Anton Prigodsky: Yanukovych's first "grey cardinal"
He was the first person with unrestricted access to the Tel at any time of day, without appointment or knocking, even if he was holding government meetings or napping after a cocktail party. At the same time, he tried to remain the most inconspicuous of the Donetsk team, so many Ukrainians never realized the role Anton Prygodsky played under Viktor Yanukovych. In fact, many still didn't even know he existed! And yet, he still exerts influence on the country's processes.
Anton Prigodsky. "A Strong Manager"
In the 90s, such people were called "strong business executives": they came into business or government from the boardrooms of Soviet enterprises, maintaining a distinctive leadership style. Indeed, Anton Vikentyevich Prigodsky made his first successful career in the national economy of the Ukrainian SSR.
He was born on March 17, 1950, in the village of Zelenitsa, Yemelchynsky district, Zhytomyr region. When he finished eighth grade, his parents moved to Makiivka (Donbas), where he graduated from a construction technical school. After serving in the army, in 1970, Anton Prigodsky was already working as a construction site foreman at the Makiivshakhtostroy trust, which was quite a feat for a twenty-year-old. His subsequent biography, however, is somewhat convoluted. In 1974, he enrolled in the correspondence department of the Kharkiv Institute of Railway Engineers (now the Ukrainian State Academy of Railway Transport, UkrSAT), in the construction department. And in 1976, Prigodsky, who still hadn't earned a higher education, was appointed chief engineer (!) of the Makiivzhylstroy trust, which built housing for miners. At the time, this position was not only responsible (and required the appropriate qualifications), but also privileged—as the country was experiencing shortages of finished housing, building materials, and plumbing fixtures, and the "construction mafia" was thriving just as much as the trade mafia. However, there is no evidence that Prigodsky belonged to this mafia. In 1979, after receiving his diploma, Prigodsky returned to the Makeyevshakhtostroy Trust, where he became deputy director in 1980, and in 1984, he headed Department No. 13 of the trust.
Anton Prigodskyy started his business in 1988: at that time, various "cooperatives" were being established in the Donbas mines, primarily engaged in the supply of timber and building materials, as well as the sale of coal to small consumers. Prigodskyy went further and leased his own state-owned mine construction department to his own cooperative, and in 1990, he attempted to buy it. The venture ended in scandal, and the "privatized" enterprise was returned to the state through the courts, forcing Prigodskyy to find another job. This, however, wasn't a problem for him: with his established connections, in 1991 he became the head of his own design and construction firm, Monolith. According to unconfirmed information he received, Skelet.OrgThe company was involved in the construction of a residential complex for miners of the same name in Makeyevka. Construction, which began with the involvement of specialists from Yugoslavia, was abandoned in the mid-90s at the wall construction stage, and the fate of the $80 million allocated for it remains unknown.
Hunter friends
Anton Prigodskyy has been a keen hunter since childhood (although he was wary of going hunting after Kushnarev's death), and in the 90s he also developed a passion for clay pigeon shooting. He says it was at a shooting range in the summer of 1993 that he met another avid hunter—Viktor Yanukovych, director of Donetskavtotrans. Their relationship was purely friendly, and their families even became friends, but at the same time, the foundation for future business ties was being laid. Thus, Prigodskyy became part of Yanukovych's inner circle even before Yanukovych became governor of Donetsk.
When Yanukovych was promoted in 1996, Anton Prigodskyy also ascended to the next level in business: he became a co-founder and director of Embrol Ukraine Ltd., managing the company intermittently (during his term as a member of parliament) to the present day. A quick look at reference websites reveals that Embrol Ukraine Ltd. emerged as the management company of the Embrol Ukraine group, and its shares are owned by the offshore company Embrol Holdings Limited. Most interestingly, Embrol Ukraine Ltd.'s second founder was Lux CJSC, which was owned by Akhat Bragin (Alik Grek) until 1995 and then "inherited" by Rinat Akhmetov. Thus, Anton Prigodskyy's rise in the second half of the 90s essentially made him Akhmetov's business partner and integrated him into the Donetsk gang's business team. But here's the question: was it only because he was a friend of Yanukovych, who was then himself a dependent figure, or did the relationship between Prigodsky and Akhmetov have some other underlying motive?
Prigodsky once said that it was not Yanukovych who introduced him to Akhmetov, but Ravil Safiullin, a former doctor at the Makeyevka Sanitary and Epidemiological Station (1979-1990) and head of the occupational hygiene department (1990-1993), who signed acceptance certificates for Prigodsky’s work during the Soviet era and worked for him at Monolith as deputy commercial director in 1993-94.
