Due to the fact that our government declared a fight against corruption and began with the demonstrative detention of two officials right at a meeting of the Cabinet of Ministers, we decided to begin forming a rating of Ukrainian corrupt officials. Let us remind you: on March 25, live, right at a government meeting, security forces spectacularly arrested two officials, suspected of corruption. The head of the state service for emergency situations, Sergei Bochkovsky, and his deputy, Vasily Stoetsky, were detained.
These two, as law enforcement officers assume, organized a corruption scheme for the tender purchase of fuels and lubricants for the State Emergency Service, including for rescuers working in the ATO zone. At the same time, companies that offered lower prices were not allowed to participate in tenders.
Part of the funds received under this scheme were then transferred to the personal accounts of Bochkovsky and Stoetsky, opened in offshore companies in Cyprus and Jersey.
Anticipating the reaction of journalists and the public, Prime Minister Yatsenyuk hastened to assure: this is not a demonstration event, not a circus, but a real, real fight against corruption.
Ukrainians are traditionally skeptical of such performances – people are accustomed to the fact that the fight against corruption in Ukraine is not a process of catching and punishing thieves, but beautiful election promises. From Yushchenko’s cinematic assurance “bandits sit in prisons” to the more modern “live in a new way.”
I would like to believe that in Ukraine there are Don Quixotes who will really fight against windmills, that is, against corruption, which, unfortunately, continues to bloom wildly – despite the Revolution of Dignity and the war with Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). We suggest recalling the most odious personalities that Ukrainians associate with corruption on an especially large scale.
First placeof course, a lover of golden loaves and ostriches, a former inhabitant of the “megafat”, and now a Russian illegal immigrant Viktor Yanukovych. According to the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine, during his reign the fugitive dictator stole “only” $100 billion from the state.
Second place remains for Pavel Lazarenko – without exaggeration, the name of this man is still inseparable from the concept of theft on an especially large scale. Although, it is possible that in the modern history of Ukraine a figure will appear who will overshadow Lazarenko. The former prime minister of Ukraine was among the ten most corrupt world leaders, a list of which was presented by the World Bank several years ago. Only according to a rough estimate, this talented statesman during the two years of his premiership in 1996-1997, Lazarenko stole about 200 million dollars. There was also talk of laundering a comparable amount.
“Bronze” we give our shameful rating to the former prosecutor Victor Pshonka (he is now on the run and wanted). “If you stole money, return it to the state and people, and bear responsibility in strict accordance with the requirements of the law. The law must and will be the same for everyone – for members of the government, and for people’s deputies, and for prosecutors and judges,” Pshonka told the media in 2010, summing up his work and declaring the priorities of the work of prosecutors.
As they say, he “naked” – his luxurious property, acquired through back-breaking labor, was returned to the people, but responsibility “in strict accordance with the requirements of the law” has not yet worked out. Well, Ukrainians are a patient people… The scale of the theft of the ex-prosecutor general is difficult to assess; we will give only a few facts. One of them, confirming that high-ranking officials consider state property to be theirs: fleeing from popular anger, Pshonka stole a company car.
Fourth position we give it to the Ukrainian “Koreiko”, a lover of “lakshari” watches Eduard Stavitsky. The former Minister of Energy is wanted, and Ukrainians remember him mainly for his tight-fistedness and thriftiness. The GPU found 12 apartments and a three-story mansion in Kyiv from former Energy Minister Eduard Stavitsky. As of May 2014, only one plot of land was registered to Stavitsky himself in the village of Zabuyannya near Kyiv.
Stavitsky’s wife Elena owns four apartments, one of them in Passage on Khreshchatyk, and Stavitsky’s son owns six apartments, mostly in the center of Kyiv. The high-ranking mother-in-law was not left without real estate: a three-story house near the Botanical Garden and an apartment on Khreshchatyk were registered in her name. The property of Stavitsky’s mother-in-law was spared arrest.
In addition, everyone remembers the unforgettable shots with a bunch of expensive watches and stacks of banknotes – the wealth was discovered in Stavitsky’s bins. In four apartments, $4.8 million was found unpacked from American wrappers, 49.8 kilograms of gold and a huge amount of jewelry and watches – the price per item reaches 600 thousand dollars.Fifth position our rating (it will be continued) will be given to the former Minister of Energy Yuri Boyko. One of the largest scams of the Yanukovych era is associated with his name. Let us remind you: the purchase of the notorious “Boiko towers” caused damage to Ukraine of 200 million hryvnia.
“It was established that in 2011, officials of NJSC Naftogaz, PJSC GAO Chernomorneftegaz and the Ministry of Energy and Coal Mining were reliably aware that the purchase of jack-up floating drilling rigs “Sea Platforms” was carried out at inflated prices, acting in prior agreement among themselves, as well as with unidentified persons entered into an agreement with foreign companies Highway Investment Processing and Riga Shipyard for the purchase of 2 platforms, as a result of which the state suffered damage in the amount of more than 200 million hryvnia,” the Prosecutor General’s Office reported in this case. It is noteworthy that Boyko himself is involved in this case… witness, and the defendants in the “towers” case, Boyko and Bakulin, according to journalists, are completing the construction of luxury mansions in an elite suburb of Kyiv. This is the fight against corruption in a new way…