Take a closer look at the numerous photographic portraits of Alexander Klimenko on the Internet and in the press. It’s simply amazing – this “face” seems to have come out of the illustrations of the book by the famous Italian anthropologist and psychiatrist Cesare Lombroso “Criminal Man”. I remember in November 2011, when Yanukovych appointed a certain young man named Klimenko as chairman of the State Tax Administration, the whole country shuddered when they saw this low forehead, close-set eyes, massive jaws – all the characteristic signs of a swindler according to Lombroso! And then his next rise, even higher – to the chair of the head of the newly formed Ministry of Revenue and Duties… “Yes, this is a natural bandit – how could such a thing be a minister!” even those who had never heard of the works of the Italian professor exclaimed. To understand how this man managed to make such a dizzying career, we need to reveal some of the secrets of his biography.
“Young Insides”
Alexander Viktorovich Klimenko was born on November 16, 1980 in Makeevka (Donetsk region). From 1997 to 2005, together with his older brother Anton, he founded and managed a number of small commercial structures: Eastern Ukrainian Information and Production Systems LLC (wholesale trade), Security Company Skif Group LLC and Donbass Development LLC groups” (trade). However, the main project of the Klimenko brothers was the Antalex Group of Companies, founded in Makeyevka in 2000 (with an annual turnover of UAH 30 million in the early 2010s). She was engaged in the manufacture and sale of corrugated packaging, construction, rental and sale of real estate, trading in securities, food products and a number of other businesses.
In 2002, Alexander Klimenko graduated from the Donetsk State University of Management, in 2010 from the Dnepropetrovsk regional branch of the National Academy of Management under the President. In 2011, he received the scientific degree of Candidate of Economic Sciences (specialty “Economics and Management of the National Economy”). True, for some reason the title of his work is not in electronic catalogs of dissertations.
By the way, back in his student years, in 2000, Alexander Klimenko became the editor-in-chief of the glossy magazine Day and Night, controlled by Antalex. In the editor’s columns, the future minister more than once shocked readers with all kinds of “pearls.” For example: “Our magazine has changed its appearance and now appears before you with a respectable appearance and young insides,” or also: “…Of course, you can publish anything, but if you want someone else to read this disgrace, you will have to work hard, trying to make the final product tastier, more interesting, more useful,” etc.
While the younger brother was “wiping his pants” at the university and trying himself in the field of journalism, the more intelligent (even in appearance) older brother was taking his first steps in politics. Moreover, immediately – in a multi-vector manner. So, in 1998, Anton worked at the headquarters of the Lazarenko party “VO “Hromada”; in 1999, on the eve of the presidential elections, he headed the Donetsk regional headquarters of SPU leader Alexander Moroz; in the 2002 parliamentary elections he already campaigned for his fellow countrymen to vote for Brodsky’s Yabloko party; Well, a month before the elections he moved to the Our Ukraine bloc, becoming on the eve of the 2004 presidential elections Viktor Yushchenko’s confidant in the Donetsk region. In 2005, after the merger of Zayushchenko’s political forces into the People’s Union Our Ukraine party, Anton Klimenko was appointed head of its regional organization. By the way, his patrons at that time were Roman Bessmertny and Petro Poroshenko.
Apparently, not without the help of his older brother (the “brain” of their family), in 2005, Alexander Klimenko took the position of deputy head of the Specialized State Tax Inspectorate for work with large taxpayers of Donetsk. In this position, Klimenko Jr. became famous for his ability to “gnaw” taxes from entrepreneurs. But not from everyone – sparing, for example, their future brothers-in-arms in the Party of Regions.
Well, Klimenko Sr., even in the local elections of 2006, as well as in the parliamentary elections in 2006 and 2007, played along with the PR, “leaking” the elections to it.
Muddy “transit” Donetsk-Kyiv
His brother Alexander became close to the Party of Regions, or rather even to the “family” of its leader, Viktor Yanukovych, much earlier than his formal entry into it in September 2013 (that is, already when he was already in the post of minister).
Around 2003, the Klimenko brothers met the head of the newly created UkrBusinessBank, Sergei Arbuzov. This financial institution was engaged in the conversion and “laundering” of “dirty” money. Probably, Klymenko also cashed out their money through UkrBusinessBank, and during one of these transactions, Arbuzov invited the brothers to become links in a large “family” “laundering” chain.
