How Zaporizhzhia crime boss Anisimov continues to siphon money from state-owned enterprises
Evgeniy Anisimov
One of the main "cash cows" of the exiled crime boss continues to be the Zaporizhzhia Institute of Oilseed Crops, where they "raked in" more than 10 million UAH over the past year.
If anyone thought the Yanukovych system had vanished into oblivion after the change of power, we hasten to disappoint you: the schemes for laundering budget funds that had been in place for years continue to operate successfully, and members of the "Family" are now doing everything possible to maintain the status quo. This is especially evident in the regions, where pillars of the old regime, having bribed local officials who, for unknown reasons, escaped lustration, continue to skim the cream of public enterprises for the benefit of their political patrons who have fled the country.
Zaporizhia stands apart in this regard. Under Yanukovych's rule, this utterly corrupt city became a true national legend—here, schemes to plunder the region reached their peak, and the scale of the slush fund shocked even the capital. The infamous Yevhen Anisimov oversaw the system of wholesale extortion of businesses and the theft of state property, thanks to whom the term "overseer" was constantly appearing in the national press right up until the Maidan. After the revolution, Anisimov disappeared abroad as easily as the owner of the "golden loaf," but the "overseer's" legacy lives on to this day. Through his men, Anisimov strives to maintain control over the most lucrative assets, which could generously fill the "family common fund" for years to come, which has been significantly depleted due to the financing of militants in eastern Ukraine.
Dry cleaning of the "watcher"
A classic example of such an asset is the Zaporizhzhia Institute of Oilseed Crops—a typical, seemingly unremarkable state-owned research enterprise employing around 150 people. The enterprise is state-owned, and, in theory, we should associate it with innovative breakthroughs in national agricultural crop breeding. However, there are two "buts." The Institute receives government funding and, most interestingly, controls hundreds of hectares of the most expensive land in Zaporizhzhia. This served as the main motivation for the Anisimov organized crime group, which seized the enterprise in 2013 by appointing its own man, Igor Shevchenko, as director.
Within a year, the enterprise had transformed from a research institute into a veritable "dry cleaner" for the "overseer's" dirty cash, through which land plots were brazenly stolen from the state and dirty money was "laundered."
After the change of power in the country, it seemed the company had been abandoned. On December 10, 2014, by order of the National Academy of Agrarian Sciences of Ukraine, a new manager, Serhiy Chekhov, was appointed director. Kyiv credits him with restoring order to the company and its development after the wholesale theft by Anisimov's protégés, Igor Shevchenko. But it was not to be. Already in December of last year, the Institute of Oil Crops was subjected to what was essentially a gangster takeover by the former director and Anisimov's henchmen from a tame security firm. Masked men, unknown to anyone, seized control of the company, barring the new director from their workplace and preventing higher-ups from conducting an audit. It became clear that Anisimov's gang and its thieving accomplices would fight for control of the company. This is unsurprising – the scale of the embezzlement of state property is such that each of them faces a hefty prison sentence under a number of articles of the Criminal Code. And much is already on the prosecutor's and court desks.
10 million scam
Until 2013, the Institute of Oil Crops was an ordinary state-owned enterprise staffed by professional scientists. They were engaged in agricultural research and, like any public sector employee, relied on the state. Money, as always, was tight, but people had jobs, and during any political discussions, local officials could easily boast that Zaporizhzhia had a whole team of agricultural specialists. But after the arrival of new director Igor Shevchenko, the company's actual activities began, to put it mildly, to diverge from its declared activities—the institute was transformed into a real business asset and began to generate considerable profits.
Let's start with the scheme's originator. The idea was handed to Anisimov by his own loyal minions—Vasyl Polyusov, Oleksandr Muzychuk, Igor Aksyonov, and Ivan Gomenyuk—through their son Oleksandr. The latter two subsequently remained deputies to Shevchenko, who was used largely as a window dressing, and the main implementers of the scheme. Shevchenko's appointment was secured through Polyusov, who then headed the Khortytsia district headquarters of the Party of Regions, and Andriy Revutsky, director of the agro-industrial development department of the Zaporizhzhia Regional State Administration. Oleksandr Muzychuk, who headed the Institute's subsidiary, DP DG "Elitnoye," is the same city council member associated with the recruitment of thugs and mass beatings during the height of the Maidan. Shevchenko himself was known for his "successful" leadership of the Institute of Livestock Mechanization, which he plundered using the same methods.
