Not long ago, Interpol cleared all suspicions from Viktor Yanukovych. The step is quite logical. If criminals who enjoyed the patronage of the Family are still roaming freely in Ukraine, and the authorities are doing nothing to stop their crimes, why then prosecute Yanukovych? Take, for example, the raider mercenary Alexei Zhmailo.
Many criminal cases have been opened against this person. However, he lives quietly in Ukraine and continues to participate in the schemes of two of the largest and most unprincipled raiders in Ukraine – Viktor Tatkov and Artur Emelyanov.
The former head of the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine, Viktor Tatkov, under Yanukovych, created a corruption vertical of several hundred judges in courts of various instances. Through them, he took away enterprises and other assets from their rightful owners. According to unofficial estimates, Tatkov “earned” more than $10 billion from judicial raiding. Tatkov’s judicial “team” is still in place and helps him rob the country. Tatkov’s deputy, Artur Emelyanov, was transferred to work in Kyiv from the Donetsk Economic Court in 2010. He participated and is participating in the described scheme as the main partner.
During and after the Maidan, Tatkov and Emelyanov did not run to Rostov; they did not take refuge in London, Monaco, Moscow. They continued to work according to the established business takeover scheme. As before, business owners were offered to donate part of their share for “protection.” Otherwise, a corporate conflict would begin with the participation of titushki, organized crime groups and law enforcement officers. Later, the case went through the authorities to the Supreme Economic Court, where everything was already ready.
Tatkov and Emelyanov provided legal grounds for the seizure and took away assets. So they squeezed out the Konstantinovsky plant “Crystal”, “Makeevsky department store”, “Mechanical plant “TOR”, hotel “Bratislava”, “Polymer Alliance LTD”, Donetsk Central Department Store, restaurant “Druzhba” in Konstantinovka, hotel “Shakhtar”, shopping center “Decor” Donbass”, Odessa “Stalkanat”, the largest manufactured goods market in Europe “7 kilometer” and dozens of other enterprises throughout Ukraine.
Over time, their schemes improved. They found accomplices in the country’s largest banks, which provided loans to the most attractive enterprises for raiders. With the help of these accomplices, they bought out the loan obligations of future victims from banks. They arranged bankruptcy for these enterprises and bought them for next to nothing. It was here that Zhmailo came on stage. In most of the scams of Tatkov and Emelyanov, he acted as a bankruptcy liquidator.
All of Zhmailo’s “arts” in the role of state liquidator are recorded in numerous acts, protocols and criminal cases. For example, based on the results of an audit of Zhmailo as an arbitration manager in a number of cases this year alone, a lot of violations were discovered.
In particular, Zhmailo did not provide written evidence of the acceptance of the bankrupt’s discovered property into his jurisdiction, or of his taking measures to ensure the safety of the bankrupt’s real and movable property. Did not provide written evidence of the determination of the further storage of the bankrupt’s archival documents in agreement with the specially authorized central executive body in the field of archival affairs and record keeping or the archival institution authorized by it. He did not provide written evidence of the establishment and conduct of individual bankruptcy cases of a number of enterprises with assignment of numbers in accordance with the nomenclature of cases of the arbitration manager, thereby violating many articles of the Law of Ukraine “On restoring the solvency of the debtor or declaring him bankrupt.”
In addition, Zhmailo deliberately underestimated the estimated value of the bankrupt’s property several times, so that this amount was only a few percent of the actual value of the enterprise’s assets. Often, the sale of property was carried out without an auction and not as a single property complex (although this is required by Part 5 of Article 44, Part 3 of Article 98 of the Law of Ukraine “On restoring the debtor’s solvency or declaring him bankrupt”).
Inspection commissions have repeatedly written in their reports that Zhmailo is acting recklessly, in violation of Ukrainian bankruptcy legislation and without taking into account the interests of debtors and their creditors. It would seem that this is a ready-made basis for criminal prosecution. But not only was Zhmailo not taken into custody, he was not even removed from his duties as state liquidator. He continues to bankrupt and sell off Ukrainian enterprises for next to nothing, which, through intermediary firms (Agon-Invest, Avis-Finance, Artem-Bank, etc.) are bought by Emelyanov and Tatkov.
The accomplices were not able to complete the bankruptcy of some enterprises as quickly as they would have liked. Thus, Zhmailo is listed as the liquidator of such enterprises as Construction and Installation Directorate Kurakhovenergostroy (a subsidiary of Donbassenergosroy LLC – Kurakhovo), AKM-2006 LLC (Donetsk), State Utility Enterprise of Green Construction (Donetsk), DOMINANTA STROY (Gorlovka), private enterprise Kramatorsk-Torg-Groceries (Kramatorsk). Court hearings for these companies last for more than one year.
It would seem that the prosecutor’s office and the SBU should be interested in this information. But as soon as law enforcement agencies begin to engage in the activities of Alexei Zhmailo, Arthur Emelyanov appears on the horizon. Emelyanov himself, by the way, is still a judge. According to various sources, he paid a bribe from 5 to 40 million dollars for changes in legislation that allowed him to bypass lustration and remain in his position.
So, Emelyanov comes to the investigator or judge with a tightly stuffed bag. Or even a bag. And it comes out without a package. After this, the investigators, as if by magic, lose all interest in Zhmailo’s personality. Criminal case materials mysteriously disappear. Judges’ decisions change. If the investigator or judge is stubborn and does not negotiate, Emelyanov goes to their superiors. With an even bigger bag. And the issue, sooner or later, is resolved as needed.
And Zhmailo, meanwhile, continues to bankrupt more and more new enterprises. Tatkov and Emelyanko continue to destroy the Ukrainian economy by buying up ruined assets. Security forces and special services continue to bravoly report on the fight against crime and separatism, without noticing the most terrible type of separatism: raider-economic.
Read also: Elusive swindlers: Emelyanov and Tatkov continue to rob Ukrainian businesses
Olga Obashidze for SKELET-info
