Alexey Pavlenko
During his first major press conference in 2016, President Petro Poroshenko announced the need to "reset" the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. This sparked a flurry of discussion and debate in the political arenas of our country. Some MPs are even taking a "radical" stance. They are calling for the resignation of the entire Cabinet, led by Prime Minister Yatsenyuk. Such a decision could be considered entirely justified, as the current government's actions confirm its incompetence and ineffectiveness. Several ministers have even announced their intention to resign – last year, this included Oleksandr Kvitashvili (Minister of Health) and Andriy Pyvovarsky (Minister of Infrastructure). This year, Agrarian Policy Minister Oleksiy Pavlenko joined them. He even submitted an official resignation letter. However, he did so reluctantly, under pressure from the leadership of Samopomich, whose quotas had placed him in the Cabinet. Pavlenko has no desire to leave his comfortable position, having spent a whole year perfecting his schemes for siphoning money from Ukraine's state budget through agricultural enterprises. So where did Oleksiy Pavlenko come from in the Ukrainian government, and why are the media calling him the "undertaker" of Ukraine's agro-industrial complex?
The Impeccable Path of a Businessman
Oleksiy Pavlenko was born in 1977 in Uman, Cherkasy Oblast. Pavlenko has a solid higher education. In 1998, he earned a bachelor's degree in economics from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. The following year, he earned a specialist's degree in financial management from the International Business School. It took him another year to earn a master's degree in foreign trade management from the Academy of International Trade under the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine. In 2001, he went to the Netherlands to study for an MBA at Naenrode University.
According to his official biography, Pavlenko's first job was at KPMG, where he provided audit and business consulting services. Apparently, he was quite successful, as by 2002 he had become a consultant to the board of directors of the Dutch company ABN AMRO. That same year, he was appointed head of restructuring and business development at the Dutch company Damen Shipyards Group. In 2004, he began working in Ukraine as CEO of the Rise Group, where he was responsible for strategic planning and financial control. In 2006, he was appointed executive director of Foxtrot. Home Appliances (owned by Valeriy Makovetsky). According to the publication Antikor, Alexey Pavlenko, together with Dutch citizen Vladimir Shulmeister, stole quite a bit during his time at Foxtrot:
In the following years, he successively became a member of the supervisory boards of Agroprogress and Zhitlobud. Around the same time, he became a partner in the investment fund Pharus Assets Management. It's also noteworthy that after his appointment as head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Pavlenko remained a member of Zhitlobud's supervisory board and continued his collaboration with Pharus Assets Management. In fact, he actively helped his "related" companies earn huge profits.
Pavlenko's revelations and promises in the Verkhovna Rada after taking office as minister
https://youtu.be/VuYhEu3L7BI
Influential patron
Those in the know say that the most important figure in the Ministry of Agriculture is not Minister Pavlenko himself, but his Samopomich party ally, Ivan Miroshnichenko. He is a member of parliament and also the chief representative of the transnational corporation Cargill in Ukraine. It is said that it was at Miroshnichenko's instigation that Pavlenko was appointed minister. They are linked by a partnership in the Pharus Assets Management fund. Furthermore, virtually every enterprise that was devalued as a result of Pavlenko's actions as minister was bought for a pittance by companies controlled by Miroshnichenko. It's worth noting that Valeriy Tomilenko, the former acting head of the State Food and Grain Company of Ukraine, also worked at Cargill, and Samopomich boasts a whole host of employees from that company.
Ivan Miroshnichenko
It's worth noting that Cargill and Oleksiy Pavlenko, who pushed through his ministry, were behind the controversial abolition of the export duty on sunflower seeds. Considering that during the period the duty was in effect, Ukraine became a world leader in sunflower oil exports. If all seeds were exported, Ukraine's only competitive industry could be destroyed.
The Corn Wars and the Stolen $7 Million
In 2012, China provided Ukraine with a $3 billion loan, intended to provide state guarantees for the implementation of major agricultural projects. Half of this amount ($1,5 billion) went to the State Food and Grain Corporation (SFGC). In exchange for these loan funds, Ukraine pledged to supply China with 4 million tons of corn per year. After the contract was signed, the directorship of this enterprise became the most lucrative of those controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture. The position was eventually won by Samopomich representative Valeriy Tomilenko (a former Cargill employee), who was later replaced by another political figure and former colleague of Oleksiy Pavlenko at the Rise company. Boris Prikhodko.
