Over the past six months, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have been actively investigating abuses of power and uncovering corruption schemes by Yanukovych and his associates. However, for some reason, the illegal activities of one of the "Donetsk people" closest to former President Yanukovych—the former governor of the Donetsk region and former Minister of Regional Development, Construction, and Housing and Utilities, Anatoly Mykhailovych Bliznyuk—remain in the shadows.
Ignoble robbers
Anatoly Bliznyuk's career became interesting around 1990, when he became first deputy mayor of Kramatorsk. From 1996 to 1997, he even served as mayor of this industrial town in the Donetsk region. In 1997, he began serving as first deputy chairman of the regional state administration.
It was during the Kramatorsk period of the future governor and minister's life that Anatoly Bliznyuk's rapid enrichment began.
It was during this time that he developed a very unique male friendship with a colorful figure in Kramatorsk—Aleksandr Rybak, the leader of the notorious "17th Precinct" criminal group, who was finally convicted of the murder of prominent opposition journalist Igor Alexandrov. In the photo, the city's mayor sincerely congratulates the crime boss who "held" Kramatorsk in the 90s and early 2000s on his birthday. People say it wasn't just a "simple male friendship" but a genuine partnership.
Thanks in large part to these partnerships, Anatoly Mikhailovich was able to take control of an entire network of enterprises and organizations in Kramatorsk, and turn the city itself into his fiefdom.
One could certainly speak of the turbulent 90s and recall other Donbas business empires. Who's without sin? Those who had the opportunity took advantage of it to steal a piece of the state's industrial and economic potential. Truth be told, Bliznyuk had his own style here, too. After all, not everyone would have thought of using criminal groups for commercial purposes.
But Bliznyuk's talent for privatization became fully apparent after he moved to work in Donetsk.
A gentleman of all-Donetsk scale
Bliznyuk's Donetsk period began in 97. The position of first deputy governor was a powerful one, but in reality, he was a sort of technical governor, someone who could be blamed for anything. And Bliznyuk carried it out. For example, signing off on the scandalous increase in utility tariffs. By 202, when Bliznyuk became governor of the Donetsk region, he had managed to bring more than a dozen large industrial enterprises into his business empire. And control over these enterprises was acquired not through market acquisitions, but, in fact, through corporate raiding.
Officially, Anatoly Bliznyuk's family owned or owns such enterprises as, for example, Engineering, Ventfasad, Starokramatorsk Machine-Building Plant, Kramatorsk Oil Company, Trade and Exhibition Center, Kramatorsk Heavy Machine-Building Plant, Kramatorsk Metal Construction Plant, Kramatorsk Motor Transport Enterprise, Elektrostal, Mining Equipment, Sintezbudservis, Sintezprodservis, and many others, not to mention the large number of enterprises that registered for specific projects to spend funds and then quickly ceased to exist.
Donetsk carve-up schemes
Anatoly Mikhailovich, in keeping with the good Donetsk tradition, did not neglect the optimization of budget funds – but rather, he simply plundered hundreds of millions from the regional budget.
For example, in 2002, immediately after his appointment as governor, Bliznyuk successfully implemented a scheme painfully familiar to many officials in most regions of Ukraine: the supply of food to medical institutions, pretrial detention centers, penal colonies, etc.
By conducting "correct" tender procedures, the winner of every single tender for the purchase of food products for medical and specialized institutions was the same entity mentioned above—Sintezprodservis LLC, controlled by Bliznyuk. Interestingly, at that time, Anatoly Mikhailovich's assistant, Anna Petrovna Aslanova, was the founder and director of this company.
Incidentally, food products subsequently supplied to medical and specialized institutions were also "purchased" from their own transit companies, naturally at prices that were significantly inflated. But that's not all: excess profits were also generated by low-quality products, and sometimes even by fictitious deliveries. On paper, the products were in one quantity, but in reality, quite different. During the last period of operation of this "professional" team, over 200 million hryvnias were transferred from the budget to Bliznyuk's companies under this scheme.
