Stepan Ivakhiv: A pseudo-patriot puts the state in tender bast shoes and robs the widow of a deceased friend
"When a Ukrainian politician talks about patriotism, it means they're planning to steal something"—this aphorism perfectly describes the member of parliament and successful businessman Stepan Ivakhiv. The founder of his own private foundation, "Patriots of Volyn," who erects monuments to national heroes, Ivakhiv regularly flies to Moscow for important negotiations. But what's far worse is that when he returns home, Ivakhiv literally ruins a Ukraine already exhausted by crisis and war. But this doesn't bother him in the least.
For a long time, only his fellow countrymen and voters knew about Stepan Ivakhiv, while most Ukrainians barely noticed the occasional news appearances of the co-owner of the WOG gas station chain. Recently, however, Ivakhiv has gained notoriety, increasingly becoming the subject of national media coverage. For example, he has repeatedly made it into the "golden trio" of Verkhovna Rada deputies, surpassing even renowned oligarchs in the size of his accumulated wealth or the scale of his officially declared businesses. For example, he recently took second place in the ranking of parliamentary "Koshcheis"—MPs who have declared the largest amount of jewelry. Stepan Ivakhiv and his wife have as many as 34 gold items in their jewelry boxes – in this he beats the clever “fixer” Vitaly Khomutynnik (32 gold jewelry), but lost first place to industrial oligarch Sergei Taruta (41 jewelry).
And these aren't just any chains or rings from a cheap jewelry store, the kind Stepan Ivakhiv's voters have been saving up for for years from their meager incomes. He declared as family property full-size rings, pearl necklaces, pendants, several pairs of gold cufflinks with precious stones, and gold watches from PATEK PHILIPPE, AUDEMARS PIGUET, and PARMIGIANI. Ivakhiv's declaration also includes a long list of expensive haute couture items and furs, three dozen plots of land totaling 203 square meters, four apartments (2517 square meters), five cars, and a whole heap of securities.
King of tender scams Stepan Ivakhiv
Where does such wealth come from? Stepan Petrovich Ivakhiv recently broke another parliamentary record: he became the owner or co-owner of the largest number of construction and real estate companies among members of the parliamentary committee on construction, housing, and utilities. He owns a whopping 11 of them! In second place, with seven companies, is Petro Sabashuk, another member of this committee, a Solidarity faction deputy and real estate developer from Zaporizhzhia. These facts vividly illustrate who is doing what in the Verkhovna Rada commissions and committees, while living off the state budget!
Incidentally, as Skelet.Org noted , the construction methods of Stepan Ivakhiv's companies raise numerous questions and often provoke outrage among Kyiv residents. For example, in the winter of 2017, residents of Mechnikov Street, whose homes were literally being destroyed by the skyscraper being built nearby, protested. They were supported by activists from the Stop Corruption movement, who publicly revealed how and for how much Ivakhiv obtained permission to build his monstrous structure.
But Stepan Petrovich Ivakhiv has succeeded in more than just this. In the spring of 2017, he took first place in the ranking of parliamentary tenderers—that is, members of parliament whose declared companies won the most public procurement tenders between 2008 and 2017. Let us emphasize: these were companies not registered to their mothers-in-law and sisters, as is typical in big Ukrainian business, but their own, declared companies. And in this respect, Ivakhiv left everyone far behind, even the former head of the presidential administration during the "regime," Serhiy Lyovochkin , and the current presidential business partner, Ihor Kononenko.
Of the 11 billion hryvnias earned in government tenders by those on this list (90 MPs in total), Ivakhiv accounts for 4.876 billion! He also signed over two thousand contracts with government agencies. As we can see, MP Ivakhiv has a very busy and demanding work schedule, but only within the framework of his business! It's no surprise that he is also among the top three parliamentary absentees, and his relationship with voters leaves much to be desired.
Stepan Ivakhiv has received the lion's share of this money since late 2014 (when he became a member of parliament). Of this, 2,137 billion came from his company, Naftotreyd Resurs LLC (Naftotreid Resurs LLC), and that was for the period 2016-2017 alone. Public sources reveal that Naftotreyd Resurs's largest clients were: the National Police Department (464 million), several branches of Ukrtransgaz (over 200 million), the National Guard's logistics base (176 million), and Rivneoblenergo, Lvivoblenergo, and Volynoblenergo (approximately 120 million). One can only guess how Stepan Ivakhiv secured these lucrative tenders! The problem is that Neftetreyd Resurs LLC's reputation as a tender participant has not only long been tarnished, but the company's name regularly surfaces in scandalous revelations. Let's list just a few of them:
*In 2016, the Lviv Railway Administration held a tender for the purchase of gasoline and diesel fuel (fuel cards). Four companies participated: Tekhoil Realtor LLC (16,62 rubles), Okko-Business Contact LLC (16,85 rubles), Lviv Petroleum LLC (22,50 rubles), and Neftetreyd Resurs LLC (19,99 rubles). Their bids for A-95 gasoline are given in parentheses. This tender became an example of modern-day corruption, not much different from the corruption of previous regimes. It would seem that preference should have been given to Tekhoil Realtor, but they were removed from the bidding altogether under the pretext of non-compliance with the tender conditions—without any explanation. Then, Lviv Railway officials suddenly went blind in one eye and failed to notice the existence of Okko-Business, owned by businessman Vitaliy Antonov, owner of the Okko chain and a perennial rival of Ivakhiv. Afterwards, they "with a clear conscience" declared Naftotrade Resource LLC the winner of the tender, even though its only remaining competitor, Lviv Petroleum, was offering fuel at an even higher price! As a result of these cynical manipulations, the state lost approximately 4 million hryvnias—that's how much more expensive the fuel from Naftotrade Resource was than if it had been purchased from its competitors. To add insult to injury, another scandal almost erupted: journalists wondered how Lviv Railway management had managed to obtain 1,1 million liters of gasoline, and with ration cards at that. After all, diesel locomotives don't run on it, and Lviv Railway's fleet of service vehicles (fueled by A-95) is small! Lviv railway officials, scowling like owls, stubbornly refused to give a direct answer to this question.
