EP published an interview with kerivnik of the DP “Ukrspirt” Roman Ivanyuk.
Mikhail Labutin
The new head of the enterprise easily lifts the veil behind the discovery of a sinister successor.
The frontrunner himself, Mikhailo Labutin, is being referred to the MVS and Interpol.
It’s not overseas and not behind the cordon, but “here” in Ukraine, which Labutin told EP about on Skype.
Labutin was linked to one of the most scandalous leaks of ceramics to Ukrspirt, and there were already many of them.
Zreshtoya, his predecessors, as a rule, boasted from the field with lesser special effects.
Labutin, on the day after the Kiev Cardiac Surgery Center, was planning a press conference to reveal all the “schemes” of “Ukrspirt” and name the high-ranking officers responsible for the theft of the enterprise. It didn’t work out, because it was stolen.
As it turned out later, Labutin was stolen by fighters from the scandalous “Aidar” battalion, and there was a lot of discussion about their involvement in “shared” actions and the destruction of enterprises.
However, the press service of the enterprise released information about the theft of the ex-kerivnik to Ukrspirt and stated that Labutin’s “Aidar” was not stolen, but stolen. After all, there was almost nothing about the duck.
We recently got in touch and agreed on the interview date.
Labutin confirms that it is too early to be written off as shellfish, and the designation “extraordinary” is no longer relevant. I also included the official version of the story near the DP “Ukrspirt” and the results of who and what they are following.
The interview was published in support of Spilno.TV
– I would like to start with your disappearance from the hospital. How did you get there and what happened there?
– Firstly, I do not consider myself a former head. They think so and want it to be so, and they falsify all documents.
I ended up in the hospital after the persecution of the tax police began in the person of Khomenko (Deputy Head of the State Fiscal Service Vladimir Khomenko – EP) and others. Then I started to feel unwell and went to the doctor.
My condition was checked. I spent two days in one hospital, then I was transferred to another (Center for Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery in Kyiv. – EP). There I was immediately put into surgery.
After an hour-long operation, I was transferred to a room, near which eight physical protection people were immediately stationed with investigators, representatives of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the tax office, who regularly visited me and guarded me around the clock.
– What happened then? It is known that Aidar fighters somehow took you out of the hospital. Did you contact them or was it their initiative?
“That day they came to see me. I had information that I would be immediately taken from the hospital to a pre-trial detention center. And it is unknown whether I would have left there or not. Everyone understood that if I started talking, all the schemes would be revealed, and it would become clear how everything worked.
This explains why such conditions are being created today and criminal cases are being opened. And not for me, but for the previous team. They were not interested in me staying there (at the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt.” – EP).
– So you didn’t turn to Aidar for help? Was this their initiative?
– As far as I know, the labor collective represented by the Ukrspirt trade union approached them. They asked me. I told them that I would like to leave here.
– Who were they protecting you from?
– From those people who are conducting this case against me and creating this chaos. Do you want by last name?
– Yes, sure.
– Who used to lead this whole process at Ukrspirt? These are two groups.
One is Avramov (Ivan Avramovbusiness partner of ex-People’s Deputy from the Party of Regions Yuri Ivanyushchenko. – EP), which is well known to everyone.
Another group is Chebotarev (Alexey Chebotarev was previously called “the watchdog” for “Ukrspirt”; he also appeared in the case of organizing the delivery of “titushki” to Kyiv. – EP), who was always close to the ex-head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Vitaly Zakharchenko.
These two groups managed the entire process.
After I was eliminated from Ukrspirt, what people returned? All those people who worked there before were directly involved in the “schemes” for writing off “illegal” alcohol and took money out of the enterprise.
In particular, Mr. Dovbius (I. Dovbius in 2010 managed the alcohol turnover control department of the Ukrspirt concern. – EP). Today he is in his office at work.
This is also Mr. Pakulyak (R. Pakulyak in 2010 worked in the production control department of the Ukrspirt concern. – EP).
And Mr. Dalibozhik (Anatoly Dalibozhik, current deputy director of the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt” – EP), who was brought in today, is also their man.
Mr. Sosnitsky (Vitaly Sosnitsky, current deputy director of the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt” – EP), this is also a person not far from them.
– Is there now a struggle for “Ukrspirt” between specific groups?
