For two months now, passions have been raging around Agrain, one of Ukraine's largest agricultural holdings. The new Ukrainian government declares its commitment to European values, but most importantly, to a European approach to business. Apparently, if such noble goals are being realized, it's certainly not in Ukraine itself. Agrain is one of the most striking examples, clearly demonstrating how the prosecutor's office, the body that bore the brunt of the country's suffering under Viktor Yanukovych, has begun to function in a new way.
It seems that each new leadership of the Ukrainian Prosecutor's Office is trying to "stand up to the dirt" of their predecessors in terms of personal enrichment. Everyone has seen Pshonka's house with Fabergé eggs, his personal road, and the relics of saints in his office. During his three months of "reign" at the Prosecutor General's Office, Makhnitsky They openly claim he's earned $300 million. It seems less than Pshonka, of course. But in three months! That works out to $100 million a month, or $3 million a day. Rumor has it that Makhnitsky decided to wait out Ukraine's turbulent times in London, a relatively good European capital.
The new GPU leadership, by all appearances, has no plans to sit back and watch. And how could they? Lustration is on the horizon, and they'll soon have to say goodbye to their positions for a long time, if not forever, and they still need to ensure a comfortable retirement for themselves and Londons and Parises for their children.
And if it's dangerous to touch the assets of Ukraine's most famous oligarchs, then it's best to choose a functioning enterprise as a target for enrichment, one from which money can be squeezed quickly, in large quantities, and with minimal risk.
The fact is that a new "Lviv clan" has formed within the Prosecutor General's Office. Its main figure is First Deputy Prosecutor General Mykola Herasymyuk, who served as First Deputy Head of the Enforcement Service during Yanukovych's presidency. Everyone remembers how, under Herasymyuk, court decisions were executed "honestly and fairly." Herasymyuk personally deposited the proceeds from his activities with the then Minister of Justice. To Alexander Lavrinovich.
A close "partner" of Gerasimyuk's is Kyiv Prosecutor Serhiy Yuldashev. Incidentally, Gerasimyuk himself served for a time as the capital's prosecutor, but after several waves of public outrage over Gerasimyuk's appointment, Yarema hid his protégé. And not to some remote regional center, but closer to home—as first deputy.
And all would have been well, but then the lustration law came into force. Gerasimyuk and Yuldashev were worried, because based on their track records (Yuldashev served as a district prosecutor in Dnipropetrovsk during Yanukovych's presidency, as a deputy prosecutor in the Luhansk region, and as a district prosecutor in Kyiv), they were among the first to be targeted for lustration.
Gerasimyuk and Yuldashev needed to quickly decide how to quickly "grab" more money in hard currency so they could continue to enjoy charter flights and maintain their luxurious mansions.
The decision wasn't long in coming. Even in Lviv, Gerasimyuk had been close and engaged in common dealings with the wife of a now-deceased crime boss, Lesia Sofienko. Ms. Sofienko specialized in corporate raiding, and her most valuable talent was her ability to organize the seizure and sale of assets, even from the largest enterprises, quickly and discreetly. Today, Volodymyr Pekhov, a member of parliament and former active member of the Party of Regions faction, is assisting his loyal wife. Incidentally, Pekhov is considered one of the main corporate raiders in the Zhytomyr region.
Lesya Sofienko with her husband, people's deputy and raider Vladimir Pekhov
Hearing about Gerasimyuk's problems and concerns regarding lustration, Lesya Sofienko suggested to her longtime friend a way to make a lot of money quickly. The agroholding "Agrain" caught the eye of the businessmen. The scheme was simple: seize the holding's assets, specifically the harvest, and quickly sell it, as they say, before the cold weather sets in.
For their participation in the scheme, Sofienko promised Gerasimyuk and Yuldashev a fee worthy of officials of their caliber—$30 million. Of course, she didn't skimp on herself, securing a $70 million share.
First Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Mykola Gerasimyuk
To ensure that as few people as possible within the prosecutor's office were involved in the scheme, other than Gerasimyuk and Yuldashev, the legal support for the corporate raid was handled by Yuldashev and Sofienko's trusted confidantes—lawyers Svetlana Grabarchuk and Alexey Ivanov. These lawyers are the ones who draft all the procedural documents for the agricultural holding company. Investigators formally investigating the Agrain cases are not allowed to participate in the proceedings, but are only forced to sign documents the raiders require.
The Kyiv prosecutor's office is simply shocked. Yuldashev turned it into his personal firm, and even brought in his own "employees," leaving them as "couriers" to deliver requests for arrests, detentions, and so on to the court.
Prosecutor of the city of Kyiv Sergey Yuldashev
The same situation applies to court decisions. Svetlana Grabarchuk brought completed court decisions to the Holosiivskyi Court in the capital, which imposed 70 seizures on the assets of an agricultural holding. She was seen more than once in the office of the court chair, Elena Pervushina. Prosecutors and investigators even complained that they were only shown the final pages of the documents, which they were required to sign before submitting to the court.
Thus, the Agrain agricultural holding has been blocked for two months now. The company's staff addressed an open letter to Petro Poroshenko asking him to protect the holding from Gerasimyuk, Yuldashev, Sofienko, and Pekhov.
The Agrain situation could be a signal to Ukrainian society: have we begun to live "in a new way," or will we soon be faced with a situation where people will remember the Yanukovyches, Azarovs, and Pshonkas with a hint of nostalgia? Even back then, appetites were more modest. Although, perhaps lustration, which is forcing already-impoverished prosecutors to stockpile funds in frantic quantities, is to blame.
Victor Chervonenko, SKELET-info
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