Igor Kotvitsky
The current Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov (Read more about him in the article Arsen Avakov: the criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs), back in the distant 90s a close business partner appeared. His name is Igor Kotvitsky. Ukrainian media have long dubbed it Arsen Borisovich’s “wallet.” Now he is a people’s deputy involved in matters related to law enforcement. In his free time, judging by recent events, he helps his partner transfer financial assets abroad. Recently he got into a scandal with the withdrawal of $40 million from Ukraine to Panama. Where did the future “bag of money” Avakov start?
Self-made man
Igor Alexandrovich was born in 1970 in the city of Kharkov. Immediately after studying at school, he served a term in the ranks of the Soviet army. Returning to his hometown, he worked for a year as an installer of ventilation systems. His active career growth began with his arrival at the Investor company in 1993. After serving as secretary there for three years, he was promoted to the position of deputy president for general affairs. It is noteworthy that the founder and president of this company was the current Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov; they and Igor Kotvitsky were already connected by fate and a common business. In parallel with his work, he received an economic education at the Institute of Business and Management. In 2010, he joined the board of the Basis bank, which was also founded by Avakov. After working at the Investor company for 8 years, he became its vice president. Arsen Borisovich himself served as chairman of the company until 2013, and after he entered politics, this position was taken by his wife Inna. According to information from the Infrastructure Development Agency, Igor Kotvitsky owns 9.5% of the company’s shares, 42% belongs to Inna Avakova, and almost 2% belongs to her son Alexander.
Inna and Arsen Avakov
Igor Kotvitsky got into politics during the “Orange Revolution” in 2004. As a Maidan activist, he headed the all-Ukrainian association “For Yushchenko” in Kharkov. At the same time, he was involved in charity work and was even deputy head of the People’s Salvation Committee. In 2006, Igor Alexandrovich became a deputy of the Kharkov City Council. At the same time, he was appointed a member of the environmental commission. In 2010, he was again elected as a deputy from the Batkivshchyna party to the Kharkov City Council. In 2014, he became a people’s deputy of Ukraine from the Popular Front party.
Suicide note
On October 31, 2012, Alexander Motylevsky, a colleague of Igor Kotvitsky and Arsen Avakov at the Investor company, committed suicide. In his suicide note, he mentioned them in a very unflattering light, indirectly accusing them, and some other figures, of “inhuman” behavior and numerous frames of their own colleagues:
“I can’t wrap my head around what Arsen Borisovich Avakov did. God will be his judge. How could you set up a huge number of your employees and not resolve their issues?! Still, his avarice and greed for money, alas, exceed the level of nobility and sense of responsibility. Igor Aleksandrovich Kotvitsky is the same. “I have solved my problems, and the rest of the people are biomass.” In my solution to the issue, I rely on a quote from Dolores Ibarruri, which I remembered from childhood: “It is better to die standing – than to live on your knees!” – Motylevsky wrote about his colleagues
Full text of the suicide note of the ex-head of Investor JSC Alexander Motylevsky:
In the summer of 2015, Igor Kotvitsky “unexpectedly” turned out to be the richest MP in Ukraine. Why “unexpectedly”? Yes, because when filing the income statement in March 2014, there were only 63 million UAH in his accounts, and already in August 2015 another 907 million were added to it.
Please note the dates:
When asked by journalists where the new money came from, he blamed it all on an “accounting error.” According to him, the money had been in the accounts for a long time, and did not appear out of nowhere. To be honest, this is hard to believe. Especially if we compare the fact that in the spring of 2015, a couple of months before the publication of the new declaration, Igor Aleksandrovich pulled off a “brilliant” fraud with the transfer of money to Panama.
Fraud in the NBU and transfer of money to offshore accounts in Panama
In mid-spring 2015, a representative of the Dutch company TIWAY FSU BV contacted the National Bank. This person wanted to repay a previously received loan, which the company issued to the Crimean enterprise Crimea Petroleum Company. He came to the NBU together with Igor Kotvitsky. The leadership from above received a command to help resolve their issues in every possible way, as they are accustomed to doing to please the “servants of the people.”
After studying the documents that Kotvitsky brought to the NBU, its employees had serious suspicions about the legality of the operation that the politician wanted to carry out. As it turned out, Crimea Petroleum received a loan from TIWAY FSU BV back in 2009. After the occupation of Crimea, the company was re-registered in Ukraine, and resumed its activities in the spring. Due to the forced eviction of all employees and the seizure of NBU buildings in Crimea, no documentation could be obtained, and Crimea Petroleum had to fulfill its obligations to foreign creditors. The amount of the loan that the company had to repay amounted to $41 million. Doubts among bank employees increased even when it turned out that several points had been changed in the new loan agreement. Firstly, Igor Kotvitsky himself became the new borrower, instead of the Crimean company. Secondly, the lender was also changed, it became the Panamanian offshore company Kingston group SA. In fact, withdrawing money to Panama, in banking language, means that information about these financial assets will now be hidden “from prying eyes” forever.
By “lucky coincidence,” Igor Kotvitsky turned to the Saenko-Kharenko company, part of which belongs to Leonid Antonenko, head of the Department of Registration and Licensing at the National Bank. This same Antonenko is the personal “assistant” of the first deputy head of the NBU, Alexander Pysaruk.
Alexander Pisaruk
It is interesting that it was Antonenko and his committee who were in charge of coordinating the loan and re-registering the loan from a representative of the Dutch company. Further more, it was Antonenko’s company that prepared a package of documents for the transfer, and also achieved a change in the servicing bank, it became the state-owned Oschadbank. Indeed, such operations can be carried out through state banks without unnecessary red tape. Everything worked out for the schemers really very quickly: on July 15, 2015, the re-registration documents reached the NBU, and the very next day (July 16), they were registered and Kotvitsky had a certificate in his hands that he was now the borrower of the $41 million loan, and he had to pay back it is needed not by the Dutch TIWAY FSU BV, but by the Panamanian offshore company Kingston group SA
After this, only one obstacle remained in Kotvitsky’s path – the Department of Financial Monitoring, which is responsible for controlling money transfers abroad. However, Igor Aleksandrovich was not particularly worried, because Pisaruk’s protege, Igor Bereza, works as the director of this department. This figure in banking circles was known as a spineless and uninitiative performer who was ready to do whatever management asked him to do. This is what happened in the situation with the money transfer to Panama – with his active inaction, more than $41 million “flew away” to the fictitious company. Observing this whole situation, the question arises, where is our notorious head of the NBU Valeria Gontareva (Read more about her in the article by Valery Gontarev. The glitz and machinations of the Queen of Coins), and as a person who runs the banking system of Ukraine, he does not notice the fraud under his own nose.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info