Igor Urbansky and Sons: How to Eat Deliciously in Odessa
Of all the Odesa family clans, the Urbanskys remained the most inconspicuous until recently, avoiding public politics and wide publicity for their activities. After all, their family had much to hide not only from Ukrainian journalists and the public, but also from international inspectors combating smuggling and embargo violations. Today, they are trying to bury the secrets of their past and enter Ukrainian politics as pure and innocent as if fresh from a sauna. However, it's difficult to clean up someone who constantly finds themselves mired in new scandals.
There lived a brave captain Igor Urbansky
The Urbansky family name has long been known in Odessa, thanks to the scandalous father of the current chairman of the regional council, who created his own very influential family clan in the city – whose connections reach as far as Kyiv, and whose business extends far beyond the borders of Ukraine. However, Urbansky Igor Anatolyevich Igor Urbansky was born in the remote Georgian town of Akhalkalaki on August 2, 1953, to a KGB officer. Whether his father served in state security or in the 38th Akhaltsikhe Border Detachment stationed there, Igor Urbansky never said. But it is known that his father later transferred to Kutaisi and rose to the rank of colonel, exerting considerable influence over his rather rebellious son, who, in his youth, had refused to enroll in the prestigious Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). Who knows what heights in career and business the agile and energetic diplomat Igor Urbansky could have achieved, but instead of a dull Moscow institute, he was drawn to the romance of the sea. In 1970, Urbansky fled his father for Odessa and enrolled in the Higher Marine Engineering School (today the National University "Odesa Maritime Academy").
However, even there, young Igor showed himself to be such an antisocial element that he was once even expelled from school, after which, not without the help of his influential father, he had to re-establish himself.
Moreover, the dashing cadet Urbansky hastened to marry, and on July 21, 1975, his first child was born: a son named Anatoly in honor of his grandfather. His studies ultimately dragged on for six years, and it wasn't until 1976 that Igor Urbansky received his diploma in "Marine Navigation." His father helped him once again, finding him a job in the USSR merchant navy, where a waiting list of those wanting to sail abroad formed for years in advance. For Igor Urbansky, this work became the most important training in his life and the first step toward big business—the basics of which he learned by bringing back scarce, exotic imported consumer goods from abroad. As his career progressed from third mate to ship captain, so did his opportunities in the shuttle trade. In Odessa, which became his home, Igor Urbansky made a multitude of important connections with important people of the time: from port customs officers and city officials to black marketeers and criminal authorities.
In 1986, during the heyday of the illegal import trade, Igor Urbansky quit his prestigious and lucrative job. The reason for this remains unknown, and only vague rumors suggest he ran into some very serious legal troubles that he couldn't resolve even with all his connections. So Igor Urbansky transitioned from captain to cooperative operator: he bought an old river steamship, re-registered it as a river-sea vessel, and, through his connections, chartered it to a foreign company. The steamship began carrying goods from Turkey, and then from domestic "shuttle traders." Transportation proved even more profitable than trading—and soon Urbansky similarly expanded his personal fleet by several more vessels.
It should be noted that this "innovation" was a clear violation of all technical standards: small river vessels are often simply unsuitable for sea travel. In the 1990s and 2000s, during the heyday of the "shuttle" business, several of these steamships caused tragedies: high waves engulfed them, washing away passengers and cargo, and two overloaded vessels capsized. But by then, Igor Urbansky was already engaged in a far more profitable venture.
The Armory Baron
In 1991-92, independent Georgia was rocked by its first coup, and Eduard Shevardnadze became its leader. For the next two years, he waged a civil war against supporters of the ousted Gamsakhurdia and separatists in Abkhazia and South Ossetia. The war required large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and supplies, which Georgia could then purchase from Ukraine and Moldova (including Transnistria). And then, as the media reported, one of Igor Urbansky's Kutaisi classmates, who had become Shevardnadze's bodyguard, recommended his childhood friend as a reliable source. In 1992, Urbansky registered Evas LLC, which officially supplied "consumer goods" to Georgia until 2001. In addition, in 1992-93, she also served as a... Transported weapons, ammunition, explosives, and uniforms from military warehouses of the former Odessa Military District. This business was short-lived, but quite profitable: transporting semi-legally transferred weapons commands very high "bonuses," and within a few years, Igor Urbansky would once again take advantage of such a lucrative opportunity.
