Igor Bakai. “Father” of gas corruption. PART 1

Igor Bakay is a common name for Ukrainians. The first person who paid for gas for Ukraine with products was Leonid Kuchma’s supply manager, the sworn enemy of Yulia Tymoshenko, the creator of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine and the father of the scandalous DUSI (State Administration of Affairs).

This is one of the richest people in Ukraine, who became famous for his own huge nature reserves, luxurious palaces (Pshonka never dreamed of), real estate abroad, as well as grandiose festivals that he organized for his friends.

Story from Skelet.Info about how a person with the intelligence level of a forestry technical school graduate became a multimillionaire in a few months.

Igor Bakai. The music played for a while

On October 31, the ex-head of the State Administration of Affairs and the former head of Naftogaz under President Leonid Kuchma, Igor Bakai, was detained in Moscow, along with his accountant and assistant Konstantin. A few hours later, the subordinates were released, and Bakai remained in the pre-trial detention center.

Those who do not know the story of Igor Bakai’s rise will see a “Russian trace” and ordered political repression in the arrest. But, firstly, a Ukrainian businessman has been living with a passport of a citizen of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) for 13 years, and what happened to him in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) is a logical continuation of what Ukraine did not do in its time. The ex-official is suspected of fraud on an especially large scale, allegedly taking possession of the money of his business partners. Bakai, on behalf of a commercial organization, entered into a loan agreement with a mining and metallurgical holding in the amount of over 630 million rubles. The money was transferred to his account, but when the loan expired, the businessman refused to return the amount.

The prosecutor’s office has 10 statements from defrauded individuals, among them from Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, who is considered close to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (*criminal). He lent Bakai $9 million, but he did not return it. It is also known that the Ukrainian businessman and his accomplices, on behalf of the Russian Bear Industrial Group LLC, stole $12 million from Usmanov’s company Metalloinvest Limited.

Alisher Usmanov

A Moscow court arrested the Ukrainian businessman until November 12. He faces up to 10 years in prison. While Bakai sits in a pre-trial detention center, we remember his “labor journey.”

Igor Bakai. Promising lumberjack

Bakai Igor Mikhailovich was born on November 17, 1963 in Rivne. His mother is Ustina Artyomovna, his father is Mikhail Vasilyevich, he worked as a driver. Little is known about the childhood of the future millionaire. Skelet.Info managed to find out that the family lived poorly. It was not easy to feed three children, and Bakai Sr. also had six brothers and sisters whom he helped.

The future multimillionaire completed only 8 years of high school. History is silent about why – either the granite of science was very hard, or necessity forced it.

In 1978, he entered the Bereznevsky Forestry College for a useful and, most importantly, necessary specialty – “forest master, forestry technician.” By the way, this diploma will become a reason for jokes about the oligarch in the future. Having received secondary education, Bakai went to repay his debt to his homeland. After demobilization, he settled in Lviv in a dusty but very profitable position – the head of the training base for the football team of the SC “Karpaty” of the Carpathian Military District. In one of his interviews, Bakai said that then his work consisted of cleaning the territory, washing windows and footballs, mowing the lawn, preparing a bathhouse for football players, and preparing food. Moreover, according to him, he did not even receive a salary because he was on duty. At this point Igor Mikhailovich is clearly becoming poor. The period of his activity coincided with the active sale of the club’s players. The cunning boss practically founded football transfer in the country. As a result, the best players were sold, and the team was left with nothing. Only the young base chief became richer from this.

Igor Bakai. “Father” of gas corruption. PART 1

In 1989, according to the official biography, Bakai gives up everything and, obsessed with the idea of ​​​​building the BAM, goes to Yakutia.

It can be assumed that Soviet romanticism was hardly inherent in Igor Mikhailovich. Most likely, he figured out in time where he could make good money. In the North, “Pavka Korchagin” (or, after all, citizen Koreiko) took up logging. He put together a small team of 9 people and soon rose to the rank of site foreman. By the way, Bakai’s brigade did not drink, so they were engaged in another profitable business – selling vodka. Back then, alcohol was given out on coupons; a thoughtful foreman bought it and sold it at exorbitant prices to other workers.

If you believe what was written above, then Igor Mikhailovich “cut” money in the taiga on timber and vodka. But it turns out that this is a myth invented by Bakai’s biographers for the sake of a catchphrase. According to information Skelet.Infothe future oligarch started with crayfish. Those that go perfectly with beer.

