Gennady Kernes
Gennady Kernes is emptying the budget of the "second capital" with impunity before his likely escape.
According to the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office, multi-million-dollar thefts were committed at Zhalkomservis, the Kharkiv municipal enterprise that collects utility bills from Kharkiv residents. Law enforcement officials estimated the theft at a whopping 25 million hryvnias.
For comparison, in 2013, police investigated a case of embezzlement of 165 hryvnias involving City Council member Dmitry Marinin, who worked at Zhilkomservis as the head of the housing maintenance and repair department. The only difference in these cases is that Marinin first had a falling out with Mayor Gennady Kernes, and only then did the criminal case arise. In this case, the prosecutor had no quarrel with Gennady Adolfovich. Although I could have missed something.
If the 25 million case is practically no case, there's further evidence to support this. Currently, sources close to the Kharkiv mayor unanimously claim that all budget payments are going into the pockets of this reputable crime boss, "Gepa."
For example, all insurance premiums paid by bidders in the Kharkiv real estate auctions were not returned to any buyer, instead of being returned to the losing bidders or included in the purchase price.
Everything went into the Gepa coffers. Just like all the money Kharkiv residents pay to the now-infamous Zhilkomservis utility company for utilities. More specifically, just like all the money anyone you know thinks they pay into the Kharkiv city budget.
On December 24, activists from Kharkiv's Euromaidan protests gathered to picket the city council session. They will protest sudden power outages in various parts of the city. It's understandable: when power goes out in every building without exception—even in schools, kindergartens, and hospitals—and electric transportation grinds to a halt, there's no reason to celebrate. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. When Kharkiv declares bankruptcy, all utilities will cease to function—not only will power disappear, but water, heat, sewerage, and other amenities will be lost as well.
Incidentally, KharkivEnergo's management vaguely attributes the current power outages to some debts that have accumulated over many years. But no one had ever heard of these same debts in the past. The power company never mentioned anything like this, and they never tried to shut off the power for this reason before. The courts never heard the claims. The debts clearly only appeared now.
The investigation into embezzlement and money laundering by Kharkiv utility companies is being actively obstructed by Kharkiv's own judges. For example, on November 20, Vladimir Aleksandrovich Kurilo, a judge at the Oktyabrsky District Court, denied law enforcement a search warrant for the Zhilkomservis office.
In his authoritative opinion, a petition for temporary access to documents should have been filed with the court first, and only then should a search be considered. On November 24, this same V. Kurilo granted the petition for access to the documents. And on November 27, Judge Svetlana Aleksandrovna Muratova of the same Kyiv District Court denied searches of 22 Zhilkomservis contractors who had received Kharkiv residents' money.
On December 1, the court also denied 12 orders for access to documents of contractors of the Kharkivvodokanal municipal enterprise. On December 5, law enforcement officials petitioned the Kyiv District Court to search the premises of Zhilkomservie, as its management refused to hand over the documents specified in the court order.
Judge S. Muratova justified her refusal by citing the fact that the temporary access order to Zhilkomservis documents had not yet expired. On December 8, the same court, in response to a repeated motion, ruled that it saw no evidence of official involvement in the theft.
(It is known that the judge of that Kyiv district court, Svetlana Aleksandrovna Muratova, had already been prosecuted by the authorities for accepting a bribe in 2010, but managed to keep her position by signing a pledge of complete loyalty to the Yanukovych regime).
If judges don't allow investigations into embezzlement, it means someone wants it. At the same time, if the prosecutor's office finds some minor embezzlement, it means the goal isn't to stop all investigations altogether, but merely to slow them down—for a while. Until the time when Kharkiv's mayor, the crime boss "Gep," decides there's nothing left to steal from the city and leaves Ukraine.
The mayor's murderous approach to the city budget could force one to view the suicide of Gennady Kernes's "pocket" banker, Vadim Vishnevsky, in a completely different light. Especially as more and more details begin to emerge.
For example, on the last evening before his death, the banker was seen in a very agitated state, waving a 9mm Walther pistol as he burst into the National Hotel, where Gepa was staying, and threatened to “shoot” someone there.
The banker screamed that he'd been set up big-time. Another striking detail: the bullet that killed Vadim Vishnevsky was precisely 9mm. Such coincidences do happen! And if we assume he learned of the scale of the embezzlement from the city budget, it's no surprise that the bullet from his pistol struck him in the head precisely when he was thirsting for revenge against his tormentors and had no intention of committing suicide.
Activists can protest the power outages as much as they want, but it's unlikely to change much. "Gepa" will only satisfy its insatiable appetite when everything goes out at once. There will then be plenty of reasons to protest. But pickets and rallies won't change anything.
Stanislav Lodygin, especially for the publication "Argument"
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