While future Ukrainian oligarchs were still eyeing the factories, Igor Urbanskyi was already seizing his main assets—ships from the crumbling Black Sea and Danube shipping companies. He didn't have to buy all the ships, which would incur unnecessary expenses: ships were often chartered and re-chartered, operating and generating income, while all maintenance and repair costs were borne by the owner (the state).
In 1994, Igor Urbansky registered the company "Kaalbye Ltd" in the offshore jurisdiction of the Isle of Man, which became the foundation of his "Kaalbye empire." Urbansky subsequently established and registered several subsidiaries in the offshore jurisdictions of the Virgin Islands and Cyprus: "Kaalbye Shipping International Ltd" (1996), "Kaalbye Oil Services" (1997), "Kaalbye Agency Services Limited," "Kaalbye Shipping Cyprus," "Kaalbye Marine Service," and "Kaalbye Yacht LLC," later opening and managing their representative offices in Odessa. He also established the Panamanian holding company Kaalbye Group Ltd., which later became the parent company of Kaalbye Transport Ltd. and the Ukrainian Maritime Agency. He also founded Epicor CJSC and Epsilon CJSC, the Panamanian company Next Generation Finance, and several other enterprises, also moved offshore through various schemes. By 2008, Urbansky's cargo fleet consisted of 30 ships owned by his companies, and he also chartered vessels from other shipowners as needed. Kaalbye quickly became an international player, operating large-capacity maritime transport services and offering a variety of additional services, including providing trained crews for oligarchs' yachts.
However, from time to time, Igor Urbansky was drawn back to his old ways – arms trading. It was difficult to avoid this temptation, as the Odessa ports were the hub for the legal, semi-legal, and illegal sale of Ukrainian and Russian weapons worldwide, and Urbansky's shipping companies simply couldn't resist such lucrative deals. And from time to time, his name surfaced in scandals. For example, on February 24, 2001, the Anastasia, a vessel chartered by Kaalbye Shipping from a Georgian company (and sailing under the Georgian flag), was detained in the port of Las Palmas (Canary Islands, Spain). 636 tons of weapons and ammunition, declared as "auto parts," were found on board. These had been sold by Rosvooruzhenie to the Angolan firm Simportex.
That same year, Urbansky's company was involved in the controversial sale of Kh-55 cruise missiles to Iran. The scandal erupted because these missiles were nuclear weapons carriers and were supposed to be destroyed by Ukraine in accordance with the disarmament treaty, but 20 units "were left languishing in warehouses." They were then written off "due to the expiration of their shelf life," and the missiles ended up in the hands of the Progress company, which, through intermediaries, sold 12 missiles to Iran and eight to China, using Kaalbye Shipping for transportation. However, Igor Urbansky again emerged unscathed from this scandal, but officials and businessmen associated with him were less fortunate. It was reported that between 2002 and 2006... Several of Urbansky's accomplices in the arms business passed away: former Ukrspetsexport manager Valeriy Maleev (March 2002, car accident), Iranian-Austrian businessman Haider Sarfraz (January 2004, car accident), Ukrainian businessman Sergei Petrov (January 2004, blown up in his car), Russian businessman Sergei Orlov (January 2006, placed in a mental hospital, where he immediately suffered a stroke).
Igor Urbansky: Missiles for Chavez and shells for Assad
On September 25, 2008, Somali pirates seized the cargo ship Faina off the coast of Kenya, carrying a Ukrainian crew and Ukrainian cargo. On board were 33 T-72M1 tanks, six BM-21 Grad mounts, 150 RPG-7V grenade launchers, anti-aircraft machine guns, ammunition, and dynamic armor protection systems. Officially, these weapons were supplied by Ukraine to Kenya under an official contract, but suspicions arose that the cargo was actually destined for civil war-torn Sudan, which was subject to a UN arms embargo. The ship's hijacking attracted international attention, and warships from other countries arrived in the region. It was then that Captain Jane Campbell of the USS Howard, a destroyer, made the following statement: "The cargo ship Faina, flagged in Belize, is owned and operated by Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine." However, the company did not confirm this information, and its owner, Igor Urbansky, who had served as Deputy Minister of Transport of Ukraine under Joseph Vinsky since December 2007, began to categorically deny it, claiming that the owner of the vessel is the Israeli businessman Vadim Alperin (Read more about it in the article Vadim Alperin, the "King" of Odessa's Smuggling). He also swore that his acquaintance with Alperin was purely casual, although a source in the Ministry of Transport later revealed that Igor Urbansky and Vadim Alperin had a joint business.
