Alexey Lyubchenko
Ukraine has long had a nasty tradition of handing over the tax service to all sorts of crooks, and the new government hasn't broken it. Having dismissed the notorious "converter" from his post as head of the State Tax Service, Sergei VerlanovZelensky's entourage decided to replace him with the notorious "schemer" Alexey Lyubchenko. He has extensive experience working in the tax department, from which he was repeatedly expelled. But each time, Lyubchenko, through various tricks, managed to return, striving for a higher position – and now his lifelong dream has come true! Apparently, this is what true "professionals" look like to the "servants of the people"...
Alexey Lyubchenko. Between two areas
Alexey Nikolaevich Lyubchenko was born on September 21, 1971, in the village of Orlovets, Horodyshche district, Cherkasy region. He never spoke of his early years, but it is known that, having successfully avoided the military draft board, he went to Kyiv to pursue higher education after finishing school.
For his studies, Lyubchenko chose one of the most privileged universities of the time: the Kyiv Institute of National Economy. During Soviet times, this was the only way to secure a position in the trade system and access to the distribution of scarce goods. But during his studies, much changed: the institute was renamed the Kyiv National University of Economics, and the socialist economy was replaced by a wild market. Lyubchenko was forced to recalibrate his priorities, which led him to join the supporters of Vladimir Lanovoy, who headed the Center for Market Reforms (CMR) in Kyiv.
Vladimir Lanovoi
Perhaps Lyubchenko made his choice for ideological reasons, or perhaps for selfish reasons, since in the early 90s, Lanovoy was a very promising politician: in 1992, he served for several months as Deputy Prime Minister for Economics in Fokin's government, and in 1994, he ran for president and won the parliamentary elections in the 17th single-mandate constituency. And his Center for Market Reforms was one of the first major "non-governmental organizations" in Ukraine, supported by both Western grants and "donations" from domestic proto-oligarchs (who were busily robbing the country and its people). And it was in the office of the Center for Market Reforms that university graduate Lyubchenko landed his first job. Perhaps, by "sticking" to Lanovoy, Lyubchenko could have achieved greater heights much earlier, but just a few months later, in 1994, he popped out like a cork from a bottle—back to his native village, forgetting the capital for fifteen years. A scandalous story was connected to this: either he had seriously set up Lanovoy, or even "stole" someone's money. But Lyubchenko himself studiously keeps this matter quiet, and doesn't even mention his work at the CRR in his biography.
It's worth noting that full-time employees of grant-eating organizations, as well as grant recipients, were considered by grantors (Western institutions) as a "personnel reserve." Therefore, it's possible that this also played a role in Lyubchenko's current appointment—as it has helped him before.
Returning from Kyiv with a dejected head, Oleksiy Lyubchenko finally found a job in his field: he took a job as a senior economist in the executive committee of the Smela City Council (a neighboring district center). There, he quickly rose through the ranks, heading the municipal property department by 1995, and in 1998, he became deputy mayor for executive bodies and head of the economics and property department. It was then that he acquired his first apartment (55 square meters) in Smela, which he still owns (according to his declaration).
In 1999, Oleksiy Lyubchenko unexpectedly moved to Kirovohrad (now Kropyvnytskyi), where he was invited to serve as deputy chairman of the regional State Tax Administration (STA). From that moment on, his career as a tax official began! But who exactly invited him and why remains unknown. It's worth noting that several regional state administration chairmen had changed in the Kirovohrad region in the space of a year. First, in February 1999, the newly appointed Mykhailo Bashkirov was killed in a car accident—rumor had it that the accident was staged. His replacement, former Emergency Situations Minister Valeriy Kalchenko, was removed from his post and sent "into exile" in November of that year: ostensibly because the region had voted overwhelmingly for Symonenko in the presidential election, but in reality due to a series of scandals. And already in late 1999, the region was headed by Vasyl Motsny, a loyal "Kuchmist" and member of the People's Democratic Party, who was promoted to the Cabinet of Ministers in 2003. After the first Maidan, Motsny was fired, but he had a strong lobby, and in 2007, Yushchenko reappointed him head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration. But in 2009, he was dismissed due to the high-profile Lozinsky case.