– Behind Chebotarev is Mr. Shokin (Viktor Shokin, Prosecutor General – EP). This is his godfather.
Did you see the press conference of the Prosecutor General (former Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema – EP) and the Minister of Internal Affairs two days ago? If earlier Mr. Chebotarev appeared in the “titushka” case, now he has disappeared from there. And no one cares about Verbitsky’s murder anymore.
On the other hand, Mr. Khomenko, who has a full production cycle of alcoholic beverages in Crimea. Since then, Mr. Chebotarev has been supplying alcohol to all these enterprises in Crimea. And this whole group works together.
In addition, Mr. Ivanchuk has his own interest here, who has several alcohol absolutization units at the Ukraspirt factories. There are six of them, and under the previous government, “left-handed” alcohol for vodka produced by Avramov and Chebotarev was written off at these installations.
– Can you tell us more specifically where these installations are located and how they work?
– There is one in Khorostkovo, all the alcohol was written off at this plant. Installations are also in Andrushevka (Zhytomyr region – EP), in the Zhytomyr region, in the Sumy region. But the whole operation took place at the Khorostkovsky distillery. This is one of the most powerful enterprises, and it has a line of absoluteness.
Pure alcohol was brought from a number of factories in western Ukraine to Khorostkov, supposedly for the production of bioethanol.
That is, according to documents, they took it there, produced bioethanol and, according to documents, transferred it to the “oil workers” – certain companies to which everything was written off. And the alcohol actually went to enterprises that produced “left-wing” vodka.
– Did I understand correctly, we are talking about the Techinservice company, which allegedly belongs to Ivanchuk?
“Everything was written off to this company.” When we arrived, we had negotiations with them.
They then claimed that they had handed over the equipment and did not know what was happening there in Khorostkov. But this is a complete lie, since their equipment is controlled exclusively from their office in Kyiv. They have all the software, and it is impossible to do anything with this equipment without them.
– Are all these people you named acting together?
– Ivanchuk and Khomenko are members of the same team. There is information that Khomenko is related to our Prime Minister. They are married to full sisters.
Ivanchuk and Yatsenyuk are classmates. This is all one group. In turn, Avramov worked with them even when alcohol was written off on their equipment, and he is working now. Avramov was a frequent visitor to Ivanchuk’s office.
– What do you think about the current head of Ukrspirt?
“I can’t think anything about him because I don’t know him.” The person is not from the industry. Judging by what he does, he has no understanding of this industry. Those deputies who sit with him are a swan, a crayfish and a pike.
There were 27 factories operating under us, but now only five are operating, and they are barely making ends meet. The layoffs have already begun. Nothing good will come of this. And Ivanyuk himself, as far as I know, says that his only task is privatization.
Nothing interests him anymore. His task is to drive the enterprise into debt as much as possible and privatize it. A line of credit for 100 million from their bank is now being prepared. And so the enterprise will be brought to bankruptcy.
– Did the schemes with the participation of Ivanyushchenko’s “supervisors” work even when you were deputy head of the State Enterprise? How did this happen?
“I worked for a relatively short time and left later. (Since 2010, Labutin has been deputy general director of the State Enterprise Ukrspirt. – EP). How did this happen? There are two most common schemes for making money from alcohol.
The first scheme is making money on liquid alcohol. It is officially sold to distilleries on which excise duty is paid. All GP profits from these sales were withdrawn through survey services. This is about UAH 800 million for 2013. All that was earned in 2013 was spent on survey services.
The second scheme is the write-off of alcohol.
Let’s say they took alcohol and sent it supposedly for processing in Khorostkov for the production of bioethanol, but in reality it was sent for the production of alcoholic beverages. That is, the cost without VAT was somewhere around 7-8 UAH per liter, but distilleries were credited for 27 UAH, and later – 31 UAH per liter.
If you remember, they stuck a “Kozach” stamp on this vodka as an additional excise stamp and thus identified their products. Although, of course, they did not completely control the market.
– Are all factories now under the control of the group you named?
– Yes, they are all under control.
– Can you explain why it took so long for distilleries to transfer from a concern to a state-owned enterprise? At the moment, 41 plants are part of the state enterprise, but a significant part is located within the concern.
In 2010, the government of Mykola Azarov issued a decree on the transfer of factories from the Ukrspirt concern to a state-owned enterprise.