Stepan Ivakhiv: A pseudo-patriot puts the state in tender bast shoes and robs the widow of a deceased friend
*The tender for fuel procurement by the state-owned enterprise Lvivvugol, held in May 2016, confirms the theory that Lviv Petroleum LLC is a shell company. Only two companies participated in the "competition": Lviv Petroleum and VOG Retail LLC, which is also part of the business empire of Stepan Ivakhiv (and his associates). Everything went swimmingly: Lviv Petroleum offered fuel at an inflated price, and VOG Retail practically honestly won the tender for 28,15 million hryvnias! But there was a long-forgotten detail in this story, unearthed by concerned truth-seekers at the instigation of Skelet.Org : back in 2002, Lviv Petroleum became one of the founders of SNG-SP LLC, the other founder being the Western Oil Group, a company owned by business partners Stepan Ivakhiv and Igor Eremeev. Moreover, their stake was later registered to Neftetrade Resource, making it a partner of Lviv Petroleum!
*On January 24, 2017, the Drohobych municipal enterprise "City Management Plant" held a tender for the purchase of diesel fuel and gasoline. Two competitors participated in the bidding: Okko-Business Contact LLC and Neftetrade Resource LLC. This time, the bidding itself was fair and transparent, and the victory of Neftetrade Resource, which offered the lower price, seemed completely legitimate. This was true, but not for long. The day after the contract was signed, Neftetrade's manager met again with Drohobych officials, and they... began changing the tender terms to increase the fuel price! Moreover, this was done three times, and by February 3, Neftetrade's fuel price had increased by 25%! This was truly a new era in tender scams.
*On June 2, 2017, the Mykolaiv International Airport utility signed a contract with Naftotrade Resource for the purchase of 38,7 liters of gasoline and diesel fuel. It was a scam in which Ivakhiv outdid himself! The airport administration failed to disclose whether mandatory tenders had been held prior to this. Moreover, a glaring violation was discovered in this contract: the fuel price and the tender contract amount were missing! The question arose: how did the officials sign this "worthless document"? In response to journalists' questions, airport director Sergei Filatov began to justify himself by claiming the fuel price would change "as it was purchased." However, certain accounting documents soon emerged indicating that the fuel price from Naftotrade Resource was clearly known, but for some reason it was listed outside the contract as an "appendix." The stated amount (902 hryvnias) eloquently indicated that the average fuel price under this "secret agreement" was 23,3 hryvnias per liter—much higher than the wholesale price and in line with retail prices at WOG gas stations. Officials claimed this was true at the time, but Naftotrade promised to provide discounts at the gas station for airport vehicles. One question remained unanswered: how could they provide a discount on gasoline if Mykolaiv Airport vehicles would be refueled using ration cards?
Three of the casket
However, the tender scandals listed above are just the tip of a huge iceberg of scams and frauds that Stepan Ivakhiv and his partners Igor Eremeev (now deceased) and Sergei Lagur (still very much alive) have been carrying out for many years .
Igor Eremeev
Stepan Ivakhiv's biography reveals that he and Igor Yeremeyev were the same age and fellow villagers (from the village of Ostrozhets, Dubensky District, Rivne Oblast). From 1988 to 1992, they studied together at the Rivne Institute of Water Management (where they became friends), and then went into business, registering the small business "Continuum" in their home village, which manufactured leather jackets. They sourced their raw materials from local cooperatives, sewed them sloppily, and the jackets were of poor quality, making the business a failure. By 1995, their small business had evolved into Trading House Continuum LLC, registered in Lutsk, trading in everything from consumer goods to fuel, which Continuum then focused on, creating the joint venture Western Oil Group (West Oil Group). Since they sourced their fuel from the Drohobych refinery "Galichina," they soon became close with one of the company's co-owners, Serhiy Lagur. He's a relatively private man, and rumors about his past remain rife, including some that were criminal in nature (according to Skelet.Org, he was a member of an organized crime group and managed gangster money invested in the oil business). In short, in the early 2000s, these three merged their businesses and became the main co-owners of the Continuum group of companies, and they were also joined by Petr Dyminsky , Lagur's business partner since the 1990s.