While acting head of the State Grain and Grain Corporation, Tomilenko, at Pavlenko's "request," signed a contract with Noble Resources SA (one of Ivan Miroshnichenko's entities) that resulted in massive losses for the state-owned company and embroiled it in a protracted international scandal that was barely hushed up. The contract concerned the purchase of a large consignment of corn, which was necessary to fulfill the terms of a contract with China. The total grain purchase was to be $13,117 million, of which $7,2 million was transferred as an advance payment in December 2014.
The main problem was that Noble Resources SA failed to provide GPZK with a single document confirming the corn grain's ownership. In effect, GPZK "gifted" Noble Resources SA $7,2 million. This fraud, to put it mildly, is simply "outrageous." The saddest part is that it was carried out under the cover of Minister Pavlenko. Not only did the state budget lose a significant amount as a result of this fraud, but the contract with China was also threatened. From the outside, this appears to be GPZK management directly lobbying for the interests of Noble Resources SA.
Now, to the main point. Globally, China is a strategic competitor to Cargill. If the contract between Ukraine and China is disrupted, Cargill will have an excellent opportunity to use Ukrainian cropland (contracted to China) for its own transgenic crops. This, in turn, will lead to China purchasing corn not from Ukraine, but directly from Cargill. If this happens, the company's financial dividends will amount to billions of dollars. Such is the "corn-grain war."
War for Ukrspirt
During Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Yura Yenakievsky) ran Ukrspirt. According to law enforcement, he used his protégé, Mykhailo Labutin (former deputy general director of Ukrspirt), to siphon off approximately 180 million hryvnias from the company. Quite a sum, isn't it? During the "regional" era, many frauds at Ukrspirt were successfully overlooked. After Viktor Yanukovych fled, Ihor Shvaika became the new Minister of Agriculture, surpassing the members of the "family" in the level of "inconspicuous" embezzlement of public funds from Ukrspirt. In short, everyone stole from this company.
With Pavlenko's appointment as head of the Ministry of Agriculture, a showdown between Samopomich and Svoboda began. Former head of the Ministry of Agriculture, Svoboda's Igor Shvaika, notorious for his alcohol-fueled scams, was unwilling to simply hand over his trough to Alexey Pavlenko. However, he didn't manage to resist the new minister for long—Samopomich fixers diverted the company's financial flows into their own pockets.
During the election of the new head of Ukrspirt, Pavlenko & Co. encountered some problems. Together with his former colleague at the Raiz company, Yaroslav Krasnopolsky, they attempted to almost openly rig the personnel competition. In late March 2014, the selection committee at the Ministry of Agriculture announced that the leading candidates for the post were Anatoliy Dalibozhik (then deputy director of Ukrspirt and a protégé of Pavlenko) and Nina Garkavaya (a protégé of Ivanyushchenko). Both of these figures have rather negative reputations. Dalibozhik was implicated in fraud at a distillery in the Ivano-Frankivsk region (he was even fired on criminal charges). Garkavaya, meanwhile, is a retiree who worked at the company when it was completely under Ivanyushchenko's control. Ultimately, Pavlenko was forced to cancel the election due to the resulting media outcry.
Alexey Pavlenko
It's worth noting that under Alexey Pavlenko's leadership of the Ministry of Agriculture, such competitions for vacant positions at state-owned enterprises under the ministry's control weren't exactly opaque; they were completely black. A simple process was used to select candidates at a given enterprise. If "friends" failed to make the cut due to serious competition, the minister would simply cancel the competition, claiming that none of the candidates were satisfactory. A new competition would be announced shortly afterward, but this time, "undesirable individuals" were barred from participating.
Today, Ukrspirt has no leader, meaning Pavlenko and his team can, if they so choose, carry out their "entertaining" schemes to siphon money from the state-owned enterprise. That's how good they are.
Now Oleksiy Pavlenko is peacefully waiting for the Verkhovna Rada to accept his resignation. Judging by his statements to the press, he's not troubled by the guilt over Ukraine's virtually ruined agricultural sector. We quote: "The decision to recall me is in no way connected to my work as minister." And while the crooks in the Ukrainian parliament play the innocent, awaiting their "fate," their criminal schemes continue to generate vast sums of money for their patrons.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info
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