The ill-fated ship "Faina" after liberation
Unexpectedly, Iosif Vinsky came to his deputy's defense, declaring, "...I asked Urbansky about this myself, and he reported that he had nothing to do with the Faina." This ridiculous, "take our word for it" excuse failed to convince the Ukrainians, who were tensely following the events. And after the saga ended, undisclosed information emerged that negotiations with the pirates had dragged on for over four months due to the shipowner lowering the ransom amount. It also emerged that between 2007 and 2009, Kaalbye had been involved in arms trafficking in conjunction with Tomex Team, Waterlux AG, Almar, and Phoenix Trans-Servis.
Igor Urbanskyi's companies traded in Russian weapons, perhaps even more than Ukrainian ones—or, more accurately, transported them, too. They secured lucrative contracts thanks to Boris Kogan, Urbanskyi's business partner, co-founder and director of Kaalbye Shipping Ukraine, who also served on the board of the Russian company RT-Logistika. RT-Logistika, in turn, is owned (51%) by the state-owned holding company Russian Technologies, and by Sergey Chemezov, a close associate and confidant of Vladimir Putin. Therefore, it's not surprising that, according to the American company C4ADS, in 2012, Kaalbye Shipping was responsible for transporting S-300 anti-aircraft systems to Venezuela, sold by Russia to Hugo Chavez under a $4 billion contract. However, this transaction was completely legal, unlike the next one.
In January 2013, seven cargo ships belonging to Kaalbye Shipping, including the Ocean Voyager and the Ocean Fortune, departed the Ukrainian port of Oktyabrsk (Mykolaiv) and headed for the Mediterranean Sea, where they then switched off their navigational equipment and "disappeared" from the view of navigation services. According to C4ADS, this was used to organize the supply of Russian weapons (armored vehicles, artillery, ammunition) to Syria for Assad's army—a violation of the international embargo. This trafficking continued until mid-2013, when revealing reports appeared in the Western press, after which Kyiv looked surprised and shrugged.
The most surprising thing is that Kaalbye hasn't received any reprimands from the West. Moreover, Kaalbye continues, as if nothing had happened, to be a contractor for the US Military Sealift Command, which handles cargo transportation for the American fleet—in other words, successfully operating on two fronts, serving strategic adversaries.
Socialist Party of Oligarchs
Igor Urbanskyi met native Odesa resident Vasyl Tsushko when the latter was still a member of parliament. But when Tsushko became chairman of the Odesa Regional State Administration in February 2005, "the city's best people" began to frequent his office, including Urbanskyi, who immediately joined the Socialist Party. Moreover, he provided the SPU with considerable financial support, thanks to which he was included on its electoral list (No. 37) in the 2006 elections and became a member of the Verkhovna Rada. There, Igor Urbanskyi became a member of the SPU's political council, deputy of the committee on fuel and energy complex and nuclear policy, and in September 2006, he became deputy to the Minister of Transport, Mykola Rudkovskyi.Read more about it in the article DOSSIER: Rudkovsky Nikolay Nikolaevich). It was reported that Urbansky himself was supposed to become minister (his candidacy was lobbied for by Tsushko), but this was allegedly prevented by Russian State Duma deputies who sent a request to Ukraine regarding Urbansky's involvement in the sale of the Kh-55 to Iran. Nikolai Rudkovsky then became Minister of Transport, with Urbansky as his deputy.