It happened in Belarus in 1989. Igor Bakai appeared in a criminal case. He, as deputy chairman for commercial issues and auxiliary production of the Zarya collective farm in the Maloritsky district of the Brest region, was accused of abuse of office, systematic embezzlement and misappropriation of large sums of money.

It all started on a small scale. In the spring of 1989, a young entrepreneur bought 91 kg of crayfish from three strangers at the market at a price of 3 rubles for a total of 273 rubles. He sold the goods to the Lvov restaurant at a price of 7 rubles per kg. It is difficult to imagine how the future multimillionaire transported crayfish to his native Lviv, but the big profit is obvious. Further – more: Bakai got a job at the Belarusian collective farm “Zarya”, which specialized in breeding crayfish. This allowed him to take up trading on a larger scale. By circumventing the contracts, he supplied the Lvov restaurant with crayfish at an inflated price, while falsifying invoices. Later, for cash, Bakai sold the goods to other Lviv restaurants and canteens. According to the materials of the criminal case, the deputy chairman pushed 3,441 kg of crayfish “to the left” during six months of work. Imagine, almost three and a half tons! By the way, we note that Igor Mikhailovich is a true patriot. After all, he sold the crayfish not somewhere, say, Minsk or Moscow, but to his homeland!

Again, based on the case materials, Bakai’s “profit” amounted to 9.5 thousand rubles. This is the amount the prosecutor’s office estimated the collective farm’s losses at. Of course, this amount was nowhere near what Igor Mikhailovich would earn in some 5 years from a deal to supply Turkmen gas to Ukraine. But that’s not all. The deputy chairman of the collective farm managed to warm up by renovating the house that was kindly allocated to him. As a result, he spent 3,906 rubles in excess of the allotted limit. The collective farm also paid for the bricks ordered by Bakai for the construction of a new house.

And one more interesting fact. It has been known for a long time that Igor Mikhailovich loves to party in grand style. While working at Zarya, he opened “clearings” for foreigners on a grand scale. For example, Bakai spent 1,000 rubles on treats for a Canadian company to which the collective farm supplied the notorious crayfish.

In the early 90s, the hospitable Belarusian soil smelled of something fried. The authorities noticed major fraud by the deputy chairman of the collective farm. But our hero managed to escape – he returned to Ukraine. Soon the Soviet Union collapsed, hyperinflation began, and the amount of losses caused by the future oligarch to the collective farm became simply ridiculous. However, the criminal case against Igor Mikhailovich was opened before 1993.

Igor Bakai returned from “Yakutia” (Belarus) to Lvov by accident. In 1991, he came to give his wife the money he earned. At this time, Mikhail Gorbachev’s law on cooperatives was gaining momentum, and Igor Mikhailovich’s relatives persuaded him to stay and invest in his business. So he opened the Cossack Stravy cooperative, which included in its network not only a cafe, but also a meat processing shop.

A year later, the newly minted businessman moved to Kyiv and headed the Veles company, and also approved Bakai CJSC, Bakai LLC, and the Arbat company. All of them in the future became part of the notorious Respublika corporation. In 1993, at the dawn of its existence, Respublika was engaged in the sale of food products. But after a couple of years it turned into a monopolist that traded metal and gas. So the “food baron” Bakai became the “oil king”. By the way, he returned his debt of 9.5 thousand rubles to the Zarya collective farm and then the case was closed.

Igor Sharov

Oh great “Republic”

Industrial and commercial corporation “Respublika” was registered on October 26, 1993 in Kyiv. At this time, a certain Igor Sharov appears on the horizon, a representative of the “Kirovograd” criminal clan. (Read: Kirovograd “king” Igor Sharov: greed is not a vice?)

He becomes Bakai’s partner and merges his enterprise, Inkopmark, with Respublika. Both businessmen were backed by the then criminal “authorities” of Kyiv Vladimir Kisel (Grandfather), Viktor Rybalko (Rybka), Alexander Presman (the man of Semyon Mogilevich). There were eight co-founders of the corporation in total. Their composition was constantly changing, but only Bakai was listed “on a permanent basis.”

