Sergey Lagur: who will get the treasures of “Continuum”? PART 2

CONTINUATION. BEGINNING: Sergey Lagur: who will get the treasures of “Continuum”? PART 1

Sergey Lagur – Black Banker

With the arrival of Lagur and Dyminsky in the Continuum group, it began to grow rapidly. Already in 2005, it included such enterprises as: “Europe-II”, JV “Western Oil Group”, LLC “Continuum”, LLC “Continuum-Trust-Invest”, LLC “Continuum-Trust-Company”, LLC ” Continuum-Ukr-Resource”, OJSC “Lvovgaz”, OJSC “Volyngaz”, LLC “Boryslav Oil Company”, OJSC “Lviv City Dairy Plant” (brand “KOMO”), OJSC “Vinnitsa City Dairy Plant”, “Zhytomyrmolokoproduct”, “Vladimir-Volynsky Dairy Products Plant”, “Brodovsky Skimmed Milk Powder Plant”, “Volyn Butter and Cheese Factory”, “Gorokhovsky Cheese Factory”, LLC “Western Dairy Group” (WMG), “Lutsk Confectioner”, Central Department Store of Lutsk, Agricultural Trading House “Volyn” , confectionery factory “Bukovinka” and a number of other enterprises. And this is not counting the offshore companies to which all this business was ultimately registered, and the numerous shell companies through which shady schemes were carried out. Investing profits from operations with petroleum products in the food sector has always been a feature of Western Ukrainian businessmen, and Ivakhiv and Eremeev made this the economic strategy of their “Continuum”. Nevertheless, if the majority of their fellow oligarchs then bet on “Our Ukraine” or even nationalists in politics, then Ivakhiv and Eremeev bought themselves places in Blok Litvina.

But Sergei Lagur became interested in politics only once – when in 2002 he sponsored the election campaign of the New Generation of Ukraine party. But all that this party achieved was to stage a political war against the “Winter Generation Team”. However, in 2005-2006 Lagur, as a co-owner of Continuum, also invested his money in the election campaign of the Lytvyn Bloc, which then broke all records for election campaign expenses. But Lagur did not participate in the elections; their trinity on the list of the Lytvyn Bloc was represented by his head of the election headquarters, Igor Eremeev, who received a guaranteed seat No. 7.

A distinctive feature of WOG gas stations has always been the higher selling price of the fuel sold, resulting from excessive added value (mark-up), with a rather mediocre quality of gasoline (it is not always imported). Its owners tried to explain this by “large expenses for organizing a business and paying off bank loans.” How did I find out? Skelet.Infoin fact, this was a lie, unless by “organizing a business” you mean schemes that turn a company with a multi-billion dollar turnover into an allegedly unprofitable one. Well, as for the costs of paying off bank loans, this caused bewilderment – after all, the companies of the Continuum group took out loans from their own banks, and Sergei Lagur was in charge of them. It was he who was named among the main co-owners of the scandalous Nadra Bank, at a time when it was ruled by no less scandalous Segali brothers through his hired top manager Igor Gilenko.

In 2004, Segali was “thrown into the shares” of a Kharkov oligarch Alexander Yaroslavskyusing an additional issue, reducing its Nadra stake from 26% to 16%, and refusing to buy it back according to the investment agreement. And in 2005, his stake in shares was bought by the Continuum group, after which the name of Sergei Lagur appeared among the co-owners and co-directors of Nadra Bank. Of course, his companions Ivakhiv and Eremeev also owned shares, but it was Lagur who was called the manager of their group in Nadra Bank. And he managed it very effectively, since very quickly Continuum increased its stake in Nadra to 33.7%. And he should also have been held accountable for the scams and frauds of Nadra Bank in 2008-2009. Moreover, the companies of the Continuum group also participated in problem loan schemes, through which the bank’s depositors’ money and funds allocated by the state for its refinancing were actually robbed.

These were:

LLC “Continuum-Ukr-Resource”
LLC “Yunta-TT”
LLC “K-L-O”
Private enterprise “Night”
LLC “TRC-Exim”
JV “Western Oil Group”
LLC “TD Continuum-Galicia”
LLC “Vita-Auto”
TAPAD LLC
Velan Telecom LLC

Of these, only PE Knight and LLC K-L-O, registered in Dnepropetrovsk, received loans from Nadra Bank in the amount of 210 and 170 million hryvnia, respectively! After which these companies were liquidated, and their debt was written off! Both companies, according to the materials of the case on the debtors of Nadra Bank, were part of the Continuum group, although not directly, but playing the role of “spacers”. And here’s what’s interesting: after the scandalous crisis of the Nadra bank in 2008-2009, during which the amount stolen and transferred abroad amounted to billions, both the head of the board of Nadra, Igor Gilenko, and his shadow people fled from Ukraine the owners are the Segali brothers, but the harsh hand of the law never touched Sergei Lagur and his companions Eremeev and Ivakhiv. They didn’t even try to hide, because they were in no danger, and one can only guess how Lagur managed to get himself and his companions out of the water. Which he will then repeat more than once, albeit not in such loud and large-scale stories.

