Stepan Ivakhiv: a pseudo-patriot puts on tender bast shoes for the state and robs the widow of a deceased friend

“When a Ukrainian politician talks about patriotism, it means he is going to steal something,” this aphorism best characterizes MP and successful businessman Stepan Ivakhiv. The founder of his pocket fund “Patriots of Volyn”, who erects monuments to national heroes, at the same time regularly flies to Moscow for some important negotiations. But what is much worse, returning to their homeland, Ivakhiv literally ruins Ukraine, already exhausted by the crisis and war. But this doesn’t bother him at all.

For a long time, only his fellow countrymen and voters knew about Stepan Ivakhiv, but most Ukrainians paid almost no attention to the name of the co-owner of the WOG gas station chain that occasionally appeared in the news. But recently, Ivakhiv has been gaining fame, increasingly becoming the hero of publications in all-Ukrainian media. For example, repeatedly getting into the “golden three” of deputies of the Verkhovna Rada, surpassing even eminent oligarchs in terms of the size of accumulated treasures or the scope of their officially declared business. For example, he recently took second place in the ranking of parliamentary “koshchei” – people’s deputies who declared the largest amount of jewelry. Stepan Ivakhiv and his wife have as many as 34 gold objects in their boxes – in this he beat the clever “fixer” Vitaly Khomutynnik (32 gold jewelry), but lost first place to an industrial oligarch Sergei Taruta (41 decorations).

And these are not some kind of ring chains from a cheap jewelry store, for which Stepan Ivakhiv’s voters have been saving for years from their meager income. He declared as family property full-length rings, pearl necklaces, pendants, several pairs of gold cufflinks with precious stones, gold watches “PATEK PHILIPPE”, “AUDEMARS PIGUET” and “PARMIGIANI”. And in Ivakhiv’s declaration you can find a long list of expensive “couture clothes” and furs, three dozen land plots with a total area of ​​203 thousand square meters, four apartments (2517 sq.m.), five cars and a whole bunch of securities.

King of tender scams Stepan Ivakhiv

Where does this wealth come from? Recently, Stepan Petrovich Ivakhiv broke another parliamentary record: he became the owner and co-owner of the largest number of companies involved in construction and real estate trading among members of the parliamentary committee on construction and housing and communal services. He has 11 of them! In second place, with seven companies, is another member of this committee, Petr Sabashuk, a deputy of the Solidarity faction, a business developer from Zaporozhye. These facts colorfully illustrate who is doing what in the commissions and committees of the Verkhovna Rada, sitting on the neck of the state budget!

By the way, as I noticed Skelet.Infothe construction methods of Stepan Ivakhiv’s companies raise many questions and often lead to indignation among Kiev residents. Thus, in the winter of 2017, residents of Mechnikov Street, whose houses were literally being destroyed due to the skyscraper being built nearby, came out to a rally. They were supported by activists of the Stop Corruption movement, who publicly explained how and for how long Ivakhiv received permission to build its monster.

But Ivakhiv Stepan Petrovich succeeded not only in this. In the spring of 2017, he took first place in the ranking of parliamentary tenderers – that is, people’s deputies whose declared companies most often won public procurement tenders in the period 2008-2017. Let us emphasize: companies registered not under the names of mothers-in-law and sisters, as is usually customary in big Ukrainian business, but their own, declared ones. And here Ivakhiv left everyone far behind him, even the former head of the Presidential Administration during the “regime” Sergei Levochkin and current presidential business partner Igor Kononenko.

Of the 11 billion hryvnia earned at state tenders by those on this list (90 people’s deputies in total), Ivakhiv accounts for 4.876 billion! At the same time, he concluded more than two thousand agreements with government agencies. As you can see, the people’s representative of Ivakhiv has a very busy and intense work schedule, but only within the framework of his business! It is not surprising that he is also one of the top three parliamentary truants, and his relations with voters leave much to be desired.