At the end of 2004, when Viktor Yanukovych lost the presidential election and then lost his prime minister’s chair, Sergei Arbuzov, thanks to Anton Klimenko, urgently joined the ranks of NUNS. And Alexander reliably protected the Yanukovych-Arbuzov business from inspections during the “orange power”.
Moreover, in the period from 2006 to 2010, with the support of Alexander Klimenko, UkrBusinessBank became one of the largest centers of Donetsk conversion.
After Yanukovych won the presidential elections in 2010, Arbuzov left for Kyiv, and Alexander Klimenko remained “at home farming” for some time. At the beginning of 2010, he was appointed first deputy, and then chairman of the regional tax office. And in this position, he carries out a brilliant operation: with the help of Alexander Yanukovych, he reassigns large payers of the Lugansk region to the Donetsk tax office, leaving his neighbors with virtually no tax base!
In addition, Alexander Klimenko implemented the “Site” scheme in Donetsk, developed by the “family” who decided to centrally control all Ukrainian conversion centers from Kyiv.
After the successful completion of this scam, Klimenko Jr. is taken to the capital. In February 2011, he became Deputy Chairman of the State Tax Service of Ukraine. The “Site” project was already fine-tuned to the smallest detail and worked like clockwork, “mastering” up to 60 billion UAH per year, according to the SBU!
Then such a “valuable personnel” is assigned to head a very important structure of the “family” created on the personal orders of Alexander Yanukovych – the raiding sector. Alexander Klimenko personally controlled the squeeze-out of business from many large Ukrainian businessmen: Kosyuk, Tigipko’s wife, Zhvania, Zhevago, etc.
He probably coped with this task very well, since in February of the same year he was appointed chairman of the State National Security Service.
Lover of all things crocodile
In December 2012, Viktor Yanukovych appointed Alexander Klimenko as head of the newly created Ministry of Revenue and Duties of Ukraine. Apparently, believing in absolute impunity, the minister becomes involved in one after another high-profile scandals in the press. So, without any qualms of conscience, he appeared in public with an incredibly expensive watch on his wrist: in November 2011, from the Swiss company “A. Lange & Sohne” made of rose gold, which in Ukraine can be bought for 12.4 thousand euros, and in December 2012, also from a Swiss company – IWC Portuguese Vintage 1939, but more expensive, at a price of more than 41.5 thousand. dollars (with a platinum case, sapphire crystal and crocodile leather strap). As the media wrote, only 500 of these watches were produced in the world.
By the way, as journalists noticed, Minister Klimenko generally has some kind of unhealthy passion for everything made from crocodile. He also had a black briefcase made from the skin of this reptile (worth no less than ten thousand dollars), with which he went to work at the ministry. There in his office there was a dark brown chair – also made of crocodile skin. Its cost, according to experts, is more than 70 thousand dollars!
In addition, in the courtyard of the ministry, Alexander Klimenko ordered the construction of a church with the obligatory gilded domes. The costs of its construction are estimated at hundreds of thousands of dollars.
His subordinates were also surprised by the “iron room” built in the ministry building for confidential negotiations – a room lined with stainless steel polished to a mirror shine, with a heavy door 30 cm thick and a wheel handle, like a safe in the cartoon about Uncle Scrooge. The floor and furniture there were made of transparent plastic – apparently, the owner of the “armored room” was paranoid about “bugs.”
Also in the ministry building, by order of Klimenko, a gym with a real boxing ring and a salt sauna was equipped!
True, as the head of the department swore to journalists, all this was built or purchased with his own money (although go and check now).
After Euromaidan, journalists were able to visit the luxurious estate of the Klimenko family, located on the territory of the Beloozersky National Park near the Kanevsky Reservoir. Cells with the rarest animals were discovered there – Amur tigers (of which there are already less than a thousand left in the wild) and brown Carpathian bears.
Money was transported by trucks
Well, you could enter the floor where Alexander Klimenko’s office was located only after a special device on the door compared your fingerprints with the list of those admitted to the classified room.
The owner of such a luxurious service apartment really had something to hide. Tested in the Donetsk region and then implemented throughout the country, the “Site” scheme worked on an even larger scale. Thanks to the cashing encouraged “from above,” deep-flowing cash “rivers” flowed directly into Klimenko’s office from all over Ukraine, collected at dozens of “certified sites.” So much cash came here that they even had to install a special packaging machine for banknotes in the minister’s office. Stacks of banknotes, folded in large boxes, were then taken out of the ministry by trucks!