Sergey Lagur
Curiously, for a long time, the press only mentioned the names of Yeremeyev and Dyminsky, very rarely Lagur, and almost never Ivakhiv – despite him being a consistent co-owner of their joint ventures. For example, in the scandalous affair with Nadra Bank. Lagur and Yeremeyev were reportedly involved, having bought out a stake in the bank from Alexander Yaroslavsky in 2005 and become partners with the Segal brothers. But for some reason, Stepan Ivakhiv was not mentioned, or did he then carefully erase all traces of his involvement? There is another explanation for this, based on the numerous corruption and borderline criminal scandals involving the co-owners of the Continuum Group. Ivakhiv, Yeremeyev, and Lagur always acted as a team, but never crowded together; each was in their place, fulfilling their task – and could then replace the other.
The nature of their scams at the time raises questions about the shady schemes Stepan Ivakhiv is running today. For example, in 2005, a scandal erupted between then-Minister of Justice Roman Zvarych and MP Yeremeyev. It centered on a dispute over 3 million tons of oil: Zvarych's family's Oil Transit LLC wanted to profit from re-exporting the oil, while Yeremeyev's companies wanted to profit from a VAT refund scam.
Then came 2008 and the collapse of Nadra Bank, through which its owners and managers stole billions from depositors and the state, later transferring the money to the border or transferring it to the accounts of their Ukrainian companies. A similar story unfolded in 2017: law enforcement agencies launched a large-scale investigation into the activities of PJSC Bank of Investments and Savings, whose main shareholders are Ivakhiv and Lagur, as well as related companies of the Continuum Group. The bank is suspected of fraudulent schemes involving siphoning funds into shell companies and subsequent bankruptcy, and investigators are now convinced that the case will not be limited to just banking fraud. After all, just recently (in 2015), a scheme by the Continuum Group was exposed, through which Ivakhiv and Eremeyev used shell companies to bankrupt their businesses and ultimately evade taxes. At that time, companies such as Continent Oil Trade, Resource Standard, Trans Trade Oil, and Marshall Trade Oil were known, and the amount of unpaid taxes to the state ranged from 1 to 2 billion hryvnia.
This, in fact, explains why Stepan Ivakhiv owns so many different firms and companies. It seems the businessmen-MPs have mastered the practice of initially making money but failing to pay taxes, then suddenly going bankrupt and closing down—and being replaced by another one from the ranks.
And here's a coincidence: just as the case of fictitious bankruptcies began to gain serious traction, and at the same time information emerged about the possible return of the Segal brothers to Ukraine and the beginning of an investigation into the Nadra Bank case, Igor Yeremeyev fell from a horse and was injured, and then died (August 12, 2015) during treatment.
Was it a coincidence that just a month after his death, the bankruptcy of the main company, Continuum-Galichina Trading House LLC, which combined the assets of Yeremeyev, Ivakhiv, and Lagur, began? If fraudsters are using a company's bankruptcy to evade taxes, then why wouldn't they use it to disinherit the relatives of their deceased partner? As monstrous as it may seem to suggest that Stepan Ivakhiv decided to cheat the wife and son of his old friend and partner, the fight over his inheritance, which has been going on for almost two years, confirms it.
And now another interesting fact: the current fantastically successful tender business of Stepan Ivakhiv and his company (in partnership with Lagur) "Naftotrade Resource" was preceded by the even more resoundingly successful tender business of Yeremeyev and his companies (in partnership with Ivakhiv and Lagur). In particular, in the period 2011-2013, "Ukrzaliznytsia" concluded tender agreements with the companies LLC "Ukrpostach-Naftotrade", LLC "VOG Aero Trade", CJSC "Kherson Oil Refinery", MP "Impex" and "Continuum-Galichina" for a total of 17,27 billion hryvnia! And that's not all! In 2014-2015. VOG Trade LLC won 885 tenders worth a total of 3,174 billion hryvnias! Among its largest clients were the Ministry of Internal Affairs (600 million), the Central Support Base of the National Guard (283 million), Kyivenergo (159 million), and the Ukrainian Sea Ports Authority. Considering the specifics of Yeremeyev-Ivakhiv's tender business, as well as their tax evasion methods, one can only imagine the scale of their profits!
Strictly speaking, this wasn't just Yeremeyev's achievement; the entire trio toiled hard, but back then, Yeremeyev was the driving force behind their collective, as he was the only one holding a parliamentary mandate. After his death, this role passed to Stepan Ivakhiv, who received his mandate in the fall of 2014. He now splits the companies' profits not three ways, but two ways. However, what if another Continuum co-owner falls off a snowmobile or bicycle? After all, Stepan Petrovich Ivakhiv is quite good at managing business himself, and he has every chance of raising his companies' profits to the 2011-2015 levels.
There's just one question: why isn't such a remarkable businessman in jail yet? To answer it, let's take another look at the list of state institutions and enterprises whose officials allowed Stepan Ivakhiv and his associates to plunder Ukraine's budget.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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