Pyotr Kalinovsky and Dmitry Firtash came to calm the guest. A skirmish ensued between the aggressor and Firtash, the last argument being a shot in the groin area. Dmitry Vasilyevich was saved by his friend from Moscow, Oleg Palchikov. He covered the bullet’s entry wound with his hands, stopping the bleeding. Firtash was hospitalized. Later, Oleg Palchikov will be appointed executive director of RosUkrEnergo.

Stepson’s case. In 2007, Dmitry Firtash’s stepson, Sergei Kalinovsky, accelerated his BMW M6 sports car to a speed of 160 km, lost control, jumped onto the curb, hit two trees and crashed into a parked Zhiguli.

The driver of the “kopeyka”, warrant officer of the internal troops Vladimir Kulikovsky, who was waiting for the start of his shift (he was guarding one of the embassies), as well as the passenger of the foreign car, Kalinovsky’s friend Anastasia Bronnikova, died on the spot. The guards who were driving behind did not try to save the girl. They took only Sergei Kalinovsky to the hospital, and Anastasia was taken by ambulance. The investigation of the case was strange: Larisa Kulikovskaya, the wife of the deceased warrant officer, abandoned the claim; Investigators were not allowed into Kalinovsky’s room by security who had cordoned off the entire floor; From the major’s car, which was in a guarded parking lot, someone removed the on-board computer and cut the brake hoses so that the examination could not establish the real speed of the car. Once upon a time, Kalinovsky was taken into custody, but was immediately released. A couple of days later he was detained at Zhulyany airport. He intended to fly to Israel. Kalinovsky ended up in the hospital and then disappeared. He is now on the international wanted list. However, many sources say that he lives in Kyiv with his wife and child under a different name.

Divorce from Kalinovskaya. “Love” between the partners lasted 7 years. In 2008, a high-profile divorce proceeding took place, which was accompanied by a scandal due to Mrs. Kalinovskaya’s attempts to divide her husband’s enormous wealth in half. To avoid financial losses, the billionaire even had to temporarily entrust his assets to his minister friend Yuri Boyko during the legal battle.

Confrontation with Kurchenko. In 2012, a dark streak began in the life of Dmitry Vasilyevich, or more precisely in his brainchild, Group DF. The Russian transnational oil company TNK-BP has put up the Lisichansky oil refinery for sale. There was one more person willing to join the enterprise – a little-known Kharkov businessman Sergei Kurchenko. While Firtash was fighting with him for the right to purchase, TNK-BP absorbed Rosneft and the Lisichansky Oil Refinery. The auction was canceled, and millions flowed out of the oligarch’s hands. The story didn’t end there. In the second round, the oligarchs clashed for control over the purchase and sale of liquefied gas, which was sold by Ukrgasvydobuvannya, supervised by Firtash. The transaction amount was estimated at 5 billion. UAH The Ternopil billionaire hoped to gain complete control over this financial flow. In this gas war, he even blocked a special auction for the sale of liquefied gas. The result of the confrontation was Dmitry Vasilyevich’s loss of monopoly control over Ukrgasvydobuvannya, and Kurchenko received dividends.

Greenhouse for 30 million euros. In 2012, Dmitry Firtash opened a huge modern greenhouse with an area of ​​10 hectares in his home village of Sinkov. He invested 30-35 million euros in the DF Agro project. In total, the greenhouses will occupy 40 hectares, and investments will amount to $100 million.

Bribery and the creation of a criminal community. These two crimes were charged against Dmitry Firtash in Europe. On March 12, 2014, he was detained by Austrian law enforcement officers in Vienna at the request of the FBI. The Austrian Federal Police said Firtash had been wanted since 2006. In the same year, he was released on bail, a record for Austria, of 125 million euros and an obligation not to leave Austria. However, in 2015, Firtash announced that he would come to Ukraine. The purpose of the visit is to participate in the congress of the Federation of Employers, which he heads. But at the last moment, Dmitry Vasilyevich canceled the trip. This is quite logical, because Arsen Avakov (Read more about him in the article Arsen Avakov: the criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs) said that he would make every effort to arrest Firtash in Ukraine. Apparently, the oligarch decided not to take risks.

Frauds at Nadra Bank. In 2015, the bank was declared insolvent, and Firtash was accused of spending UAH 7.1 billion allocated by the NBU for refinancing to purchase foreign currency.

“Sports weaknesses.” Dmitry Vasilyevich owns the Kiev basketball club, which has sunk to an outright outsider in the Ukrainian Super League.

In 2013, the oligarch-controlled Nadra Bank became the general sponsor of the Dynamo football club, displacing Igor Kolomoisky’s PrivatBank. It was rumored that Firtash had become the full owner of the football giant, but Dynamo President Igor Surkis (Read more about him in the article Grigory Surkis: how to divide Ukraine like brothers) refuted these speculations.

Dmitry Vasilyevich was a sponsor of the Tavriya football club from Simferopol. The club even took off once – in the 2009/2010 season the team sensationally won the Ukrainian Cup. Alas, this brought only moral satisfaction to the football player. They never received the promised prize money from sponsors. After the annexation of Crimea, Firtash stopped sponsoring the team.

Helicopter and villa for the wife. Today Firtash is married again. His wife Lada is not only his wife, but also a business partner; in particular, she is the co-founder of the family charitable foundation Firtash Foundation.

It is known that on his 41st birthday, Dmitry Vasilyevich presented his half with an Agusta helicopter worth 6 million euros. A gala dinner in honor of the name day was held in Monaco at the La Marie restaurant and cost the loving spouse approximately 300 thousand euros. Firtash also gave his beloved another gift. Luxury villa in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat, a French resort town. A businessman purchased it in 2005 for 24 million euros and spent 11 million euros on restoration.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info

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