Stepan Ivakhiv received the lion’s share of this money since the end of 2014 (when he became a people’s deputy). Of these, 2.137 billion are accounted for by his company Neftetrade Resurs LLC (Naftotrade Resurs LLC), and only for the period 2016-2017. From open sources you can find out that the largest clients of Neftetrade Resur were: the National Police Department (464 million), several branches of Ukrtransgaz (more than 200 million), the material support base of the National Guard (176 million), Rivnooblenergo, Lvovoblenergo and Volynyoblenergo (about 120 million). One can only guess how Stepan Ivakhiv got his hands on these fat tenders! After all, the problem is that the reputation of Neftetrade Resurs LLC as a participant in tenders has not only been tarnished for a long time, the name of this company regularly appears in scandalous revelations. Let’s list just a few of them:

*In 2016, the management of the Lviv Railway (Lvivska Zaliznytsia) held a tender for the purchase of gasoline and diesel fuel (fuel cards), in which four companies took part: Techoil Realtor LLC (16.62), Okko-Business Contact LLC (16.85), Lvov Petroleum LLC (22.50) and Neftetrade Resurs LLC (19.99) – their price offer for A-95 gasoline is indicated in brackets. This tender became an example of modern corruption, not too different from the corruption of previous “regimes”. It would seem that preference should have been given to Techoil Realtor, but they were completely removed from the auction under the pretext of non-compliance with the conditions of the tender – without explaining what exactly they were. Then officials of the Lvov Railways suddenly became blind in one eye and did not notice the existence of Okko-Business – owned by businessman Vitaly Antonov, owner of the Okko network and eternal competitor of Ivakhiv. After which they “with a clear conscience” declared Neftetrade Resurs LLC the winner of the tender, because its only remaining competitor, Lviv Petroleum, offered fuel at an even higher price! As a result of these cynical manipulations, the state lost about 4 million hryvnia – this is exactly how much fuel from Neftetrade Resurs was more expensive than if it had been purchased from its competitors. In addition to this scandal, another one almost arose: journalists asked the question, and then the management of the Lviv Railway 1.1 million liters of gasoline, and even on cards? After all, diesel locomotives do not drive on it, and the fleet of service cars (fuelled by A-95) at Lvivska Zaliznytsia is small! To this question, Lvov railway officials, scowling like owls, stubbornly refused to give a direct answer.

Stepan Ivakhiv: a pseudo-patriot puts on tender bast shoes for the state and robs the widow of a deceased friend

*The tender for the purchase of fuel by the state-owned enterprise Lvovugol, held in May 2016, confirms the assumption that Lvov Petroleum LLC is a front company. Only two companies took part in the “competition”: Lvov Petroleum and VOG Retail LLC, which is also part of the business empire of Stepan Ivakhiv (and his partners). Everything went like clockwork: Lviv Petroleum offered fuel at an inflated price, and VOG Retail almost honestly won the tender in the amount of 28.15 million hryvnia! But there was one long-forgotten nuance in this story, unearthed by caring truth seekers at the suggestion of Skelet.Info: back in 2002, the Lviv Petroleum company became one of the founders of CIS-SP LLC, the second founder was the Western Yanefiyanaya Group company of business partners Stepan Ivakhiv and Igor Ereemeev. Moreover, then their share was registered in the name of the Neftetrade Resurs company – from which it follows that it is a partner of Lviv Petroleum!

*On January 24, 2017, the municipal enterprise “Municipal Economy Plant” of Drohobych held a tender for the purchase of diesel fuel and gasoline. Two competitors took part in the auction: Okko-business Contact LLC and Neftetrade Resurs LLC. This time, the auction itself was fair and transparent, and the victory of the lowest bidder, Neftetrad Resurs, seemed absolutely legal. So it was, but not for long. The day after the conclusion of the contract, the manager of Neftetrade again met with Drohobyk officials, and they… began to change the terms of the tender in the direction of increasing the price of fuel! Moreover, this was done three times, and on February 3, the price of fuel from Neftetrade increased by 25%! This was truly a new word in the field of tender scams.