Vasily Motsny
Lyubchenko's relationship with Motsny also remained behind the scenes, but it is known that as soon as Motsny left for Kyiv for a promotion, Lyubchenko also left the region—he was appointed head of the Cherkasy Regional State Tax Administration. It's possible that Motsny lobbied for his promotion, but numerous sources Skelet.Org They claim Viktor Tymoshenko helped him with this. Their relationship began in the late 90s: back then, Tymoshenko, as CEO of Pinekl LLC and chairman of the board of LegBank, set his sights on the Smila Sugar Refinery, gaining control of it (the refinery was the last producer of citric acid in Ukraine, ruined and destroyed in 2015). In 2002, Tymoshenko became head of the State Tax Administration's Department for Large Taxpayers and could well have appointed his old friend Lyubchenko as head of the tax office in Cherkasy Oblast, overseeing his enterprises. So, he earned the image of "Viktor Tymoshenko's enforcer," as Lyubchenko is known today, even back then.
Viktor Timoshenko
In Cherkasy, Lyubchenko's first move was to acquire a second apartment. However, his tenure as head of the regional State Tax Administration lasted only a short time, until 2005, although he managed to become "famous" for his tax schemes, including VAT refunds. Almost immediately afterward, he created Azot LLC (then still owned by To Alexander Yaroslavsky) such tax "benefits" that the company was re-registered from Kharkiv to Cherkasy. The scale of its operations was demonstrated by the fact that just one agricultural company from the village of Kapustino was illegally refunded 21 million hryvnias in VAT! A criminal case was even opened on this matter.
It was also during this time that companies such as Ukragrokhimholding PJSC (EDRPOU 32735896) and Khors Grain Company LLC (32418388) were established in Cherkasy Oblast and registered with the State Tax Administration. Their founders were the previously established Cherkasy-based Eco-Azot PJSC (31489809) of Kharkiv businessman Sergei Liskovsky. These companies are, one might say, close to home for Alexei Lyubchenko, as he and his wife, Oksana Lyubchenko, subsequently earned their living from Ukragrokhimholding for several years.
Like many Ukrainian officials, Oleksiy Lyubchenko is also a "victim of two revolutions" (as journalists dubbed him). Soon after the first Maidan, a series of criminal cases were opened in the wake of his rampant corruption. Lyubchenko, blaming his deputies for the blame, quickly resigned and fled back to Kirovohrad, where he found a job at the regional state administration as an assistant to the head of the patronage service. He was assisted in this by the new "orange" regional governor, Eduard Zeynalov, who was called an oligarch's protégé. Tretyakov и Martynenko.
Alexey Lyubchenko - “Lesik the Looker”
After keeping a low profile for several months, Lyubchenko began rebuilding his career. It seems his status as a Western "personnel reserve," which he had almost forgotten by then, came in handy. In 2006, Vadym Chernysh became the new head of the Kirovohrad Regional State Administration. Today, Ukrainians know him primarily as Poroshenko's controversial Minister for Temporarily Occupied Territories (2016-2019), under whose wing budget embezzlement and smuggling flourished. Back then, Chernysh was still a little-known lawyer, an activist in the Orange Revolution, and a trusted confidant of Viktor Yushchenko, as well as a recipient of grants from American "democratic institutions." Perhaps they recommended that he hire Oleksiy Lyubchenko as his deputy, whom Chernysh may have known since the 90s at the Center for Market Reforms.
But in 2008, Alexey Lyubchenko's biography suddenly ends with a gap he somehow failed to fill—except for a fragmentary mention of "doctoral studies at the Council for the Study of Productive Forces of the Academy of Sciences." This is nonsense, since before enrolling in doctoral studies, Lyubchenko would have first had to complete postgraduate studies and obtain a candidate's degree—which he does not have. Clearly, accustomed to lying and covering his tracks, Lyubchenko simply "fabricated" something again. Nevertheless, in 2009, he returned from obscurity with a new, high-ranking position as deputy head of the State Tax Administration, having secured the position through the party quota from OU-NS (the "Our Ukraine" party included Viktor Tymoshenko and Volodymyr Lanovoy). Moreover, this time he even surpassed his patron, Tymoshenko, who, in 2008, again headed the Department for Work with Large Taxpayers of the State Tax Administration, and then headed regional customs offices (Lviv, Vinnytsia, and Crimea).
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Alexey Lyubchenko: The Old Scheme Master's New Job. Part 2
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