League of “inherited” oligarchs. Week overview February 9 – 15
The main loser of the past week was the former chairman of the Lugansk regional state administration, the former head of the Party of Regions faction in the Verkhovna Rada and, quite possibly, the future prisoner Alexander Efremov. He took a decisive step toward obtaining this status last Saturday, when he was detained by GPU officers together with the SBU as a result of a special operation. The “leader of the Redskins” is suspected of committing a criminal offense under Part 2 of Art. 364 (abuse of power or official position) and Part 2 of Article 366 (official forgery) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Alexander Efremov
Efremov himself, during a court hearing this week, explained what he was actually accused of: “I am charged with answering a question from the chairman of the counting commission on January 16, 2014, during a plenary session, and thus was able to influence the agenda,” said He. At the same time, the GPU says that “there are other articles under which Efremov’s activities are checked.” One of them is an encroachment on the territorial integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine. We are talking about the creation of the so-called LPR, the father of which many rightfully consider the former Lugansk governor. “(Former head of the LPR) Bolotov was with Efremov looking after the diggings.
The people, risking their lives, went down to the diggings. Bolotov withdrew money from them and reported to Efremov,” former head of the Lugansk regional department of the SBU Alexander Petrulevich said earlier. These circumstances give hope that Efremov, who was recently released on bail, will end up in prison, where he has every chance of changing his signature crimson complexion to gray. And since the new Prosecutor General Shokin probably drew conclusions from the story of Boris Kolesnikov’s imprisonment in 2005 and the further collapse of his case, there are suspicions that Alexander Sergeevich may go to prison for a long time. For which the former main parliamentary “region” receives a well-deserved “-2” points.
Once again, Rinat Akhmetov has had a “bad week,” whose capitalization and influence are melting away even faster than the Ukrainian national currency is depreciating. This time his telecommunications business was seriously affected. No sooner had the Crimean branch of Ukrtelecom, owned by Akhmetov, turned off communications and the Internet in the territory annexed by Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) than the self-proclaimed authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea decided to nationalize it. “The movable and immovable property of the Crimean branch of Ukrtelecom, located on the territory of the Republic of Crimea, as part of non-current (including intangible) and current assets located on its balance sheet and off-balance sheet records as of March 17, 2014, shall be included in the list of property, accounted as the property of the Republic of Crimea,” says the resolution adopted at the session of the Crimean “parliament”.
Rinat Akhmetov
In addition, Aksenov, Konstantinov and the company took the Crimean property of the mobile subsidiary of Ukrtelecom, TriMob LLC. This time the Ukrtelecom press service was ready to comment on the actions of the nationalizers, saying that it saw no reason for this. Probably, a template for a similar bold statement is already being prepared by Akhmetov’s Portinvest holding, in anticipation of the nationalization of the Sevastopol stevedoring company Avlita (it processes metal products and also operates a grain terminal with simultaneous storage of 170 thousand tons of grain) – Rinat Akhmetov’s last major asset in Crimea . For which he receives his next “-1” point.
Vadim Novinsky
Akhmetov’s partner in Metinvest and owner of Smart Holding, Vadim Novinsky, received a similar assessment based on last week’s results. It seems that the conflict around the Amstor chain of stores that still belongs to him is only gaining momentum, and so far it is being resolved not at all in favor of the people’s deputy from the Opposition Bloc. On February 13, law enforcement officers searched the office of Smart Holding in Kyiv as part of a criminal proceeding opened on the grounds of fictitious entrepreneurship, counteraction to legitimate economic activities and other crimes. And later information appeared that we were talking about the forgery of the minutes of the general meeting of participants of Amstor Trade LLC dated December 29, 2014, and the power of attorney of the Miramilis company (owner of 100% of the authorized capital of Amstor Trade LLC).
Judging by the scale of the actions, Novinsky’s opponent in the conflict around Amstor, the minority co-founder of this network, Vladimir Vagorovsky, clearly found very high-ranking sympathizers in the new government. And since at least one, but the most important Ukrainian politician has no reason to have warm feelings for Novinsky, who sent him directly in February last year, Vadim Vladislavovich’s prospects are, frankly speaking, not in bright colors.
The week ended with the loss of a point for another of Akhmetov’s partners, former banker Leonid Yurushev. The National Bank declared Zlatobank, which is not at all alien to it, officially registered in the name of its former top manager Elena Yakimenko, insolvent, after which a temporary administration was introduced into it. Moreover, this was done unscheduled – apparently, after an attempt was made to withdraw a large sum of money from the financial institution.
Leonid Yurushev
“Due to the fact that Zlatobank, after the end of the working day on February 12, 2015, contrary to the requirements of the National Bank of Ukraine, carried out operations with a significant risk for depositors and other creditors of the bank, the Board of the National Bank of Ukraine, in order to protect the bank’s creditors and the interests of the state, was forced to immediately accept decision to classify the bank as insolvent,” the NBU reported. At the same time, it was announced the possibility of attracting an investor for the bank, which (what the hell is not kidding) could be the same Yurushev.