The Anisomovites immediately got their bearings and developed two main tools for earning money.
The first involved cashing out money through the provision of fictitious services involving Anisimov's companies. The Kommunarovsky District Police Department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is currently investigating the laundering and misappropriation of 500 hryvnias used in this scheme.
The second, and far more extensive, is the land grab. Over 700 (!) hectares were "squeezed" from the Institute of Oil Crops in just one year. Certain instances of this brazen appropriation of state property have already attracted the attention of law enforcement agencies. For example, Shevchenko's deputy, Igor Aksyonov, was given a two-year suspended sentence for illegally transferring a plot of land to Anisimov's company, PP "Lux." And that's just one instance. Currently, the Zaporizhzhia District Police Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine is investigating a criminal case regarding the illegal transfer of 42 hectares of land to sole proprietor Shvidenko. Such deals involving "preferred" individuals were routine under the former leadership.
Preliminary estimates alone place the total damage to the state from Shevchenko and his company's activities at 10 million hryvnias. And that's just for the year the scheme was in operation. However, it's worth giving the "supervisor" people their due – they worked across the board and didn't shy away from anything.
What's there to say when, from July to September last year, Shevchenko and Gomenyuk allocated 559 (!) thousand hryvnias for "travel expenses" from the institute, which is practically idle. These guys clearly traveled half the globe, securing lucrative contracts for their company.
Shevchenko's "successful" management of the enterprise is confirmed by the fact that, at the height of Russia's annexation of Crimea, he used his deputy for science, Aksyonov, to export part of the country's intellectual property—a derivative of a rapeseed hybrid—to Russia. Aksyonov personally traveled to Russia at the time and later boasted that he was offered a penthouse and lucrative work there in exchange for blatantly betraying his own country. But the war in the East took its toll, and the petty swindler Aksyonov never fully secured the transfer of the breeding material.
The apotheosis of this insanity was the search of Gomenyuk's home by law enforcement on December 27, 2014. The modest deputy director of the institute for the production and—attention—implementation of scientific developments was found to be in possession of 4 million hryvnias and $1,4 million in cash. Now, apparently, Gomenyuk is frantically explaining to investigators exactly what scientific developments he plans to spend this money on, money he obviously took for safekeeping in his modest abode.
Bribery, blackmail and lawlessness
Today, after the appointment of a new director and the opening of a number of criminal cases against the Anisimov gang, the swindlers are unable to calm down and are desperately clinging to any opportunity to avoid responsibility and maintain influence over the enterprise.
The traditional methods of the "overseer" are being used: bribery, blackmail, and lawlessness. Apparently, the boss, stationed abroad, has given his men the order: either preserve the asset or go to jail. Therefore, from the very moment Sergei Chekhov was appointed the new director of the institute, everything has been done to prevent the new leader from taking his place. Currently, the enterprise is being artificially blocked by Anisimov's private security company, Yavir-2000, and propaganda and intimidation campaigns are carried out on the staff daily. The stick—fire them, find them, bury them. And the carrot—a 1000 hryvnia bonus and food packages (cigarettes, beer, food). The Anisimovites, who traditionally view people as nothing but cattle, have never known how to work any other way.
To block the legitimately appointed Sergei Chekhov, the statutory documents and seal were even stolen, which clearly illustrates the petty criminal inclinations of the "overseer's" frightened "sixers."
Nevertheless, the new management managed to restore the documents and prove its legitimacy: the Ordzhonikidzevsky District Court dismissed Shevchenko's lawsuit, which alleged the illegality of his dismissal. Now it's up to law enforcement agencies to free the enterprise from the grip of what is essentially a criminal-revanchist regime, who are fiercely defending the interests of the "overseer" and their own freedom. The new management plans include a large-scale audit, which will surely reveal the true scale of corruption at the institute, and comprehensive work with the staff, who have been intimidated to the point of death by the "overseer," depriving them of any hope of working properly.
The history of the Institute of Oilseed Crops is just a telling example of how deeply entrenched the dictatorial system of Yanukovych and his loyal vultures has become in Ukraine. And to uproot it from Ukraine, it will take more than just expelling its former leaders—a huge number of servile clerks of the system remain within, continuing to drain the country of its last reserves.
The material was submitted to the "Submit SKELETa" section.
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