Even then, Safiullin had such close ties with Alik Grek's Donetsk organized crime group that in 1994, Grek appointed him alongside him as vice president of FC Shakhtar. So, Safiullin could well have recommended the "smart guy" Prigodskyy first to Alik Grek and then to his successor, Akhmetov. However, Prigodskyy insists that he and Akhmetov only met in 1996—and before that, he allegedly only associated with Yanukovych among the Donetsk gang.
Ravil Safiullin
Anton Prigodsky and Rinat Akhmetov are a force to be reckoned with.
One of the first joint projects between Prigodskiy and Akhmetov was Lemtrans LLC, a joint venture between Embrol Holdings Limited and Akhmetov's System Capital Management. Immediately after its creation, the company received exclusive rights as the main freight forwarder for the Donetsk Railway, largely thanks to the purchase of a 49,96% stake in Ukrtransleasing (another 41,73% is owned by the State Property Fund and 2,33% by the Interregional Industrial Union corporation, headed by Prigodskiy). Lemtrans also became the main freight forwarder for the Mariupol seaport. In 1999, System Capital Management owned only 19,2% of the company's shares, so it was long believed that Prigodskiy oversaw rail transportation for the Donetsk group. However, by 2012, Akhmetov, who had consolidated the clan's business empire into his own hands, bought out Prigodskyi's stake in Lemtrans, increasing his stake to 100%. Just then, the company's annual net profit exceeded 480 million hryvnias, and its rolling stock numbered over 9,000 cars!
In addition, the following enterprises have gradually joined the Embrol Ukraine group:
Donbassnefteprodukt LLC (founded in 1997), specializing in petroleum product trading in the Donetsk region, including retail sales through the Parallel gas station network. Embrol Holding Ltd owns 57,75% of the company, and Leman Commodities SA (known as Metinvest International SA since 2007) owns 22,1%.
Kerch Switch Plant LLC (2002), which produces components for railway switches. Ukrtransleasing initially held a controlling stake in the company, but the shares later passed to Lemtrans. In 2014, Crimean authorities attempted to nationalize the company; in 2015, Akhmetov re-registered it in Russia (as a branch of Krasnodar Switch Company LLC).
Kerch Metallurgical Plant OJSC, which produces enamelware. In 2003, it was spun off from the Kerch Switch Plant into a separate enterprise, with Ukrtransleasing becoming the founder and 100% owner of the shares.
· Energougol PES, co-owned by Metinvest International SA (through DTEK LLC), Embrol Ukraine Ltd, ARS CJSC (Igor Gumenyuk), and Danko JSC (Sergey Momot). It was also a shareholder in First Fuel Company, which supplied fuel to Ukrzaliznytsia at inflated prices.
Kharkiv Coke Plant PJSC (2002), the only producer of foundry coke in the country. 100% of the shares were owned by Aromaservis LLC, 80% of which, in turn, belonged to Embrol Ukraine Ltd (later Prygodsky's offshore company, Carbo Trading Limited), and the remaining 20% were owned by Oleg Zhuravsky and Igor Krasinsky. In 2006, Thermolife PJSC, a mineral wool producer, was founded at the plant. In 2016, due to Thermolife's credit debts to Prominvestbank and Russia's Sberbank, the coke plant's shares were seized by the Kharkiv Commercial Court and transferred to Sberbank.
Embrol Engineering LLC, a design and construction company and possibly the successor to Monolith. The controlling stake is held by Embrol Ukraine Ltd, which owns it through Prigodsky's Interregional Industrial Union corporation (2000).
· LLC "Ukrainian Transport Operator Company", which is part of the "Interregional Industrial Union".
Naftagazstrakh (2007), which served as the main insurer for Ukrainian Railways until 2016. Among the company's founders and owners is the Austrian Trading and Shipping Logistics GmbH, 100% of which is owned by Anton Prigodskyi.
While building their joint venture, Prigodsky and Akhmetov ruthlessly destroyed competing enterprises. A case in point was the fate of the Makeyevka Switch Plant, which in 2002-2003 was not only driven to losses but also racked up significant tax debts. In 2004, the tax inspectorate seized and then sold some of the plant's key equipment (18 machine tools and presses), after which the plant was no longer able to resume full operations. The equipment, however, was immediately purchased by Kerch Switch Plant LLC for just 320 hryvnias (a fraction of its actual value).
Anton Prigodsky
The "overseer" of Crimea and the Prime Minister
Even during Yanukovych's governorship (1996-2002), Prigodskyy often visited him to resolve various business matters, so even then he had a reputation as someone "close to the Body." But when Yanukovych went to Kyiv to become prime minister, Prigodskyy found himself drawn to Crimea. This may have been due to the privatization of the Voikov Kerch Metallurgical Plant, which was later transformed into the Kerch Switch Plant and the Kerch Metallurgical Plant. However, Prigodskyy's interests in Crimea were not limited to this enterprise.