Under the concern, many factories lived a separate life, and the instructions of the concern’s management were advisory in nature and were rarely carried out by plant directors.
The purpose of the merger into a state enterprise was the centralization of the industry, in which decision-making was entrusted to the central office in Kyiv. – EP.
– When the decision was made to transfer enterprises to state-owned enterprises, that’s when I started working. In fact, those enterprises that were not in bankruptcy were transferred. All other businesses had to be worked on.
When we arrived, we immediately transferred eight enterprises and then worked on the rest. Of the 1.2-1.4 billion debts that the concern has, I think that in reality 70% are inflated debts. Each director and each group, preparing for privatization, “inflated” crazy debts around their factories in order to later take the asset for next to nothing.
We are talking about accounts payable, which hang on the concern, and not on the state enterprise.
– At the state enterprise, as Ivanyuk explained to us, the accounts payable are UAH 800-900 million.
– There were no debts on the SOE at all when we left. This means they have already “tricked” her. There were fines of 900 million, which were calculated by the State Fiscal Service allegedly for the production of alcohol. We started producing bioethanol, but they blocked our work and imposed an excise tax on the entire volume we produced.
In addition, there is a fraction of head alcohol, which we transported to our own enterprises for processing. Khomenko shouted that it was alcohol, but in fact it was waste. They tried to bring the situation to bankruptcy.
– The current management says that this accounts payable has been going on for a long time.
– This is a lie.
– Are you saying that this is a lie?
– I guarantee that this is a lie. When we worked, there were no debts. If there were any grain debts, they were in the alcohol that was in the warehouse. If we took a certain amount of grain for sale, then we always had a supply of alcohol in the warehouse for this amount.
We understood that in the situation of war and what was happening in the country, we had to stock up on alcohol. If after the New Year there were interruptions in gas or electricity, we would have a reserve. Then it was possible to keep the production of vodka and the payment of taxes afloat. You can now pick up the certificate and see that the warehouses are filled with alcohol.
– Criminal cases have been opened against you. Do you know what you are accused of?
– As far as I understand, they are talking about some kind of tax evasion of 28 million UAH, which does not exist in nature. And they are also talking about some stolen 170 million UAH.
– What can you say about this? Where did these numbers come from?
– This is complete nonsense. No one is doing a real check. After all this happened, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy appointed its own commission. I know for sure that the head of the commission, the former head of the legal department of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food, was told that if he “dug up” information on me, he would become a deputy at Ukrspirt.
They did the act. Where is this act? He’s gone. They wrote some ephemeral amounts, the act was sucked out of thin air. We are ready to challenge it in court and anywhere. This is all a complete lie.
– Recently, the parliamentary anti-corruption committee raised the issue of Ukrspirt and considered the report of the commission you mentioned.
When you headed Ukrspirt, you were faced with the fact that part of the documentation was destroyed by the previous management. Right?
– Certainly. We didn’t have servers, we didn’t have anything.
– The current management says that after you, some of the documentation, reporting and 1C also disappeared.
– Listen, 1C remained in place and no one destroyed anything, and all the documentation was confiscated by the tax police. We had searches at least once a day.
We were not allowed to work. We spent three to four hours just searching. There are acts on the seizure, all this was done by the tax police. Maybe so. O. doesn’t know that the tax police confiscated documents?
“We’ll definitely check with him.” The report on abuses at Ukrspirt also spoke of illegally reduced VAT by UAH 213 million and underpaid income tax by UAH 203 million. Can you confirm or deny this data?
– I don’t know anything about this. Any sane person should understand how much taxes the State Enterprise “Ukrspirt” paid during this time. Everything is clear here. Now someone will say that they could have paid a billion. It would have been possible to make a good profit if bioethanol production had not been frozen.
As for these accusations, no one understated anything. We paid. Everything was transparent.
– According to our information, abuses in the purchase of raw materials from the State Enterprise were identified, which occurred during your tenure as head of the State Enterprise. In particular, 300 million UAH worth of products were paid for, but they were never delivered.
– All the suppliers we worked with supplied the necessary products. Some deliveries have been delayed in case there are any issues. We stockpiled these volumes; they were in warehouses. We processed those that were closer immediately. All these statements about 300-500 million are not true.
– There is also a question regarding the company’s procurement. Why should the plant buy 30 thousand gauze bandages if a hundred people work there?
