Who is Suren Sardaryan?
Few people have heard of Suren Sardaryan. But practically the entire country knows who Vadim Titushko is. The man whose last name, after the events of the Euromaidan in Kyiv in 2014, gave rise to the nickname for militants – "titushki." Here's what he said in an interview with joinfo.ua. "In Ukraine, facts are not proof at all. For example, in 2014, in Odessa. Vilkul personally contacted the local 'authority' Suren Sardaryan. He went to universities and sports schools to gather 'fodder' for Kyiv. Those who refused were expelled. They collected approximately 3,5 people. One of the foremen – Zheka – still hasn't spoken to me. He, like other detained foremen, was given a paper from Sardaryan before interrogation, telling him what to say," Titushko recalled.
Therefore, the "transport king"'s involvement in the beating of Euromaidan protesters outside the Regional State Administration building on February 19, 2014, remains unproven. That day, his Severtrans buses carried over 200 "titushki" (illegal thugs) who carried out the massacre. More than 50 people were injured, including nine journalists. Sardaryan escaped unscathed, explaining that a private individual had rented the buses from him.
Or here's an interesting fact. After the occupation of Crimea, the Russian prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against four Ukrainian citizens under Article 134 (sexual intercourse and other sexual acts with a person under sixteen). One of the four is... Suren Sardaryan. He and his friends repeatedly visited the Artek Young Pioneer Camp under the pretext of providing financial assistance to children from low-income families.
I don't know about the financial aid situation, but we're talking about twelve girls, aged between 12 and 14. Rumor has it that the Ukrainian prosecutor's office opened the case, but it was hushed up.
So we have an excellent opportunity to tell you about one of the most notorious swindlers of all-Ukrainian scale, the bandit and racketeer Suren Sardaryan, who bears the unofficial title of "transport king."
Help.
The Severtrans carrier was founded in 1997. Vesta-Trans owns 90% of its shares. Vesta's official owner is the British company Horizon London Limited. Sardaryan's wife, Karine, chairs Severtrans's Supervisory Board. His 29-year-old son, Khachatur, also serves on the company's board.
Vestashlyakhbud was founded in 2002. Its co-owners include several individuals from the Dnipropetrovsk region, Karine Sardaryan, and the Cypriot company Oppugno Ltd. For the past eight years, the company has consistently won all road repair tenders in Kryvyi Rih.
Vesta Service supplies fuel to Kryvyi Rih's utility companies. Odesa-based Vesta also owns Ecospetstrans, a company that handles waste collection in all seven districts of Kryvyi Rih. In short, Kryvyi Rih residents can't live without Odesa residents.
KB Engineering, a company co-owned by Sardaryan's Ecotown Group, won a tender in the fall of 2012 to provide GPS navigation services to carriers. Now, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, signing a contract with KB Engineering LLC is mandatory for participation in the regional carrier tender.
From Fraud to the Title of "Transport King"
Former law enforcement officer Suren Sardaryan began his rise to wealth and power by providing protection for businessmen. But after deciding that this wasn't a profitable path, he and his gang began using threats to expropriate businesses and property. This is how the well-known Odesa gas station chain "Vesta" came into his possession.
Before taking sole control of the gas station chain, Sardaryan joined the founding board and then "drove out" all his "partners." A novice but already seasoned fraudster, he transferred all financial accounts to offshore zones in Cyprus to avoid paying taxes. Ultimately, Sardaryan defrauded not only the state, depriving it of budget revenue, but also ordinary Odessans who filled up their cars at his stations.
Former gangster Suren Sardaryan decided to expand on his 90s protection racket and continued lining his pockets through fraud. His next victim was the company "Mobile Terminal." Under the contract, Vesta gas stations agreed to sell fuel supplied by Mobile Terminal. Sardaryan received a total of $14 million in fuel. At this point, all payments were suspended. Despite Mobile Terminal's attempts to recover the money, Suren Sardaryan still owes $2 million. To avoid repaying the debt, Vesta gas stations were fictitiously declared bankrupt. In reality, all the gas stations were simply renamed: "Lotus" and "Sun Oil."
Having incurred numerous legal costs defending the stolen funds, Sardaryan decides to make money again using a tried-and-true scheme. He creates the company "Severtrans" and appropriates the "Severny" motor pool.
How did Odessa's "transport king" take over Kyiv's "sweet" transportation?
Rumor has it that the whole thing stems from the protection of former Deputy Prime Minister Vilkul (for more details, see Oleksandr Vilkul: The Forgotten Past of a Dnipropetrovsk Mayoral Candidate ). Mutual assistance in various sensitive matters (we've already covered them) formed a successful criminal partnership. First, Sardaryan acquired Odessa's municipal bus fleet, "Severnyi," as mentioned above, practically for nothing. With Oleksandr Vilkul's support, Suren Sardaryan "won" tenders for transportation not only in the Odesa region, but also in Kirovohrad, Pavlohrad, Kryvyi Rih, and Dnipropetrovsk.
This wasn't enough for the transport king, who wanted to take Kyiv's "golden routes" for himself. Rumor has it that Mykola Kotushenko, director of the Kyivpassservice enterprise, was lured into signing an agreement for (effectively illegal) transportation on the Kyiv-Odesa route.
In practice, there are no permits for these services; everything is paid for in unaccounted "black cash," meaning there are no tickets or route sheets. Minibuses simply depart from the bus station as they fill up. But remember, the bus station is state-owned. This brings zero revenue to the treasury. All the cash is handed over to Kotushenko. This is stated in a telegram signed by him on May 16, 2016, regarding the introduction of additional Kyiv-Odesa routes.
The scheme was roughly the same for other transportation companies in the capital. Key people in the capital were bribed in advance and helped win transportation tenders. As a result, Kyiv's carriers and the public rebelled against the gangster and his corrupt schemes, achieving the termination of contracts and the dismissal of officials who had been bribed by Sardaryan.
Sardaryan in other cities: not only transportation.
Other cities and regions weren't so lucky. Having suppressed small carriers, Sardaryan continued to operate there, pumping fuel from his own gas stations into his own buses. Maintaining the condition of these vehicles is not in the interests of the new "master of life." Not only do the buses receive low-quality fuel, but they also fail to undergo the required technical inspections. Minibuses are not repaired. Warped, with poor brakes, a terrifying grinding noise, and rotten floors, they put thousands of Ukrainians in Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, Pavlohrad, and Kryvyi Rih in mortal danger.
Thanks to his high-level patronage, law enforcement and regulatory agencies don't check whether the tender conditions are met during transportation: the fleet, the first-aid station, the condition of the buses, the driver qualifications, or the presence of depots in the aforementioned cities. Desiring to gain control of all carriers, Sardaryan doesn't hesitate to harass people, threaten the families of company owners, and use brutal force.
The "transport king" has already monopolized over 30% of transportation in the Odesa region. With over 16 bus stations, it dictates its terms to the Odesa region authorities in the auto transportation market. Specifically, it handles 80% of the transportation from the village of Kotovsky to various districts of Odesa, thus exerting pressure on local authorities by threatening to cause a transport collapse by not deploying its buses on Odesa routes one fine morning.
At the same time, all of Sardaryan's actual economic activity is securely hidden in offshore companies. Absolutely everything—from his vehicles to his network of Vesta gas stations. Drivers who risked filling up at his stations aptly called it "car smashing." Suren Sardaryan found common ground with all the regulatory agencies; or, to put it simply, he put them on his payroll.
With Sergey Prikhodko, SKELET-info
Read more: Oleksandr Vilkul: The Forgotten Past of a Dnipropetrovsk Mayoral Candidate
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