Well, every cloud has a silver lining: Urbanskyy outlasted two governments as deputy minister. After the 2007 political crisis, snap elections were held, and Ihor Urbanskyy, who had secured the 34th spot on the SPU list, failed to gain a seat in parliament. However, he remained in his post under the new minister, Yosyp Vinskyy – again, on the recommendation of Vasyl Tsushko – serving there until July 2009. After that, Ihor Urbanskyy's short-lived political career petered out, and he once again immersed himself in his business, hiding from the public eye in his securely guarded office. Meanwhile, the names of his sons, the elder Anatoliy and the younger Oleksandr, began to ring in Odesa, where their father gave them a "memorable gift" in 2007.
Alexander and Anatoly Urbansky
The privatization of the Izmail Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant is a typical example of "privatization." The story began back in 2004, when the plant, which had been driven to the point of loss, was leased for 10 years by a specially created CJSC, ISSZ, which belonged to Alfa-Invest LLC, owned by the family of Odessa MP Yuriy Kruk.Read more about it in the article The Kruk Clan. A Corrupt Family Contract). However, at the end of 2006, the Kruks ceded their controlling stake in Alfa-Invest to the holding company Kaalbye Group Ltd. Urbansky was dissatisfied with the plant's lease, and, using his influence and connections, he pushed through the State Property Fund (at that time headed by the socialist Valentina Semenyuk, Read more about it in the article "Fatal" Turboatom: What secrets brought Semenyuk-Samsonenko to the grave) the decision to privatize the shipyard. The 22-hectare facility, with three floating docks and all infrastructure facilities, was put up for auction, valuing it at $3 million. It was purchased for this sum by Urbansky's company, whose management he had already transferred to his sons. The company was then "reformatted," divided into two parts: the shipyard itself is owned by the Dunaisudoservis Ship Repair Company, while its berths, which can also be used for loading and unloading ships, were transferred to the Izmail River Port Dunaisudoservis, OJSC.
Privatization did not benefit the plant, as evidenced by opposition newspapers later distributed, criticizing its owner, Oleksandr Urbansky, for reducing his workforce by a quarter and paying extremely low wages. Other independent sources reported that all orders for Dunaisudoservice were processed through an offshore company, which received payment for the work performed without paying any taxes to the Ukrainian budget. Part of the money was then transferred to purchase materials and pay workers, while the rest became net profit for the Urbansky family business.
However, the Urbansky family clan is interested not only in factories and steamships, but also in valuable real estate in the historical center of Odessa.
Thus, in the summer of 2012, they began the process of removing two buildings classified as architectural monuments from city municipal ownership: the Novikov House (12 Deribasovskaya Street) and the Grigoriev Apartment Building (12 Lanzheronskaya Street). Sources report that the Urbanskys intended to follow a well-established scheme: a company owned by them would first lease the buildings and then purchase them at a minimal price. Meanwhile, the estimated market value of these two buildings exceeds two million dollars—and it's unlikely that Odessa will receive that kind of money from the Urbanskys. Especially since Anatoliy Urbansky and his brother, Oleksiy Urbansky, have now effectively gained the power to run the city and the region as their own fiefdom.
The Novikov House (left) and the Grigoriev House (right), which caught the eye of the Urbanskys
Presidential Guard of Odessa
The eldest Urbansky brother, Anatoly Igorevich, followed in his father's footsteps in the most literal sense: in 1997, he graduated from the same Odessa Higher Maritime Academy with a degree in "Transport Organization and Management of Maritime Transport." However, he never wanted to helm a ship, preferring to remain on land and pursue "investment activities" in family companies. Specifically, the Urbansky brothers are co-owners of Jameson Global Limited, a company registered in the Virgin Islands offshore zone. Other co-owners of this same company are Odessa businessmen Karina and Igor Avramenko, who in turn own the shipping company Md Shipping, which has repeatedly been caught violating the ban on entering Crimean ports.