*In June 2017, the municipal enterprise “Nikolaev International Airport” signed an agreement with “Naftotrade Resource” on June 2 for the purchase of 38.7 thousand liters of gasoline and diesel fuel. This was a scam in which Ivakhiv outdid himself! The airport administration did not say whether mandatory tenders were held before this. Moreover, a blatant violation was discovered in this agreement: the price of fuel and the amount of the tender contract were missing! The question arose: how did the responsible persons sign this “filkin’s letter”? In response to questions from journalists, airport director Sergei Filatov began to justify himself by saying that the price of fuel will change “as it is purchased.” However, soon some accounting documents appeared, according to which the price of fuel from “Naftotrade Resurs” was very well known, but for some reason it was included outside the scope of the agreement in the “appendices”. The indicated amount (902 thousand hryvnia) eloquently said that the average cost of fuel under this “secret agreement” is on average 23.3 hryvnia per liter – which is much higher than the wholesale price and corresponds to retail prices at gas stations of the WOG network. Then officials said that this was so, but Naftotreyd promised to provide airport cars with discounts at gas stations. One question remained unanswered: how to provide a discount on gasoline if cars at the Nikolaev airport will be refueled using cards?

Three from the casket

However, the listed tender scandals are only the tip of a huge iceberg of scams and frauds that Stepan Ivakhiv and his companions Igor Eremeev (now deceased) and Sergey Lagur (more alive than all the living).

Igor Eremeev

In the biography of Stepan Ivakhiv, you can find information that he and Igor Eremeev are the same age and fellow villagers (from the village of Ostrozhets, Dubensky district, Rivne region). In 1988-1992 They studied together at the Rivne Institute of Water Management (where they became friends), and then went into business – registering the Continuum MP in their native village, which was engaged in sewing leather jackets. The raw materials were taken from local co-operators, they were sewn crookedly, in general, the jackets were of disgusting quality and their business did not work out. Therefore, by 1995, their small enterprise turned into LLC “Trading House “Continuum”, registered in Lutsk – and trading in everything, first consumer goods, and then fuel, on which “Continuum” focused, creating the joint venture “Western Oil Group” “(West Oil Group). Well, since they took fuel from the Drohobych oil refinery “Galicia”, they soon became close to one of the co-owners of this enterprise, Sergei Lagur. This person is quite non-public, and there are still only rumors about his past, including those of a criminal nature (according to Skelet.Info he was a member of an organized crime group and managed gangster money invested in the oil business). In general, at the beginning of the 2000s, these three united the business and became the main co-owners of the companies of the Continuum group, and they were also joined by Peter Dyminsky, Lagur’s business partner since the 90s.

Sergey Lagur

It is curious that for a long time only the names of Eremeev, Dyminsky, very rarely Lagur, and almost never Ivakhiv flashed in the press – although he was the constant co-owner of their common enterprises. For example, in scandalous story with Nadra Bank. It was reported that Lagur and Eremeev participated in it, who in 2005 bought a stake in the bank from Alexander Yaroslavsky and became partners of the Segal brothers. But for some reason Stepan Ivakhiv was not mentioned, or did he then carefully erase all traces of his participation? There is one more explanation for this, and it is based on numerous corruption and almost criminal scandals associated with the co-owners of the Continuum group. Ivakhiv, Eremeev and Lagur always acted as a team, but never “crowded”, each of them was in his place, performed his task – and then could replace the other.

The nature of their scams at that time makes us think about what shady schemes Stepan Ivakhiv is stirring up today. For example, in 2005, a scandal arose between the then head of the Ministry of Justice Roman Zvarych and people’s deputy Eremeev. Its essence concerned a dispute over 3 million tons of oil: Oil Transit LLC of the Zvarych family wanted to make money by re-exporting this oil, and Ereemev’s company wanted to make money on a VAT refund scam.