In 2002, Delfin-2001 LLC, founded and owned by Prigodsky's Interregional Industrial Union, took over the management of the Yalta sanatorium "Chernomorsky"—a former health resort for Soviet officials that had fallen into disuse in the 90s. This management culminated in the sanatorium's privatization in the summer of 2004—or rather, "grab-and-grab," as in 2005, a criminal case was opened under Article 364, Part 2 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code regarding this transaction, and Prigodsky was accused of causing 12,5 million hryvnia in damages to the state. In 2003, the Crimean Council of Ministers leased part of the adjacent Magarach winery to Delfin-2001 for 49 years.
In 2006, Yanukovych became prime minister for the second time, and Prygodskyy reached the peak of his influence over him. It was then that he began to be called the "gray cardinal" and compared to Viktor Medvedchuk (Read more about it in the article Viktor Medvedchuk: Putin's crony guarding Russia's interests in Ukraine), who previously held this role under Leonid Kuchma. And Prigodskyi used his influence to the fullest to regain a foothold in Crimea. For example, he facilitated the appointment of former Lemtrans CEO Volodymyr Kozak as CEO of Ukrainian Railways, and helped Yenakiyeve City Court Chairman Vyacheslav Ovcharenko obtain the robes of a Constitutional Court judge.
Meanwhile, Prygodskyy's name surfaced in the so-called "charter scandal" raised by journalists in December 2006. What happened was this: when Prime Minister Yanukovych went to the United States on an official visit, his son Viktor also wanted to "get away to America." He took several Party of Regions deputies, businessmen friends, and some women with him, caused a ruckus at Boryspil Airport (after which the airport's head of security was fired), and departed on a business-class charter flight that cost its employers over 200 euros. Moreover, he paid for the entire cost from the state budget, because Anton Prygodskyy, the organizer of this hilarious tour, had registered it as a "parliamentary delegation." However, the Party of Regions denied everything and generally played dumb, pointing fingers at each other and declaring they didn't know who exactly paid for this royal charter.
Prigodsky achieved even greater success in his personnel in Crimea: there, he insisted that his old acquaintance, Anatoly Pavlovich Gritsenko, the former chairman of the Leninsky District State Administration (Kerch), who had helped Prigodsky privatize the Voikov KMK OJSC, be included in the top five of the Party of Regions' parliamentary list for the March 2006 elections. He then facilitated Gritsenko's election as Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea. He then lobbied for the appointment of Anatoly Mogilev to the post of Head of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Crimea (more about him - Anatoly Mogilev: The Master of Crimea is a Traitor to Ukraine) – his longtime acquaintance, who headed the Makeyevka Department of Internal Affairs from 1995 to 2005. Thus, having placed his "business partners" in key positions, Prigodsky became the "overseer of Crimea."
Anatoly Pavlovich Gritsenko
The rest was a matter of legal technique. In 2007, Prime Minister Yanukovych signed a decree relocating Magarach to the middle of nowhere, and Delfin-2001 began to seize the vacated land. In early 2008, Prime Minister Tymoshenko rescinded Yanukovych's order, and then the Crimean Council of Ministers (at Gritsenko's request) terminated the old contracts and leased Magarach and Chornomorsky for 49 years to Family Type Pension LLC, founded by Lemtrans and Donbas Industrial and Transport Enterprise LLC (the latter associated with Oleksandr Yanukovych, aka "Sasha the Dentist"). After this, Pension LLC began rapidly seizing the surrounding territories, primarily the beach strip. In addition, the Crimean authorities allocated 112 hectares of land in the area of the nature reserve near Gurzuf to the company Antal-Krym, co-founded by Prigodsky, for the construction of a golf club.
Prigodskiy's most recent success on the peninsula was the promotion of his "manager," Alexey Boyarchuk, to mayor of Yalta. He served as director of Delfin-2001 from 2003 to 2006. His first move in his new position was to transfer part of the city beach to the Pensionat.
Anton Prigodsky. There are no former cardinals.
However, in the period 2010-2011, Prigodsky was pushed away from Yanukovych by new figures in the entourage of the now president: Viktor Fedorovich was closely taken into custody by Sergei Levochkin (more about it: Levochkin. "The Gray Cardinal" and his sister) and Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Yura Yenakievsky). Even his place on the Party of Regions list spoke of the decline of his influence and significance: if in 2006 Prigodsky was number 21, then in the 2012 elections he was only 53rd. And in 2011, he was awarded the Order of Yaroslav the Wise, 5th degree, and even then at the request of Vladimir Litvin (read about him - Volodymyr Lytvyn: Does Ukraine need a professional Judas?).
