Nikolay Povoroznik: Koreiko from the Kyiv City State Administration, or a modest operator of financial schemes. PART 1

He sat in the Kyiv City State Administration under Oleksandr Omelchenko and Leonid Chernovetsky, held senior positions there before the Maidan under Oleksandr Popov, and after the Maidan under Volodymyr Bondarenko, and was then appointed deputy to Vitali Klitschko. Many officials of the capital’s administration can envy the “indestructibility” of Mykola Povoroznyk. SKELET-info tells what his secret is, and who is really hiding behind the mask of an impeccable, irreplaceable specialist?

Povoroznyk hid in the shadows of the Kyiv City State Administration offices for a long time, and only in 2016 did he become the subject of a small scandal for the first time, which he, however, easily hushed up. Then journalists drew attention to some discrepancies between his declared income and expenses. They were talking about the Hublot Big Bang 365.SX.1170.LR 38 watch, which he appeared in his new photo, the cost of which, according to catalogs, ranges from 6,700 to 8,400 dollars. Not the most expensive of the watches worn by Ukrainian “servants of the people”, but still too luxurious for an official living on one salary – and this is exactly what Mykola Povoroznyk constantly indicates in his declarations. Thus, his income for 2015 was 222 thousand hryvnias in salary (from which he also paid taxes) and 57 thousand hryvnias as interest from a bank deposit. That is, this watch costs as much as Povorozhnik’s entire annual income – and he’s not some teenager who would spend all his money on an expensive “trinket”.

A gift from his wife? But according to the declarations, his wife Valentina Vladimirovna Povoroznik earned only 36 thousand hryvnias in 2015, and even less in 2016, only 27 thousand. Moreover, these amounts are indicated as a salary (almost the minimum), although Valentina Povoroznik is a co-owner of two companies: LESTA-A LLC (EDRPOU 35755480) and Electronic Settlement Center LLC (EDRPOU 36589578). The first one is engaged in non-ferrous metals trading, the second one is engaged in cash payments related to Ukrposhta. That is, it is unlikely that these companies are unprofitable and do not bring any income to their owners. But Povoroznik prefers to “play poor” in his declarations. So much so that in 2016 he also asked his boss Klitschko for financial assistance from the city budget in the amount of his monthly salary, to “resolve social and domestic issues.” He clearly liked this, and in 2017 he received assistance two more times: in August (for health improvement) and December (for domestic needs).

Fellow villagers and fellow soldiers

Povoroznik Nikolay Yuryevich was born on April 10, 1972 in the village of Svyatets, Teofipol district, Khmelnytsky region. After the eighth grade, he entered the Lviv Suvorov Military School (now the State Lyceum of Military Physical Training named after the Heroes of Kruty), and then the Kiev Military Institute of Management and Communications, the faculty of “automated control systems”, which he graduated in 1995 with a diploma in electronic engineering. Yes, the electronic payment company registered to his wife immediately comes to mind!

After graduating from the school, from the summer of 1995 to October 2001, Nikolai Yuryevich served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in a military unit in Gostomel, where he rose to the rank of captain. And then he quit, but, unlike many former military men, he did not go into business, security or the police, but into government. Moreover, he immediately got a job in the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA), as the former Kyiv Executive Committee has been called since the 90s. And not just any job, but the position of chief specialist of the department for entrepreneurship. And already in 2003, Povoroznik became deputy head of the licensing department of the Main Department for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship of the KCSA – and headed it in 2006.

This was not just a lucrative job, it was a very “privileged” one, because the fate of all business in Kyiv was actually in the hands of Povoroznik. Without the licenses he issued, companies could not start working, expand, or build new facilities. Accordingly, in order to get these licenses quickly and without hassles, it was necessary to “pay extra” – such corrupt “traditions” spread throughout Ukraine. Povoroznik did not miss out on the benefits either: according to sources SKELET-info, for a license costing 255 hryvnia, he allegedly took an additional 5,000 dollars! These same sources claim that Povoroznik was covered by a certain godfather or former colleague working in the capital’s UBOP.

However, such an “enterprising” official, even having a godfather in the UBOP, would have been quickly “devoured” by his colleagues and bosses from the Kyiv City State Administration – if he worked alone, and not in a team. But Povoroznik, on the contrary, outlasted many in the Kyiv City State Administration, half a dozen capital city mayors changed under his rule! In addition, it was not his godfather from the UBOP who appointed him to these lucrative positions! But then who? The same declarations of Nikolai Povoroznik will help us to uncover this secret, through which we get to the LLCs belonging to them, and then to his partners.