Initially, the corporation was engaged in the supply of Ukrainian food products abroad. According to Skelet.Info“Republic” traded in diamonds. There is a known case when a structure bought a batch of precious stones from Alliance Bank for 30 billion karbovanets. The purchase was carried out at old prices, practically for next to nothing, without taking into account hyperinflation. The diamonds were sold to friendly Uzbekistan for 110 billion karbovanets. Buckeye made more than 300% on the deal. This operation was financed by the bankrupt Ukraina Bank, and the patronage was provided by former Prime Minister Vitaliy Masol.

Skelet.Info I learned that after selling diamonds, Igor Bakai became interested in the modeling business. He participated in the organization of the first beauty contests in Ukraine. Then he got his first luxury cars with security – he drove around in a Mercedes 600 (a “boar” among the people).

Everything changed in 1994, when Igor Mikhailovich entered the Turkmen market. The food crisis was raging there, but the Turkmen side did not have the money to purchase goods. It was a fortunate coincidence that Ukraine was in an even deeper crisis and owed Turkmenistan enormous amounts of money for gas supplies. Then Igor Mikhailovich proposed exchanging food for gas. This is a brilliant laugh that has no equal. Either a genius or someone from a forestry technical school could have built such cooperation. Let’s give an example: the corporation supplied almost 1 million pairs of galoshes to Turkmenistan to pay for the gas consumed. For the Turkmen it was a valuable and scarce commodity.

Igor Bakai. “Father” of gas corruption. PART 1

With his proposal, Bakai paid off the 1993 debt for Turkmen gas. And this is for a minute 671.9 million dollars. There was even a Cabinet resolution on trade and intermediary activities, which made Igor Mikhailovich the first businessman in the country to pay for gas by barter. At the same time, the authorized capital of the corporation is 50 million karbovanets; at the official dollar exchange rate in 1994 – 4 thousand dollars. Clearly incomparable amounts. Looking ahead, we note that it was this difference that allowed Respublika to avoid requiring a guarantee for debt repayment. But more on that later. Now the answer to the main question is: who gave the corporation the opportunity to become a monopoly?

Igor Bakai is the nephew of Leonid Kravchuk, the same one who became the president of Independent Ukraine in 1991.

Leonid Kravchuk, relative of Igor Bakai

Leonid Makarovich decided that stealing money as a family tandem was much more profitable. He gave the green light to the Respublika corporation, which received a quota for gas supplies to Ukraine. Since then, Igor Mikhailovich has become a member of two high cabinets – the President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk and the President of Turkmenistan Sapermurat Niyazov.

And now some interesting figures: in 1994, the Respublika corporation received 9.2 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan. The cost of this product at that time, according to Ukrgazprom documents, was $460.5 million. The structure purchased gas at a price of $50 per 1 thousand cubic meters, including transit – $55. All this happened without any special guarantees or signing contracts. Turkmenistan supplied gas, millions poured into Respublika’s personal accounts, the corporation cheerfully shipped goods, but the supplying enterprises, as well as the banks that provided loans, remained forgotten. When the situation reached its climax, at the initiative of former Prime Minister Leonid Kuchma, a working group of the commission on budget issues of the Supreme Council met. The deputies concluded that this issue cannot be touched upon, otherwise the legislative branch will exceed its powers. They even thought of taking the case to court, but they decided to shut down the corporation, which had already outlived its usefulness. At the same time, they managed to check the structure, and it turned out that its assets included gas as a “collateral commodity.” Its cost was $176 million. This amount was quite enough to pay off part of the Republic’s debt, but this did not happen. A fire occurred in the corporation’s office, destroying all interesting documentation. Recent events coincided with Kravchuk’s loss in the early presidential elections. Leonid Kuchma received the coveted position of the Guarantor. The tax authorities rummaged through the remaining documents and came to the conclusion that the corporation never paid the state gas debt of Ukraine.

Thus ended the era of the gas “Republic”, which lasted only a year. Bakai and Co. earned about $500 million from the transactions.

Igor Bakai. How did the gas evaporate?

Leonid Danilovich’s rise to power meant Igor Bakai would go to prison. But Kuchma pardoned the gas trader. Skelet.Info it is known that Turkmenbashi himself stood up for him. Sapermurat Niyazov personally called the President of Ukraine and asked for his friend.