The second scheme, which also deserves attention, is the theft of state funds within the framework of the state program to create new jobs in the Donetsk region.
For those who don't remember, the state invested enormous amounts of money in this area across Ukraine. In Donbas, of course, the funds were used to employ laid-off miners from enterprises undergoing liquidation and no longer operating.
Participants in the scheme included the Employment Center, the Compulsory State Social Insurance Fund, the State Treasury in Donetsk Oblast, and finally, firms that participated in tenders for employment funding. And behind these winning firms, the figure of Anna Aslanov once again emerged.
Bliznyuk didn't even bother bringing in new people to the new sphere, likely expecting his reign in Donetsk to last a long time. So, the aforementioned Sintezprodservis, Dianka-Prod, Stroyinvest-Donbass, and several other institutions completely under Bliznyuk's control won the tenders again. The Mir enterprise, owned by the husband of Bliznyuk's deputy in the regional state administration, Marina Cherenkova, deserves special mention. 25 million hryvnias of budget funds were "flushed" into this enterprise alone! With zero benefit to the state or the people.
The total amount of public money that was thrown into this abyss is over 150 million hryvnias. You ask, what's the outcome? How many people are employed? The answer is very sad.
A typical example of this approach is the work of Marionika LLC, which, while operating under Bliznyuk's scheme, carried out fictitious employment, and those employees who were actually hired were, at best, employed in positions completely unrelated to their specialty or profile. The accrued wages, however, formed the company's expenses, reduced tax liabilities, and were then withdrawn into cash through banking institutions.
Most of the companies did not conduct such activities, withdrawing the received money for conversion and then transferring it to Bliznyuk’s assistants.
Keep your money in banks
But Anatoly Bliznyuk's finest hour came in 2008. It was in that year, when the financial crisis became inevitable, Anatoly Mikhailovich, while in the chair of the chairman of the regional council, by his own decision deposited in the funds belonging to his long-time business partner Pavel Borulko (more about it: Pavel Borulko: A Forgotten Legend of Banking Fraud) European and National Standard banks received 400 million hryvnias. This money came from the regional budget.
In most of Ukraine's regions, regional councils collaborated with state-owned banks. The logic was simple: if something happened to a bank, the money would disappear, but not in state-owned banks. Bliznyuk took advantage of the system's imperfections and deposited regional funds in commercial banks. Moreover, he received the interest rate differential and bonuses. It wasn't a scheme, it was a dream!
But in 2008, the crisis hit, and the aforementioned banks declared bankruptcy, and the money vanished into thin air. However, there's a theory that Bliznyuk managed to extort 50% of the deposit from his partner. Whatever the case, the money never returned to the regional budget.
Help yourself... With government money
Bliznyuk is also implicated in corrupt schemes involving state financial assistance to Ukrainian enterprises. For example, at a November 2010 meeting of the government commission for the coordination of investment project activities, headed by Andriy Klyuyev, a decision was made to allocate 172 million hryvnias to the Kramatorsk-based Energomashspetsstal plant.
It's ironic that the owner of this plant, which is seeking state aid, was and remains... a foreign investor. However, the real owner of the plant is revealed by the name of the chairman of Energomashspetsstal's supervisory board: Donetsk Regional Council deputy Serhiy Bliznyuk, son of Donetsk Region Governor Anatoly Bliznyuk.
Incidentally, regarding the illegal allocation of funds described above, Yulia Tymoshenko appealed to the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine with a demand to initiate criminal proceedings, return the funds to the budget, and hold those responsible accountable.
In 2011, Anatoly Mikhailovich was appointed Minister of Regional Development, Construction, and Housing and Utilities. And, as usual, "Mikhalych's" proactive nature kept him busy. After all, his habit of pilfering anything that wasn't nailed down hadn't gone away.