Povoroznik, being an official, was not formally engaged in business – he registered family firms in the name of his wife. However, he himself is a co-founder of the Charitable Foundation “Nobody but Us” (EDRPOU 36923977). Already based on the name (the motto of the Soviet Airborne Forces), it is clear that the foundation is related to the military. Indeed, it was created under the All-Ukrainian public organization “Nobody but Us” (EDRPOU 36281439), which began as one of the associations of “Afghans” and veterans of other local conflicts. Then they began to accept everyone who wore and wears shoulder straps, and in recent years, ATO veterans. Nikolai Povoroznik did not participate in any conflict, but he is interested in money in this association – after all, he is a co-founder of the foundation created under him, which is engaged in charitable assistance and volunteer activities. And, as is known from the Ukrainian media, savvy people “volunteered” millions of dollars for themselves. That is, here too, the modest official Povoroznik is “sitting on money,” just like some kind of Koreiko!

So, another co-founder of the “Nobody but Us” fund is Viktor Aleksandrovich Bilych, a very well-known personality to Kyiv residents. Together with Mykhailo Golitsa, Mykola Negrich and Vyacheslav Nepop, he is called a member of the so-called “construction clan” in the Kyiv City State Administration leadership. Construction, because this group of companions and in-laws formed around the construction business, entered the Kyiv government under the mayor-constructionist Oleksandr Omelchenko, and all these years, to this day, controls the largest construction enterprises of Kyiv “Zhitloinvestbud-UKB”, “Kyivgorstroy”, “Fundament” and others.

Victor Bilych

Looking into the biography of Viktor Bilych, we will see that he was born on March 13, 1964 in… the village of Svyatets, Teofipol district, Khmelnytsky region. That is, he is a fellow villager of Mykola Povoroznik! Moreover, some sources claim that the wives of Povoroznik and Bilych are sisters, almost blood relatives. Although this is unlikely, because they have different patronymics. His wife Bilych Natalia Mykolaivna now works, thanks to the efforts of her husband and his fellow villager Povoroznik, as the head of the HR Department of the Kyiv City State Administration, and at the same time owns City-Prime LLC (EDRPOU 40945001), not at all embarrassed by this.

Viktor Bilych was also once almost a military man – he has an education as an aircraft engineer, he worked for several years at the Kiev Antonov Plant, where he got along with Nepop on the topic of the MZhK, and on the same topic he became friends with Omelchenko. In 1994, Bilych became deputy head of the Kyiv State Property Fund, and in 2000-2006 he headed the Main Directorate for Entrepreneurship of the Kyiv City State Administration. Yes, yes, that’s right: it was Viktor Bilych who took Mykola Povoroznik under his management in 2001, and it was he who promoted him up the career ladder. Let’s add: and if the information about Povoroznik’s “earnings” in the field of issuing licenses is true, then he shared his profits, first of all, with Bilych. But, let us emphasize, Bilych himself is only one of the members of the “construction mafia” in the Kyiv City State Administration, which grew there under Omelchenko and still maintains its position.

Under Chernovetsky, Bilych went to work for Zhitloinvestbud, but Povoroznyk stayed to work at the Kyiv City State Administration. In December of the same year, he became the head of the Main Department for Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship – and, according to sources, the “trade” in permits and licenses was further expanded. In 2012, Povoroznyk became deputy head of the Main Department for Industrial, Scientific, Technical and Innovation Policy of the Kyiv City State Administration, simultaneously heading the department for issuing permits. In 2013, he became deputy head of the Department of Industry and Entrepreneurship Development of the Kyiv City State Administration (and continued to head the department for issuing permits), and a few months later – deputy, and then director of the Department of Economy and Investments of the Kyiv City State Administration. In this position, he survived the second Maidan.

And so in January 2016, Povoroznik was appointed deputy chairman of the Kyiv City State Administration, entrusting him with coordinating the departments of economy and investment, budget and finance, tax policy and banking, as well as tender purchases. Moreover, this position was specially created for him by Vitali Klitschko. Agree, it is surprising that under Omelchenko, and under Chernovetsky, and under Popov, and under Klitschko, the brave communications captain was entrusted with positions where money just sticks to his hands. Corruption is flourishing, but Povoroznik himself pretends to be an honest, selfless person living on his salary. Indeed, like Koreiko in “Hercules”!

And since December 2017, Mykola Povoroznyk has become the first deputy mayor of the capital, meaning that he is now effectively in charge of Kyiv when Klitschko is busy with something or is on his travels. Of course, the appointment of deputy chairmen of the Kyiv City State Administration is done in agreement with the Cabinet of Ministers, where Mykola Povoroznyk has been regularly going since February 2015. And it looks like he has patrons there too.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUATION: Povoroznik Nikolay: Koreiko from the Kyiv City State Administration, or a modest operator of financial schemes. PART 2

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