– The plant itself cannot buy anything. GP bought it. It bought and distributed to all factories, there were such purchases. What’s the problem? This is a production necessity. Previously, we didn’t buy special uniforms for workers.
– But isn’t 30 thousand gauze bandages for a hundred people a lot?
– Why for a hundred people?
– The plant for which they were purchased employs one hundred people.
– To be honest, I don’t remember such a volume of bandages. In any case, what was purchased was distributed to the factories. Everything is documented. Why a hundred? We had 27 enterprises operating, and we planned to launch 20 more by the end of March.
– How much can it cost to clean one filtration field at a plant?
– Considering that they have never been cleaned or were last cleaned during the USSR, this is an expensive service. Why are you asking me this question? You go around and find out from all the specialists how much such a service costs, and compare it with what we did.
– I’ll explain. According to i. O. head of Ukrspirt, cleaning two filtration fields cost UAH 35 million. Do you think this is a small amount to clean up?
– Have you ever seen these filter fields?
– No, I didn’t see it.
– We need to look at the amount of work and then draw some conclusions. There are not two filtering fields cleared, but one. Work was paid for cleaning one field. There is a second contract, but it has not been paid.
– You won’t deny that you wrote out financial assistance for yourself in the amount of 287 thousand UAH?
– No, I did not write out financial assistance for myself. This is a lie. Before we came, no bonuses were paid at all. We came and started paying bonuses. Everyone received bonuses – from an ordinary worker to an employee in the central office. The bonuses they are talking about were awarded during this time.
– They say that you personally wrote it out for yourself.
– This is a lie. This was done by the same comrade who is the head of the legal department of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
Labutin and Igor Shvaika
– In general, you are right, this information was reported as part of the mentioned 52-page report of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy.
– This is a lie. We will challenge everything in court. They no longer know what to cling to and find something for which we are to blame.
– You spoke about certain facts, named the names of officials with whom certain “schemes” may be associated, but these are words. Do you have any evidence to support this?
– What facts should there be?
– That these persons are connected with these schemes, and that they are robbing Ukrspirt.
– No one doubts that Techinservice is Mr. Ivanchuk’s company. I think everyone knows this. All their internal relationships can also be traced. You should know this too. We have some of the documents, but we will provide them at the right time.
– A few more questions about the development of the enterprise and the plans of the current management. Now one of the most pressing issues regarding Ukrspirt is privatization. Will the government try to sell SOEs?
“It’s been trying to sell it from the moment it got there.” Yatsenyuk summoned me to a government committee in June 2014. At that time we had been working for three months. We went there in the mood that we would all be torn apart, finished, and we would not come out of there.
We provided a plan. I remember the cynical smiles when the inscription “Singing eyes at the future” appeared on the screen, how everyone laughed, and how after that their eyes popped out of their sockets when we showed the results of our work for three months.
Mr. Yatsenyuk said at the end, there is probably a transcript, that we surprised him very much with what we were able to do.
There should have been a government decision to introduce excise taxes on the price of alcohol. We were ready to take responsibility for collecting excise tax, and we were ready to collect it 40-50% more than now.
All this was agreed upon and there were even some attempts. A separate Ministry of Finance account should have been allocated for Ukrspirt. That is, vodka producers pay us one amount for alcohol, the second for excise duty, and only in this case do we ship the products.
That is, we had a mechanism to collect the maximum amount of taxes, and this mechanism exists. Then all the gentlemen who are close to the prime minister destroyed the whole thing.
– Did Yatsenyuk say something about privatization then?
– Of course, they were pushing for privatization. Everything revolved around privatization.
We told them: “Guys, no problem. If you want privatization, go ahead, but let’s do everything right.” That is, we will not sell an enterprise that is barely breathing for pennies, but we will bring it to a normal level.
Let’s expand the range of products that it can produce: vodka, chemical products – washers, solvents, cleaners. Today we import washers from Poland and Germany. Our factories are idle.
For the same biofuel, we are able to load 90% of capacity. Why didn’t we do this? They didn’t give it to us, they started counting UAH 900 million in non-payment of excise duty…
The enterprise had to be brought into divine shape and then evaluated. To begin with, create a national joint-stock company and slowly sell it in small packages. I personally support that the controlling stake remains with the state. If you don’t want it from the state, then let them decide, but don’t give it away for nothing, don’t destroy it.