Then there was 2008 and the collapse of the Nadra Bank, through which its owners and managers stole billions from investors and the state, then taking them to the border or transferring them to the accounts of their Ukrainian companies. But here is a similar story for 2017: law enforcement agencies began a large-scale investigation into the activities of PJSC Bank of Investments and Savings, whose main shareholders are Ivakhiv and Lagur, as well as related companies of the Continuum group. The bank is suspected of fraudulent schemes to withdraw money to shell companies with subsequent bankruptcy, and here the investigators are convinced that the case will not be limited to just a banking scam. After all, quite recently (in 2015) the scheme of the Continuum group was exposed, with the help of which Ivakhiv and Eremeev used shell companies to bankrupt their enterprises – and ultimately evade paying taxes. At that time the names of such companies were “Continent Nefte-Trade”, “Resource Standard”, “Trans-Trade-Oil”, “Marshal-Trade-Oil”, and the amount of unpaid taxes to the state ranged from 1 to 2 billion hryvnia.

Actually, this explains the fact that Stepan Ivakhiv has such a large number of different firms and companies. It seems that people’s deputies-businessmen have mastered a scheme for themselves when a company first earns money, but does not pay taxes, and then suddenly goes bankrupt and closes – and another one comes out of the box in its place.

And what a coincidence: as soon as the case of fictitious bankruptcies began to be seriously promoted, and at the same time information appeared about the possible return of the Segal brothers to Ukraine and the start of an investigation into the Nadra Bank case, Igor Eremeev fell from his horse and was injured, and then died (August 12, 2015) during treatment.

Was it a coincidence that just a month after his death, the bankruptcy of the main company, Trading House Continuum-Galicia LLC, which combined the assets of Eremeev, Ivakhiv and Lagur, began? If fraudsters use a company’s bankruptcy to evade paying taxes, then why not use bankruptcy to leave the relatives of a deceased partner without an inheritance? No matter how monstrous the assumption seems that Stepan Ivakhiv decided to “ditch” the wife and son of his old friend and companion, it is confirmed by the fight over his inheritance that has been going on for almost two years.

And now another interesting fact: the current fantastically successful tender business of Stepan Ivakhiv and his (shared with Lagur) company “Neftetrade Resurs” was preceded by an even more stunningly successful tender business of Eremeev and his (shared with Ivakhiv and Lagur) companies. In particular, in the period 2011-2013. “Ukrzaliznytsia” has concluded tender agreements with the companies “Ukrpostach-Naftotrade” LLC, “VOG Aero Trade” LLC, “Kherson Oil Refinery” CJSC, MP “Impex” and “Continuum-Galicia” for a total amount of 17.27 billion hryvnia! And that’s not all! In 2014-2015 VOG Trade LLC won 885 tenders for a total of 3.174 billion hryvnia! Among its largest customers were the Ministry of Internal Affairs (600 million), the Central Support Base of the National Guard (283 million), Kievnenergo (159 million), and the Administration of Seaports of Ukraine. Considering the specifics of Eremeev-Ivakhiv’s tender business, as well as their tax evasion methods, one can only imagine the size of their profit!

As a matter of fact, this was not the merit of Eremeev alone, the whole trinity worked hard, but then it was Eremeev who was the locomotive of their team, since he alone had a deputy mandate. But after his death, this function passed to Stepan Ivakhiv, who received his mandate in the fall of 2014, who now divides the company’s profits not into three, but into two. However, won’t another co-owner of Continuum fall from a snowmobile or bicycle? In the end, Ivakhiv Stepan Petrovich is doing well with business himself, and he has every prospect of raising the profits of his companies to the level of 2011-2015.

There is only one question: why is such a wonderful businessman not yet in a pre-trial detention center? To answer it, let’s take another look at the list of government institutions and enterprises whose officials allowed Stepan Ivakhiv and his companions to rob the budget of Ukraine.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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