Sergey Kurchenko
The case of fraud at the VETEK group of companies has begun to cast blame. And it appears its founder had a hand in it.
More than eight months have passed since the investigation into Kurchenko and the VETEK group of companies he founded began, yet, strangely enough, progress remains unchanged. This is despite the fact that back in the spring, the Main Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine established that, in 2013-2014, petroleum products were imported into Ukraine under the guise of onward transit, but in reality, they were sold within the country without paying the required taxes, fees, and charges. Investigators indicated that this criminal scheme involved companies controlled by Kurchenko, through which petroleum products were imported into Ukraine. These products were then, according to fictitious documents, allegedly re-exported outside of Ukrainian customs territory to offshore companies. In reality, petroleum products imported into Ukraine were stored at oil depots—bonded warehouses leased by importing companies and located in the Kirovohrad, Rivne, Cherkasy, Odesa, Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Khmelnytskyi regions. From these depots, they were sold to domestic consumers on behalf of GazUkraine-2009 LLC, and later GazUkraine-2020 LLC, a representative office of Soprema Trading Ltd, and Vetek Trading House LLC, for a total of approximately UAH 36 billion.
Back in April, the Prosecutor General's Office announced it had filed a notice of suspicion against Kurchenko in connection with the fraudulent activities of his oil and gas pyramid, and in October, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) filed a notice of suspicion against him. However, there has been no progress in gathering evidence implicating Kurchenko in the scheme. Moreover, in September, Kurchenko, who is currently in Russia, stated that no criminal case was pending against him. "The Prosecutor General tells journalists that he has a criminal case against me. Our lawyer submits a request the same day and receives a response that there is no such criminal case," he said. He added: "At this time, neither the Odesa Oil Refinery nor Metalist have been seized. Some goods and some companies operating at the Odesa Oil Refinery have been seized. But some of the companies there are ours, and some are not. These are largely populist statements."
The most interesting thing is that this happened after the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine announced a pre-trial investigation "into the creation of a criminal organization whose members, between 2010 and 2014, committed a number of serious and especially serious crimes in various sectors of the economy with the aim of seizing the property of state-owned enterprises within the Ministry of Infrastructure of Ukraine, the Ministry of Energy and Coal Industry (in particular, Naftogaz of Ukraine and Ukrgazvydobuvannya), and the National Bank of Ukraine. At the same time, the Prosecutor General's Office also let it slip that the VETEK group of companies, which included business entities, fictitious enterprises, and an illegal administrative apparatus within several departments of central executive authorities, was created by "several dozen people" who supervised the commission of the crimes.
The investigation did not specify who these people were. Among them may be the unknown "sucker" Sergei Bondar, now officially the director and founder of VETEK LLC. Or perhaps another well-known figurehead, Stanislav Levchenko, who is listed on paper as the owner of Kurchenko's beloved company, GazUkraine-2009. Or perhaps the "owner" of GazUkraine-2020 LLC, Denis Nikolaenko. At the same time, other oddities were already being noted during the investigation, which could serve as confirmation that the emissaries of the fugitive "golden boy" had managed to find access to individuals capable of influencing the investigation. Individuals who could potentially be destined for the role of "scapegoats" began to emerge in the case. For example, the former deputy chairman of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Valentyn Dulub, who oversaw the region's housing and utilities sector, and the former deputy governor of the Kyiv region, Volodymyr Maksymenko, who was also responsible for housing and utilities. SLED.net.ua has learned that the Prosecutor General's Office is now seeking criminal charges against both of them under the same article under which Kurchenko was charged—Part 5, Article 191 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (large-scale misappropriation of state property). This, amid growing rumors that Kurchenko is actively trying to reach an agreement with influential figures in the Prosecutor General's Office to shift the blame from him to proxies, and can boast of success in this regard, appears highly controversial.
Roman DMITRYUK, SLED.net.ua
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