– From conversations with the minister and with… O. heads of “Ukrspirt” we can conclude that they share the same views. They say that we need to work on adding value to the enterprise.
– You see that the minister is disingenuous. When he first came to the post of minister and reported to the Verkhovna Rada, he shouted that it was necessary to privatize. Now he suddenly came to his senses that it was not necessary. You understand…
– Do you mean that privatization did not pass in the Rada, and he began to speak differently?
– No, it’s just that when he started, he had to do all sorts of things that the prime minister liked. When they came and saw the state of the enterprise, they thought a little.
When an official at the level of a prime minister, minister or people’s deputy says that the state cannot manage an enterprise, the question arises: what are they doing there?
They manage the same enterprise, only at the size of the state. Current circumstances confirm that they are not capable of governing. Then we must give to those who are capable. And I don’t understand why a highly profitable state enterprise cannot exist. We showed that it can. We must reach the end.
– Can you confirm this with the indicators that were achieved during your stay at Ukrspirt?
– Some indicators increased by 5-11 times compared to 2013. The company’s profit in 2013 was 24 million UAH, and with us in seven or eight months it was 96 million UAH. Dividends were paid to the budget in 2013: 1.7 million UAH, with us – 26 million UAH. The total amount of taxes, if my memory serves me correctly, is about 40% higher.
– One of the “vodka producers” said that privatization would not be of interest to anyone, because the factories and equipment are old, and no one has invested in Ukrspirt for 23 years. According to him, the enterprise is worthless.
– This was said by Mr. Klimets (Pavel Klimets, owner of the Olympus distillery company. – EP). What does “zero” mean? This equipment works and brings the state billions, tens of billions in taxes. These are jobs – about 7 thousand people who receive a monthly salary.
Yes, the factories are in poor technical condition, but they can be “refined”, which is what we started doing. Everything can be modernized. And Mr. Klimts, of course, is interested in the fact that he has a plant in Malinovka (40 km from Kharkov – EP) supposedly for the production of biofuels, which makes alcohol and services all his enterprises.
– So he doesn’t pay excise tax on this alcohol?
– Certainly. At the same time, it produces 60 tons per day.
– Did the people we talked about work independently or did they “collaborate” with the “vodka producers”?
– Understand, the main brand is still sold, and it doesn’t matter what’s on the shelves, right? They can either be counterfeited or produced by those who make the official product.
– So you can’t say anything about this?
– It’s not time yet.
– How much can “Ukrspirt” cost?
– I think now they want to “destroy” it for 100-150 million UAH – supposedly sell it. But if you promote it for one and a half to two years, I think its minimum price will be $5 billion. This is the minimum, but it is possible for UAH 10 billion. It all depends on the situation in the world and the state of the economy.
– You talked about Khomenko and his Crimean distilleries. According to your information, some products continue to arrive at his enterprises?
– Certainly.
– How does she get there?
– As far as I know, it gets there from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), through the territory of the ATO. Mr. Khomenko, remember, also stated that he would urgently block the channels and create a battalion that would deal with smuggling. Apparently, he needs this battalion to ensure the passage of his cargo.
– Considering that you are not in Ukraine now…
– I’m in Ukraine.
– In Ukraine? And how do you intend to proceed next?
– I will fight.
-What do you mean? You probably have some kind of action plan. Or is he not there?
– Firstly, I’m talking to you and I want to convey to the public the real picture, what it is. I hope for your help – for an objective analysis, for a journalistic investigation. I don’t understand why a working group of deputies has not yet been created to deal with this issue.
We need to objectively understand the situation to see if there are any violations. If they don’t exist, then why was it necessary to arrange this around the enterprise? It’s dying.
– Judging by your form, you must be somewhere in eastern Ukraine.
– For security reasons, I will not announce where I am for now. Everything will soon become known when the situation begins to take a different turn.
– What does “another turn” mean?
– When it becomes safe and the situation becomes clearer. When it becomes clear that everything is not as they say now, and they won’t want to throw me in prison and end up there. I am ready to come and testify. Now, as you understand, I cannot say where I am, but I am in Ukraine, and this is a fact.
– When will it be safe for you in Kyiv or will it be safe in Ukraine as a whole?
– In Ukraine in general.