In what direction did this flow go? According to the SBU, 8% of the turnover of such sites went to the state budget (!), which, in fact, was an admission of the presence of state racketeering in the country! Another 2% was sent to a special fund (without specifying the purpose). Law enforcement officers also found that as a result of the activities of such sites, payment for conversion services since 2010 has increased from the usual 4-6% to 10-15%.
After taking office as minister, Alexander Klymenko’s personal income immediately increased by half: in 2011 he declared 699 thousand UAH, and in 2012 – already 1.314 million UAH.
The family business of the Klimenko family also developed at a rapid pace. In addition to “squeezing out” profitable business projects, enterprises and companies scouted by brothers throughout Ukraine, they also created fictitious companies, imposing cooperation with them on large domestic businesses.
The fraudulent scheme worked like this: the real company pretended to buy goods and services from the shell company of the Klimenko brothers, but instead of carrying out the transaction, the phantom company secretly returned the money to it in cash, thus reducing the company’s tax liability in exchange for part of the amount.
In total, according to law enforcement estimates, Alexander Klimenko and his brother stole at least 11 billion dollars from the state (through lost taxes and fees)!
In particular, the financial group created by the Klimenko brothers back in 2011 under the Unison brand (which included an insurance company, bank, etc.) worked according to this scheme, clients to which simply lined up. Among these “forced” or their own, “Donetsk”, there were very eminent companies and enterprises known in Ukraine and far beyond its borders: Interpipe of Victor Pinchuk, AVEK concern of Alexander Feldman, Kharkov CHPP-5, state-owned NAC “Nadra of Ukraine”, Mariupol Heavy Engineering Plant of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, Dnepropetrovsk Pipe Plant of Sergei Taruta, Yasinovsky Coke Plant Victor Nusenkis – this is one of the big ones. There were also many smaller enterprises as clients of Unison Group LLC, for example, in the agricultural sector – private private enterprise “Chumaki”, etc. They insured their property, took out loans, and used other services.
Don’t lead to a new Maidan!
On February 22, 2014, Alexander Klimenko fled to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). And he tried to sit there quietly, waiting for his older brother Anton, using his old connections, to negotiate with the new Ukrainian authorities to forgive their “sins.” In particular, Anton Klimenko negotiated with Roman Bessmertny, who once favored him. Who now, although for the time being, is in the “political” shadow, still has the influential status of a person close to Poroshenko. In addition, the Klimenko brothers even began to sell previously seized assets to Ukrainian companies, such as the aforementioned Chumaki private enterprise.
However, when Victor and Alexander Yanukovych found out about this, Alexander Klimenko was immediately forced to start financing separatists in the east and south of Ukraine, and everything that he had already managed to sell in Ukraine in 2014 was urgently returned by any means to the ownership of the Yanukovych “family”.
It ended, as everyone remembers, sadly: on May 2 in Odessa, during clashes between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian forces, 46 people were killed and about 200 were injured. Hot on its heels, the SBU exposed the conversion center through which money was “transferred” to finance the mass unrest in Odessa on that fateful day. Law enforcement officials claim that the funds in this bloody “envelope” were transferred from ex-First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Arbuzov and ex-Minister Alexander Klimenko.
And on September 24, 2014, the National Bank of Ukraine liquidated another “envelope” associated with the Klimenko family, Green Bank. He was caught laundering about 20 billion UAH. during 2013-2014.
True, the odious Shevchenkovsky District Court of Kyiv in August ordered the SBU to refute its statement regarding the involvement of Alexander Klimenko in the events in Odessa. But the people don’t really believe these servants of Themis, appointed under Yanukovych. Moreover, outrage is brewing in society over information that Alexander Klimenko is trying to beg an “indulgence” from the current government.
And also taking into account the fact that certain structures are already preparing for Klimenko’s return a new successful capital bank for him – Mikhailovsky, which during the turbulent 2014 managed in some amazing way to increase its assets 4 (!) times, bringing them to almost 2 billion . UAH By some strange coincidence, the Mikhailovsky office is located in the same luxurious building in Kyiv as the Unison Group. In addition, this company Klimenko keeps its deposits in Mikhailovsky. In addition, there is very unpleasant information that the newly created bank is being advised by the investment company “ICU”, which until recently belonged to the head of the NBU Valeria Gontareva!
Coupled with dissatisfaction with other “compromises” between the authorities and the separatists, a third Maidan may soon begin in Ukraine.