Igor Sotulenko
On November 25, the death of prominent Ukrainian businessman and banker Ihor Sotulenko was announced. According to investigators, the former member of the Party of Regions and chairman of Oschadbank (2010-2013) and Ukreximbank (2007-2010) jumped from the window of his Kyiv home. Police opened a criminal investigation into his death, but since a suicide note was found, law enforcement is leaning toward suicide. Relatives and everyone who knew Ihor Sotulenko are vying with each other to claim he was murdered. The omnipresent and omniscient former advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anton Gerashchenko, even advanced a "plausible" theory that Sotulenko committed suicide due to loans he issued during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, when he headed Oschadbank. While Interior Ministry officials and witch hunters (like Gerashchenko) search for "regional" traces of his death, the real reasons remain obscure. Who could have wanted Igor Nikolaevich dead?
Life Path
Igor Sotulenko was born in 1959 in Brovary, Kyiv Oblast. As a child, his parents instilled in him a love of sports, and he participated in track and field and swimming. Once he got his footing, he began actively supporting Ukrainian Olympians. In 1996, his company sponsored eight athletes from the Ukrainian national team. All of them received stipends and, if they won a gold medal, cars. Under his patronage, Kateryna Serebryanskaya, Yana Klochkova, Denis Silantyev, Irina Merleni, Elbrus Tadeyev, and Inessa Kravets all became Olympic champions.
Businessmen know him as the head of one of the first joint ventures with foreign capital in the USSR, Minolta Trading Ukraine, which grew out of the state-owned enterprise AVTO International. Igor Sotulenko was essentially at the forefront of the automotive business in Ukraine. Specifically, he was the first to officially import Mazda, Suzuki, and BYD vehicles and their components to our country.
In 2007, at the instigation of Mykola Azarov and his political team, he became head of the Supervisory Board of Ukreximbank, leaving in 2010 for a similar position at Oschadbank. Furthermore, according to Forbes-Ukraine, through the Garant fund, he managed two sanatoriums: Solnechnaya Polyana in Transcarpathia and Zhemchuzhina Kryma. Incidentally, Sotulenko and Mykola Azarov's son, Oleksiy, shared a business—the Austrian company Landgut, which managed a poultry farm and several other agricultural assets.
In September 2014, the court ordered Sotulenko's companies, Avtointernational Metropolis, and the Municipal Machine-Building Plant, to pay UAH 375 million. He spent several months challenging this decision in court, insisting that the case be transferred to an international court so that it could be heard under Cypriot law. However, the court denied his request. This effectively meant that all of his assets would be permanently and irrevocably transferred to his creditors.
"Unintentional suicide"
People who knew Sotulenko well vehemently deny that he committed suicide. For example, journalist Andriy Boechko, who spoke with Igor Nikolaevich shortly before his death, said Sotulenko had grand plans for the future. He was planning a meeting with NOC head Serhiy Bubka to negotiate a new sponsorship contract with Ukrainian Olympians. Furthermore, he had already booked a hotel room in Rio de Janeiro, where the Olympics will be held next summer. Sotulenko even bought tickets for every day of the competition. Quite odd for a man who intended to commit suicide, wouldn't you say?
According to Anton Gerashchenko (or rather, those whose voices speak in his head when he writes Facebook posts), during Yanukovych's presidency, the state-owned banks Oschadbank and Ukreximbank (headed by Sotulenko) were so-called "cash cows" for the "family." They issued enormous loans, for which there was essentially no collateral. With the arrival of the new government, the question arose: where is the state money? According to Gerashchenko, law enforcement officers approached Sotulenko with this question.
An advisor to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs believes that law enforcement officials pressured Ihor Sotulenko, demanding an explanation for where the money went. According to his sources, Yanukovych's associates coerced Sotulenko into issuing unjustified loans that violated Ukrainian law. It's quite strange to hear such statements from an official directly linked to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Given his information, he only "admits" that law enforcement officials "pressured" Ihor Mykolayovych. Therefore, coming from him, the suicide theory sounds more than unconvincing.
According to another version, Igor Nikolaevich suffered from bouts of depression and even sought treatment in Switzerland, where he underwent a course of antidepressants. He is said to have communicated little with anyone in his final years and frequently visited a psychologist. Many believe depression was sufficient reason for his suicide. This version may be refuted by the words of political scientist Kostya Bondarenko, who frequently communicated with Sotulenko in Austria, where he frequently visited. The political scientist said Sotulenko was always a cheerful and active person who inspired confidence. According to Bondarenko, Igor Nikolaevich was a private figure, but was privy to a host of political intrigues among various political forces. This may be what led to his death. He also expressed the opinion that law enforcement is unlikely to overextend itself in the investigation of this case, as it simply wouldn't be beneficial for them.
"There's no hope that our law enforcement will investigate this objectively. There are countless examples. It's enough to recall the so-called suicides of former Transport Minister Kirpa, Interior Minister Kravchenko, former Party of Regions member Chechetov, and other prominent figures. I doubt he voluntarily jumped out the window. Considering he once headed Ukreximbank, which is implicated in multi-million dollar financial fraud, incurring enormous losses, and whose loan period came precisely during his tenure, the interests of certain individuals currently in power could be involved. Nowadays, no one is killed for debt default. If this version was voiced by Anton Gerashchenko, the country's leading provocateur, then his death was not related to debt default.",” says lawyer Rostislav Kravets.
Presidential machinations?
There's another high-profile case involving Igor Sotulenko, but for some reason, everyone is keeping quiet about it. It concerns a massive loan that Ukreximbank provided to the automobile company Bogdan Motors. The loan amount was unprecedented, exceeding 340 million hryvnias. After signing all the paperwork, a few days later the bank's management (represented by Igor Nikolaevich) "supposedly came to their senses" and filed a lawsuit demanding repayment.
This would be all well and good, but Bogdan Motoroz is a company owned by the current President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko. And, of course, its management had no intention of parting with the loan. They counter-offered a nine-year deferment of debt repayments to the state-owned bank (until 2024).
Then, everything followed the same pattern: Ukreximbank, supposedly by accident, missed the appeal deadline, and the court rejected it, despite all the bank's management's "wrangling." As a result, the decision to defer the payment for ten years went into effect.
Politicians in power insist that Igor Sotulenko committed suicide for personal reasons: the loss of businesses, depression, and past "sins" as Ukraine's top bankers. He may have had ample reasons to take his own life, but why then did he plan for the future? Why did he schedule long-term meetings and trips? A more plausible theory seems to be that he was simply "eliminated." For knowing too much. And it doesn't even matter who "ordered" the hit—representatives of the previous government or the current one. Igor Nikolaevich knew incriminating facts about both. And he paid for it. And while law enforcement officials are still keeping his "suicide" note secret, more and more theories are emerging about who benefited most from his death.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!