The results were clear. For example, his protégé, Anatoly Gritsenko, was dismissed from his post in 2011, arrested, and spent over a year in pretrial detention on charges of illegally confiscating land from the Azovsky military state farm (he was fully acquitted in October 2015). In 2012, Prigodsky began selling a significant portion of his business to Rinat Akhmetov—however, the exact reasons for this move are unknown, as by that time, some tensions had also arisen between Akhmetov and Yanukovych. The ownership of the Crimean "Pansionat" also changed—in 2012, it was taken over by five offshore companies: Rinsdale Investments Limited, AmeriDge Trading Limited, Lexington Holdings Limited, Milberg Holdings Limited, and Hanselton Investments Limited. And on its grounds, construction began on a grand "tea house" for Viktor Yanukovych. It was generally accepted that the territory seized by the "Pansionat" was originally intended to be a cozy recreation area for Viktor Fedorovich during his premiership, and Prigodsky merely covered for him by registering it in the name of his companies - but after Yanukovych became president, he decided not to be modest. However, Skelet.Org holds a different opinion: previously, Prigodsky, Yanukovych, and Akhmetov shared businesses and real estate, but after 2010, they began dividing them up. And Prigodsky was left with the least.
But Anton Vikentyevich managed to retain 112 hectares of land near Gurzuf, which he re-registered to his son Vitaly's Emporiy LLC: despite attempts to take the plot away (to invalidate the lease agreement), in 2013 the Crimean Commercial Court rejected a similar claim by the Crimean prosecutor's office.
The sale of part of the business and new profitable investments even increased his wealth: if in 2012 the Golden Hundred rating estimated Anton Prigodsky's capital at 212 million dollars, then in 2013 Focus estimated it at 530 million!
By the time President Yanukovych fled in five KamAZ trucks loaded with what appeared to be golden loaves of bread or ostriches, his former "grey cardinal" had simply been forgotten (the names of Levochkin and Ivanyushchenko were on everyone's lips, but not Prigodskyy's), so he had successfully adapted to his new life. He promptly left the Party of Regions (February 26), transferred all his Crimean real estate to his son Vitaly, who had accepted Russian citizenship, and re-registered part of his Donbas business in Kyiv. But not all: for example, Vitaly Prigodskyy's firm, Trading House Mosagroprom, based in Donetsk, continued to trade successfully with UkrOspirt even in the fall of 2014, when a bloody war was raging in Donbas. As the saying goes, while the president was moving his companies to a Panama offshore, Prigodskyy was transporting alcohol to Donetsk.
Moreover, in February 2016, Anton Prigodsky's oldest company, Embrol Holding Ltd., which had directly or indirectly participated in nearly all of his enterprises and undertakings, became a laureate of the Academy's annual "Golden Fortune" award ceremony, and its owner was ceremoniously presented with the silver medal "Honor. Glory. Labor."
Having contentedly adjusted his latest award on his chest, Prigodsky continued to ship alcohol to Donetsk, and coal from Donetsk to Ukraine. In light of the latest scandalous railway blockade by "patriots" demanding an end to all trade with the ORDLO, even at the cost of risking an energy catastrophe, it will be interesting to know that Donetsk coal was not only sent to Akhmetov's enterprises. Kharkiv Coke and Chemical, owned by Anton Prigodsky, was harshly criticized for "financing separatists" back in the summer of 2015. Moreover, at the same time, the Kharkiv public organization "Ecocide.Net" sent a written appeal to Interior Minister Arsen Avakov (Read more about it in the article Arsen Avakov: The criminal past of the Minister of Internal Affairs) and his advisor To Anton Gerashchenko, in which she pointed out, firstly, the ongoing pollution of the city’s environment by the plant’s emissions, and secondly, the purchase of raw materials (coal) on the territory of the “LDNR” and subsequent payments through the Russian “Sberbank”.
However, there was no response from the authorities: the plant continued operating in 2016, when it was transferred to Sberbank through artificially created debt and court proceedings. The scam continued: after selling shares in Kharkiv Coke Plant LLC and Thermolife PJSC to Sberbank, Prigodsky created new companies on the production facilities of these enterprises: Slobozhansky Coke Plant PJSC and Koksolit PJSC. These companies are now impatiently awaiting the politically infirm Kyiv government's decision to finally unblock supplies of Donetsk coal.
Sergey Varis, for Sklet.Info
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