The week was marked by stormy financial activity: the fuss around the banks continues, and even Gontareva is unable to influence the situation. But the strange thing is: it turns out that a completely unknown person is able to stop the liquidation of a bank in an honest court order, and the head of the financial structure can only shrug his shoulders and demonstrate the growth of wealth only in his own pockets. However, this is typical of all major figures in power: Yushchenko and his wife did not hesitate to rob sick children, Avakov is busy clipping coupons from shadow structures, railway workers are openly stealing state money, Ukrnafta is rapidly becoming impoverished, and the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities turned out to be a structure that has no right to exist.
Skeletons in politics
It turns out that Ostap Bender’s bookish methods of pumping money out of wealthy people, carried out under the guise of helping children, have been implemented by domestic politicians. After a certain number of years, observers and journalists decided to inquire about the progress of the construction of the Children’s Hospital of the Future, for which former President Viktor Yushchenko and his wife Katerina had so intensively and loudly collected funds. Having discovered an unfinished foundation, abundantly overgrown with grass, on the site of the supposed miracle complex, stuffed with ultra-modern equipment and first-class doctors, they were surprised and tried to find out the fate of the collected third of a billion hryvnia. Alas, no one wanted to talk to them… which is not surprising, given the brand new commercial clinic with outrageous prices that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. Rumor has it that the rest of the funds were “mastered” by Yushchenko as banal bribes.
Not much time has passed since the National Commission for State Regulation of Energy and Public Utilities (NKREKU), which was supposed to reduce lawlessness in the aforementioned areas (at least that is how its creation was presented), has existed. But even during this modest period, its activities have caused genuine amazement among many, and the Supreme Court has doubts about the legitimacy of its existence: it seems that this structure was not only created illegally, but has no right to issue any decrees or decisions. It is quite significant that no one thought about this at the time when the relevant documents were signed.
Speaking of signatures, the scandalous truth-seeker Leshchenko has reappeared on the horizon, loudly declaring that in reality the right of veto belongs to none other than Interior Minister Arsen Avakov: allegedly, it is he who secretly decides which bills to pass and adopt, and which to ban and not to give them a go. Moreover, Leshchenko stated that Avakov does not do his job at all: instead, he supervises departments that have absolutely nothing to do with him and, of course, makes a good profit from this. However, little is listened to the mouthpiece from the BPP, because Leshchenko does nothing except such “revelations”. At least, he has not sent a single document to the prosecutor’s office, has not initiated a single court case, and has not provided evidence for his speeches.
Skeletons in law
The implementation of the legislative requirements for public procurement is carried out in a very strange way: the tenders are not at all transparent and honest, and the “competitors” participating in them often have a very murky past and a foul-smelling trail of a criminal nature. Recently, even the National Guard was noted in such deals, which required urgent repairs to a building: they did not hesitate to shell out almost 50 million hryvnia from the state pocket for it, choosing as a contractor a company not only with a dubious past, but also with the highest prices. One can only guess about the quality of the repair and the size of the kickback that the customers will wash out of this amount into their pockets.
The Dubnevich brothers
And the notorious “Ukrzaliznytsia”, the very existence of which is recognized by many as a mafia group, is not at all embarrassed to use the practice of tenders as a cover for fraud. Having colluded with a couple of firms that reek of crime and corruption schemes a mile away, its branches pay huge sums, rejecting other suppliers under ridiculous pretexts. And even the fact that overpayments are expressed not in units, but in tens of percent, does not bother anyone anymore. Apparently, such large specimens graze on the railway tracks that Ukrzaliznytsia no longer even has any reason to fear any sanctions. Through Argo alone, they managed to conduct at least half a billion hryvnia, and the firm Expozitsiya, owned by the Dubnevych family, is also involved in the case.
And again, Igor Kolomoisky is in the spotlight: it seems that he has become so convinced of his omnipotence and impunity that ignoring the state and its tasks has become a routine matter for him. For example, the almost 14 billion hryvnia of debt of his pocket company Ukrnafta did not serve as a convincing reason to participate in a significant meeting dedicated to solving this problem. By the way, the “honest, fair and very smart” top manager Mark Rollins, who was hired from the side, makes very honest eyes in this situation, throws up his hands and says “You know, there is simply no money! Ukrnafta does not have such funds!” And the members of Kolomoisky’s team, apparently, fully share this position, because none of them bothered to come. They just didn’t show up. Without notification, without explanation. Big deal, some kind of rehabilitation…
And a little bit about something pleasant: Anna Sandalova, a member of the Kyiv City Council, managed to prove that the construction of a residential building in Pozniaky, during which Lake Utynoye will be liquidated, was only possible due to machinations with the law: no joke, experts counted almost 20 violations of the law in the approved project! There is hope that Sandalova will be able to break the developer and prevent the destruction of the natural site.
Skeletons in Business
In fairness, it should be noted that not every bank has such an unenviable reputation: for example, Unison Bank had a mysterious patron who saved it from liquidation: the Deposit Guarantee Fund could not even file an application for its liquidation: this was prohibited by a court decision, and the identity of the plaintiff who initiated the case can only be guessed at.
Finally, information has appeared about the banks that were closed during Valeria Gontareva’s tenure: the chief financier deigned to personally shatter the hopes and aspirations of deceived depositors: more than 70 banks, sent into oblivion, took with them about 60 billion hryvnia from deposits of individuals and about 50 billion hryvnia from the accounts of small businessmen. Alas, all they can do is hope to receive the “guaranteed” 200,000 hryvnia. As for Gontareva, she doesn’t care about such statements: during her entire time at the helm of the NBU, the financial sector can only boast of solid “minuses” and losses. Oh, no, no: her own income, noted in the declarations, has grown considerably…
But why are we still talking about banks… It’s not easy for businessmen-MPs either: it’s no joke, since we’re talking about depriving them of immunity and immediately arresting them, there’s no point in worrying about business! Apparently, this is exactly how Alexander Onishchenko reasoned, who immediately rushed to prove that he is not a swindler and schemer, but an honest man, and in confirmation of this he is even ready to sell his business to pay off his debts. The question inevitably arises – was all this commotion solely an incentive to buy out the profitable enterprise from Onishchenko, and does Yuriy Lutsenko, who so quickly took up “punishing and eradicating” have his own interests in this?
The selection of top SKELETs (20-24.2016) was prepared by Semyon Gorotov