Vyacheslav Suprunenko. The eminence grise of Chernovetsky’s “young team” returns

Interpol has not been looking for Leonid Chernovetsky’s former son-in-law Vyacheslav Suprunenko for a long time. The media became aware of this on December 1: it turned out that he had been removed from the wanted list back in May last year. Vyacheslav Ivanovich was abroad for almost three years, however, despite the search, he did not feel any particular difficulties in moving – at different times he was seen in Greece, Bulgaria, Italy, Switzerland and even Poland. It looks like he has impressive connections, even if Interpol didn’t dare touch him. Who is Vyacheslav Suprunenko really?

Vyacheslav Suprunenko and Alexander Suprunenko: “An apple from an apple tree…”

Was born Suprunenko Vyacheslav Ivanovich in June 1976. After studying at the Kiev Technical School of Transport Construction, he received higher education at the KNU named after. Shevchenko. In his youth, together with his older brother Alexander, he was detained by the police for “group hooliganism.” Since then, he has been listed in the police database as a “malicious hooligan.”

In his youth, their father Ivan Suprunenko, like our former president, stole hats at the station. It is not surprising that once he got into a leadership position, he did not lose his thieving tendencies. Ivan Suprunenko, having come to the post of deputy head of the Kyiv reserve of conductors based at the Kiev Passenger station in the 80s, established control over the huge staff of the Kyiv reserve of conductors (about 4 thousand personnel) by raider. By intimidating his subordinates, he actually forced them to work for him. Anyone who wanted to continue working as a guide was required to bring him a significant bribe. They say that the famous crime boss Vakhtang Ubiria, known among bandits as “Vakha,” helped to intimidate and control Suprunenko’s guides.

His father’s “exploits” in the criminal field helped the Suprunenko family amass good start-up capital, with which they founded more than a dozen interconnected companies. In order to give their business weight, they even attracted foreigners. One of them was Guinean citizen Carlos Nunez (S.A.K. Connection company), and the second was naturalized German Gleb Lyubomirsky (Svit Blagodi, Orient Express companies). The main focus of their firms was the provision of legal services, sale and rental of premises, and construction. Thus, Orient Express specialized in wholesale sales of bed linen, and another of their enterprises, Rentex, provided services for the rental and sale of real estate.

Vyacheslav Suprunenko. “Marriage of convenience”

Vyacheslav Suprunenko and his family managed to expand their business even more after marrying Leonid Chernovetsky’s daughter Christina. With the advent of Lenya Kosmos and its “young team” to power in Kyiv, a total land grab began. It was headed by the key personalities in Chernovetsky’s team – Vyacheslav and Alexander Suprunenko. Suprunenko Jr., being a deputy of the Kyiv Council, became the so-called “gray eminence” of Chernovetsky’s team. Together with their brother, they were the main initiators of raider takeovers and forced privatization of several hundred state-owned enterprises and municipally owned enterprises. In particular, they took control of the shares of the municipal enterprises “Kievmlyn”, “Kievkhleb”, “Kievkhimvolokno” and even a controlling stake in “Kievgorstroy” (which, however, they failed to retain – the team of Viktor Yanukovych, who came to replace Chernovetsky, did not gave). With all these “exploits” in the field of “municipal theft,” it is very strange that Vyacheslav Ivanovich was put on the wanted list because of a completely different matter.

Why was Interpol looking for him?

In 2005, they, together with the head of the Chernovetsky Bloc faction, Denis Komarnitsky, beat up lawyer Ivan Grantsev, taking away from him documents allegedly incriminating them in theft, and a large sum of money, the total amount of which, according to media reports, was about 20 thousand dollars.

The incident happened on the premises of the Bureau of Technical Inventory, where Grantsev intended to register ownership of the Kniga company (formerly the Oktyabr factory). So, representatives of the “young team” Komarnitsky and Suprunenko also fought for the same enterprise. Vyacheslav Ivanovich eventually regretted the fact that he swung at this enterprise – it turned out that Ivan Grantsev is a business partner of Andrei Portnov (a close associate of Yanukovych, who at one time served as deputy head of the APU).

In the years when Chernovetsky’s positions were strong, the matter was hushed up. But, with the coming to power of Viktor Yanukovych and the appointment of Viktor Pshonka as Prosecutor General in 2011, the case was raised again (apparently Andrei Portnov is too vindictive, does not forget old grievances). As a result of the investigation, Komarnitsky was detained and sentenced to 6 years of suspended imprisonment. But Suprunenko had to urgently flee abroad, where he spent more than three years enjoying the looted assets. By the way, in the same 2011, the SBU sent materials to the prosecutor’s office on the case of illegal acquisition of municipal property in Kyiv by Vyacheslav Suprunenko’s structures. The case involved the aforementioned enterprises “Kievmlyn”, “Kievgorstroy”, as well as “Kievvodokanal” and the Khreshchatyk bank. According to the investigation, enterprises artificially lowered the value of their own shares through additional issues, after which the Kyiv authorities “voluntarily” transferred them to businessmen. It is noteworthy that all such operations were carried out through the New Region company, whose owners were Suprunenko.

An interesting coincidence: the name of Vyacheslav Suprunenko disappeared from the search immediately after the same Andrei Portnov fled to Moscow, from where he is suing the Ukrainian authorities in European courts over the sanctions imposed on him at the request of the current government of Ukraine.

During Euromaidan, Suprunenko tried to quietly squeeze out the Kiev Hippodrome, but he failed. He didn’t give up trying, and perhaps that’s why the hippodrome is now being rocked by problem after problem: either creditors are pressing because of debts, or they intend to build a shopping center in its place, or something else. It looks like deliberate actions aimed at underestimating its real value in order to buy it for pennies.

_____________

In the meantime, the prosecutor’s office and the Ministry of Internal Affairs are figuring out what to do with the “case of Vyacheslav Suprunenko,” he is actively establishing connections with the politicians and businessmen he “needs” in Ukraine, in which his brother Alexander, who was elected to the Verkhovna Rada of the 8th convocation, selflessly helps him in early parliamentary elections. Moreover, he got there using Chernovetsky’s old schemes – through bribery and bribes. They even opened criminal proceedings against him for bribing voters in the 216th district in Kyiv. The irony of this situation is that after entering the Verkhovna Rada, he became a member of the committee on legal policy and justice. In the meantime, the man who actually directly bought votes to enter parliament is engaged in “justice,” his brother calmly returns to Ukraine to perform new “feats.”

Dmitry Samofalov, for Skelet.Info

Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – only dossiers, biographies and compromising evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!