“Austrian prisoner” Dmitry Firtash also earned his minus. On February 11, its largest chemical plant “Azot” (Cherkassy) lost to “Gas of Ukraine” (a subsidiary of NJSC “Naftogaz of Ukraine”) in proceedings in the Kiev Economic Court of Appeal. The court upheld the decision made back in 2012 to recover 780 million hryvnia from Azot in favor of the state company. Which, therefore, has now entered into legal force. Shortly before this, the economic court of Kyiv rejected the claim of another Firtash plant that owed hundreds of millions of hryvnia to the state – Severodonetsk Azot Association – to invalidate the gas supply agreement signed with NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine in 2009. That is, Firtash will still have to pay, despite the obvious lack of desire to repay the debts.
The process of “dekulakization” of the Ternopil Gut family continues successfully. Last week it became known that the Court of Cyprus, at the request of BNY Corporate Trustee Services Ltd, appointed a temporary manager to Mriya Agro Holding Public Ltd (Cyprus), the parent company of the Mriya agricultural holding. “The legitimacy and authority of the Guth family as current shareholders of the company has now officially ceased to exist and has been transferred to a temporary receiver appointed by the court.
Ivan Guta
The interim manager is an independent person acting in the interests of creditors and can direct his decisions instead of shareholders to the operating companies of the Mriya group,” notes the press release of the creditors’ committee of the agricultural holding. According to it, the interim manager of Mriya Agro Holding Public Ltd gave authority to manage a group of new managers elected the day before by creditors – Simon Chernyavsky and Ton Hulse. As we see, the Ternopil family failed to resolve the issues “in its own way,” for which its head Ivan Guta receives a well-deserved “-1” point.
Sergey Arbuzov
“Graphomaniac expert” Alexander Klimenko has a competitor – former First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Arbuzov, who last week announced that he had become socially active and opened an account on Facebook. He explained his “epochal” decision by the fact that “an opposition politician now does not have many opportunities to convey his point of view, and often simply to refute the absurd accusations that come from the lips of high officials.” At the same time, Arbuzov added with obvious resentment that for some reason the media “are not eager to publish his articles and statements.”
Therefore, he concluded, it would be wrong not to take advantage of the opportunities that social networks provide. The Ukrainian media really do not like Serezha – his streams of consciousness on the topic of the monetary policy of the Ukrainian authorities were willingly published only by Forbes Ukraine, another fugitive young oligarch, Sergei Kurchenko, and the newspaper Capital, which is considered to be within the sphere of influence of Arbuzov himself. However, the boss’s latest comments regarding the hryvnia exchange rate were not published by the native publication either – as NEXT.net.ua learned, the other day the financing of “Capital” was completely stopped, and the project was completely closed. What can you do, Moscow is a rather expensive city, and Arbuzov, it seems, can no longer afford his own “media holding”. And this is worthy of at least a “-1” point.
Konstantin Zhevago
Konstantin Zhevago managed to break even last week. The Bank Finance and Credit, which belongs to him and is experiencing problems with liquidity, received a stabilization loan from the NBU in the amount of UAH 700 million. to ensure timely fulfillment of obligations to individual depositors. Which Zhevago himself had quite frightened shortly before, deciding to take the lead and declaring that “there can be no question that the Finance and Credit Bank is experiencing any difficulties, or that the threat of irreversible consequences hangs over it.” Which quite logically aroused suspicion among investors, according to the principle “if the authorities say that everything is good, then everything is bad.” The NBU loan was issued for 2 years on the security of the production and property complex – according to unofficial information, owned by Zhevago Kremenchugmyaso plant. And even if it happens that Kostya doesn’t return the money, he won’t be left behind. After all, according to rumors, he was not against selling his meat processing plant for a long time, but in order to get even 700 million depreciated hryvnia for it in the current situation, one still has to try hard.
Well, the winner of the week was once again the main “Jewish Banderist” Igor Kolomoisky. At the beginning of the week, Privat’s lobbying work in the Verkhovna Rada bore fruit. Parliament refused to reduce the quorum level for holding a general meeting of shareholders of all joint-stock companies, regardless of the type of ownership, to 50% + 1 share from today’s 60%. Only 175 deputies voted for this government bill. During the discussion of the bill, a number of deputies said that such norms pose a risk of raiding and asked the government to finalize the document. So Privat continues to control Ukrnafta.
Video source https://www.youtube.com
Then Kolomoisky completely went on the offensive – Ukrnafta filed a lawsuit in the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Economy and the Ministry of Energy and Coal, demanding that the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of October 16, 2014 to be repealed on the inclusion of four representatives in the auction committee for the sale of oil, gas condensate and liquefied gas Naftogaz. Finally, the oil and gas company JKX Oil&Gas, which is one-quarter controlled by Kolomoisky and his partner Gennady Bogolyubov, began international proceedings with Ukraine, demanding compensation in the amount of $180 million for overpayment of rent payments starting in 2011. Thus, Kolomoisky secured himself a good position in the tactical confrontation with the authorities, which is worthy of at least two plus points.
Alexey KOZHEMYAKIN, NEXT.net.ua