With little knowledge of ships and a keen understanding of finance, Anatoly Urbansky is the "monetary heart" of the family business, creating and controlling cash flows. Having become the management and administrative manager of Dunaisudnoremont OJSC in 2009, he helped create a simple and effective scheme for channeling the company's finances offshore. In 2011, he became a member of the supervisory boards of his own companies, Dunaisudoservis Ship Repair Company LLC and Dunaisudoservis Izmail River Port OJSC. And in 2014, before the snap parliamentary elections, he created and headed the Urbansky Foundation “Prydunavye”, which began generously distributing footballs and food packages to voters in the Izmail district, where his brother Alexander ran in the 143rd electoral district as a candidate from the Strong Ukraine party of Sergei Tigipko (Read more about it in the article Serhiy Tigipko: Komsomol oligarch covers his tracks). To this end, in the fall of 2014, Tigipko, at the invitation of the Urbanskys, even came to Izmail to look at their ship repair yard and assess the size of their capital investments.
Alexander Urbansky and Sergey Tigipko
Born on January 3, 1982, Alexander Igorevich Urbansky grew up a typical rich kid, and in 1998 he was sent to study in England: first at Bedford Boarding School, and then at Plymouth University, from which he graduated in 2003 with a degree in maritime law. His father then sent him to Russia, to Moscow State University, where he earned a master's degree in international business in 2005. Immediately afterward, he returned to Ukraine, and his father secured him a position as an advisor to the Minister of Economy on transport issues (from October 2005 to September 2006). Alexander Urbansky then worked as deputy chairman of the board of directors of Marine Business Center LLC (2006-2008), deputy director of the Odessa branch of East European Bank (2008-2009), and deputy director of Kaalbye Logistics, which specializes in container shipping.
And so, in 2014, they decided to make Oleksandr Urbanskyi a member of parliament—and who knows, maybe he would have even become a deputy minister, like his father! The plan was half-successful, and not without a curious twist: Oleksandr Urbanskyi, who had run for the Verkhovna Rada under the banner of Tihipko's "Strong Ukraine," defected to Petro Poroshenko's Solidarity Bloc.
Alexander Urbansky and Dmitry Yarosh in parliament
He never became a minister, but it turned out he had made the right choice – the bet on the new president fully met the Urbanskys' expectations when Anatoliy Igorevich decided to fight for power in the Odessa region. Elected in 2015 to the regional council from Izmail, Anatoliy Urbansky also joined Solidarity and became its candidate during the regional council chairman election. On November 19, 2015, Anatoliy Urbansky was confirmed to this position by a majority vote. He was reportedly assisted in this by Odessa mayor Gennady Trukhanov and influential Odessa rich kid Alexey Goncharenko.Read more about it in the article Alexey Goncharenko, a former Party of Regions member tipped to become Minister of Health) is the son of former Odessa Mayor Oleksiy Koktusev (2010-2013). He served as deputy chairman of the Odessa Regional Council from 2010 to 2013, and headed it from February to November 2014. Former Party of Regions member Trukhanov and Solidarity member Goncharenko secured Anatoliy Urbanskyi both the votes of deputies and the favor of President Petro Poroshenko, who was creating his new guard in Odessa.
Anatoly Urbansky
In the ongoing struggle between the Odessa mayor Trukhanov With the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Mikheil Saakashvili, the new regional council chairman initially adopted a cautious wait-and-see approach, declaring that there were no tensions between him and Saakashvili. Urbanskyi Sr. even donated two million hryvnias to the "For the Benefit of Odesa" fund, which financed Saakashvili's political advertising.
Yes. And now he's being fed by Igor Mizrakh. And Igor Mizrakh is Urbansky's supposed fixer in Odessa. However, recently, the Chechens, who received orders from Russia, managed to force him to pay off his debts.
However, after regional prosecutor David Sakvarelidze attacked Anatoly Urbansky, accusing him of ties to the "diamond prosecutors," managing the assets of Serhiy Kurchenko and Oleksandr Yanukovych, who had fled the country, and demanding the lustration of the regional council chairman, Urbansky adopted an "anti-Georgian" stance. Urbansky initially joined those demanding Sakvarelidze's resignation, and then supported Goncharenko and Trukhanov in their war against Saakashvili. But perhaps even more influential in Anatoly Urbansky's shift in position was the cooling of attitudes toward Saakashvili on the part of Petro Poroshenko himself, who appears to have decided to leave Odesa to the control of local family clans in exchange for their political loyalty to Bankova.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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