Dead Man’s Chest

“Continuum” not only safely left the “Nadra” bank in 2009, under the already agonizing power of the “any friends” of the beekeeper president, it very quickly latched on to the big budget trough already in 2011, under the regime of the “Donetsk” in fact, they preferred to “make the money” themselves. Do you remember how much noise and scandals there was over the forty billion hryvnia spent on Euro 2012, divided between the construction companies of the regionals and their allies? Meanwhile, in the period 2011-2013. without noise and dust, without any unnecessary attention, the companies of the Continuum group (Ukrpostach-Naftotrade LLC, Vogue Aero Trade LLC, Kherson Oil Refinery CJSC, Continuum-Galicia, etc.) concluded with Ukrzaliznytsia hundreds of tender agreements totaling over 17 billion hryvnia. How did they manage, how did they manage? This is an interesting question to which Ukrainians are waiting for an answer from law enforcement agencies. But then Euromaidan broke out in the country, the government changed, entire business clans were removed from schemes and flows – and the Lagura-Ivakhiv-Eremeev-Dyminsky companies again found themselves on the tender horse. In 2014-2015 they concluded tenders for 3.174 billion hryvnia, and in 2016-2017. another 2+ billion. Among the buyers of their fuel are the same Ukrzaliznytsia, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the National Police and the National Guard, regional power companies in the western regions of Ukraine.

After all, what’s interesting: all these years, the media have focused their attention either on Yushchenko’s entourage, then on the “Donetsk people,” or on the “family” Poroshenkocarefully watched how they won, lost and regained their positions in business, but no one really noticed the oligarchs from the Continuum group, who were turning over no less sums! Nobody knew anything about Sergei Lagura until recently, especially because he is a patron of Ukrainian tennis.

Take, for example, PJSC Ukrtransneft, which is the operator of Ukrainian oil pipelines – without which the business of large oil traders would be impossible (the founder of Stardart Oil, Rockefeller, understood this). There is also an interesting situation there: while the oligarchs of Solidarity were enthusiastically fighting with the oligarchs of the Popular Front, Ukrtransneft was headed by Nikolai Gavrilenko, a former director of the Vic-Oil company, who worked for Andrey AdamovskyIgor Filippenko and Zhigan Taktashev, actually on the “Donetsk”. And Andrey Pasishnik, who previously worked as the executive director of Naftogaz, and even earlier as a top manager in the Continuum group, became his deputy. The same Pasishnyk against whom NABU initiated a criminal case on corruption charges a year ago – and the courts keep returning this case for further investigation, while Pasishnyk not only remains in his post, but also flies on vacation to the Canary Islands, openly mocking the Ukrainian justice. It is thanks to people like this that Continuum wins multi-billion dollar tenders!

Andrey Pasishnik

However, there is something much more intriguing in this story. If you look closely at these successful tender transactions of the companies of the Continuum group, more about which Skelet.Info talked in the material about Stepan Ivakhivathen they can be divided into two periods. In the first period (2011-2015), tenders were distinguished not only by large amounts, but also by the fact that they were carried out through Ukrpostach-Naftotrade LLC, VOG Aero Trade LLC and other companies, control over which was held by the late Eremeev. He, being a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada, used all available means to achieve “victory” at these tenders. But then a tragedy occurred: Igor Eremeev allegedly “fell” from his horse (August 2015), literally immediately after he tried to make a deal with shares of the Kherson Oil Refinery, which Ivakhiv and Lagur opposed, and soon died during treatment.

And the role of the “locomotive” in the “Continuum” group passed to Stepan Ivakhiv, who very opportunely in the fall of 2014 also received the mandate of a people’s deputy (the “Will of the People” faction). From this moment, the second period of tender activity of the Continuum group began, and now it occurs through companies controlled by Ivakhiv (Neftetrade Resource LLC, Vogue Aero Trade LLC, etc.). From now on, the profit of “Continuum” is divided only between two people, because Eremeev died, and his heirs are literally robbed by Lagur and Ivakhiv, robbing them of the share of their deceased partner.

Sergey Lagur: who will get the treasures of “Continuum”? PART 2

Moreover, at the end of 2016, Bill No. 4666 “On Limited and Additional Liability Companies” appeared in the Verkhovna Rada (already adopted in the first reading, the second is expected), submitted Andrey Ivanchuk and Yaroslav Moskalenko (who had a common business with Lagur and Ivakhiv). In which there is a simply cannibalistic clause that the co-owners of the LLC receive the right to exclude deceased or missing partners from the list of founders. Numerous sources Skelet.Info they directly claim that this clause was written under the dictation of Ivakhiv and Lagur, precisely in order to completely deprive the family of the late Eremeev of inheritance rights. But is it only them?

Petr Dyminsky has already wisely withdrawn from being a co-owner of WOG (it is managed through the offshore companies West Oil Group Holding BV and WOG Holding Limited), without explaining what he fears most: pressure from law enforcement agencies or the risk of falling, say, from a bicycle and then also dying during treatment. This whole story is beginning to resemble a novel about pirates dividing treasure among themselves, and it is likely that there will be many more corpses in it. Well, if bill No. 4666 is adopted, one can only imagine how many Ukrainian entrepreneurs will begin to go missing, fall under concrete mixers, fall from horses and die from anesthesia while drilling a bad tooth.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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