Bakai behind the back of chief Leonid Kuchma

Under the new government, especially after the appointment of Pavel Lazarenko as Deputy Prime Minister, who is in charge of the fuel and energy complex in the government of Yevgeny Marchuk, the purposeful formation of the Ukrainian gas market began. Bakai did not sit idle for long. Following Respublika, which had sunk into oblivion, in 1995 the businessman opened the company Intergaz CJSC. It provided (as conceived by the creators) the implementation of more profitable corruption schemes. In parallel with it, a subsidiary, IntergasInc, is registered in Pennsylvania (USA). Its main purpose is to evade taxes and transfer foreign currency earned by Intergas abroad. Igor Sharov was appointed director of the offshore. An interesting point – in the same year, Igor Mikhailovich got his own “khatynka” in Pennsylvania. Apparently, after successful transactions, Bakai was going to move to his millions.

At this time, the gas crisis in the country intensified: the IMF demanded that the government abandon its role as a guarantor for commercial gas contracts, and the Russian Gazprom, having decided to play it safe due to the lack of guarantees, proposed to include the state-owned Ukrgazprom in the transactions. However, the latter was on the verge of bankruptcy. Despite gas production in Ukraine and transit payments, it had no buyers. Ukrgazprom owes the budget about $3 million. In 1996, the government wrote off the debts of the state-owned company and opened the market to private trading companies. Of course, all this was successfully “packaged” under “price stabilization and the fight against government gas debts.”

General Director of UESU Yulia Timoshenko

The gas market is divided between three companies: Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), Intergas and the Ukrainian representative office of Itera. Bakai’s company gradually began to crowd out other gas traders. Igor Mikhailovich was also able to “move” the gas queen Yulia Tymoshenko with the UESU.

Then a battle broke out: Yulia Vladimirovna accused the gas tycoon of all “mortal” sins, but could not prove his involvement in grandiose schemes for theft of blue fuel.

A year later, Intergaz became a wholesale importer of Russian gas, signing an annual contract with Gazprom for 10 billion cubic meters of gas. The cost of this product is $800 million. True, the company fulfilled the contract by only 50%.

Bakai was not very fond of Intergas, which brought in a dizzying income. During this period, he was already attracted to other heights – big politics. In 1996, a lot of money allowed Igor Mikhailovich to easily win a deputy mandate in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada in the Boryspil constituency No. 208 (his main competitor was ex-Minister of Defense Konstantin Morozov). But he did not cling to it. In 1997, he was appointed Deputy Minister of the Oil and Gas Industry of Ukraine. A year later, the gas tycoon became a freelance adviser to Leonid Kuchma.

Everything will be Naftogaz

Having become Leonid Kuchma’s confidant, Bakai initiates the creation of an energy monopolist in order to concentrate all gas money in one place. This was extremely beneficial for Leonid Danilovich – he decided to raise money for the presidential elections in a year. According to information Skelet.InfoKuchma set a condition for his “friend”: to provide his campaign with $250 million.

In May 1998, the Ukrainian government created Naftogaz, a national joint-stock company that was supposed to import gas to Ukraine, its transit through the country, as well as its own energy production. It included three companies: for production – Ukrgazvydobuvannya, for transportation and storage – Ukrtransgaz, and for sales – Trading House Gas of Ukraine. Leonid Danilovich personally invited his adviser to head NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine.

In a matter of months, the company monopolized gas supplies to all consumers in the country, displacing other competing gas traders. In his new position, Igor Mikhailovich was able to reveal his creative potential as a major fraudster. He was the first to introduce theft into the system – unauthorized withdrawal of transit Russian gas. Those who lived in the 90s remember what this led to. Ukraine was accused of stealing gas, the state lost its reputation in the international arena, debts to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) grew exponentially, manipulations with the price of gas and increased tariffs for ordinary people began.

How did this happen? Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) supplied Ukraine with 30 billion cubic meters of natural gas as transit payment at $80 per thousand cubic meters. The Ukrainian monopolist resold the gas to intermediaries, and those resold them to enterprises. Bakai at NAC launched barter-bill (non-monetary forms) schemes that took the company’s financial activities out of the legal sector of payments, and earned at least $5 per 1000 cubic meters. This amounted to about $150 million a year. This is despite the fact that 40% of natural gas sales were controlled by Igor Mikhailovich’s commercial firms, in particular Intergas and its subsidiaries.

Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUATION: Igor Bakai. “Father” of gas corruption. PART 2

Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – Only dossiers, biographies and incriminating evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!