In addition to minor issues of embezzlement of public funds (for a minister of state, how can one consider such a matter major, for example, the theft of 25 million hryvnias allocated from the state budget for the Maryinsky District Municipal Institution, which was then stolen in full?), Bliznyuk's attention was drawn to a new, promising issue called the "Affordable Housing" program. Initially, the program was planned to cost around a billion hryvnias. However, additional benefits were envisaged for developers struggling due to the real estate crisis. However, due to a severe shortage of funds, the widely publicized program was ignominiously curtailed.
Family Nest
This public service apparently brings in a handsome income. According to his asset declaration, Bliznyuk owns apartments with a total area of 64 square meters and 90,8 square meters; a 1961 Moskvitch 407 and a 2011 Volkswagen Tiguan, valued at over $60. However, Anatoly Mikhailovich prefers to travel in a Mercedes S-Class, valued at over one and a half million hryvnias.
But in reality, Anatoly Bliznyuk lives in a luxurious mansion worth several million US dollars, located in the Donetsk suburb of Pyatikhatki. The mansion is protected from prying eyes by fences, CCTV cameras, and a barrier.
The village where Bliznyuk's estate is located is considered elite. It boasts its own fitness center with a variety of swimming pools, gyms, and a spa.
Family row
In terms of optimizing and redistributing budgetary flows, Bliznyuk's sons, Sergei and Alexei, are lagging behind their father.
For example, in 2013, the Housing Department of the Donetsk City Council concluded a number of agreements for the reconstruction of five residential buildings for 16,03 million hryvnia.
All buildings must be equipped with the "Marmorok" curtain wall system, produced by the Donetsk company "Ventfasad".
Marmarokbud LLC will receive UAH 3,27 million for the reconstruction of the building at 19 Shevchenko Blvd.
The company "Marmorokbud" and LLC "Ventfasad" are registered to the company "SK Engineering", whose owners are the Belizean offshore "Diomar Invest Limited" and LLC "All-Ukrainian Management Company".
Previously, Lilia Bliznyuk, Anatoly Bliznyuk's wife, was one of the owners of SK Engineering. The company is now controlled, through a chain of other companies, by his youngest son, Alexey, and his son's wife, Elena Bliznyuk.
And in 2012, the Road Service of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea concluded a number of agreements with CJSC Kommuntrans for road repairs for a total of 207.91 million UAH.
Taking this deal into account, over the past four years, Kommuntrans has won road repair tenders across Ukraine worth UAH 985,49 million. And somehow, it's not surprising that the aforementioned Oleksiy Bliznyuk is among the founders.
Kramatorsk gentleman. Junior.
Unlike Bliznyuk's youngest son, Alexei, the elder Sergei remains a faithful guardian of family traditions on the family's patrimony in Kramatorsk.
City entrepreneurs are concerned about the actions of Serhiy Bliznyuk, the son of the current Minister of Housing and Public Utilities, Anatoly Bliznyuk, aimed at organizing the seizure of private businesses in Kramatorsk, Slavyansk, and Krasny Liman. This was reported in a collective appeal by an initiative group of Kramatorsk entrepreneurs.
Today, Sergey Anatolyevich Bliznyuk's main business is based in Kramatorsk. It's no secret that his entire business is built on companies and schemes operating through offshore shell companies to minimize taxes.
So what allows Sergei Bliznyuk to remain one of the richest people in Kramatorsk? According to experts, besides Energomashspetsstal itself, several other enterprises are among them: Kramatorsk Heavy Machine-Tool Plant, Starokramatorsky Machine-Building Plant, Technological and Special Equipment Plant, Kramatorsk Metalworking Plant, Kramatorsk Reinforced Concrete, Elektrostal, Almatrade, and Nikiz.
Besides mechanical engineering and other industries, the minister’s son is also interested in other sectors of the national economy: Kramatorsk Motor Transport Enterprise 11410 CJSC, Transport Enterprise No. 1 LLC of the city of Slavyansk, Kramatorsk Oil Company OJSC, Kramgorstroy Construction Company LLC, and Center Gold Production and Trading Enterprise OJSC.
Almost all of the listed enterprises were taken away from Kramatorsk businessmen and resold several times to their own offshore companies.
These schemes form the basis of Sergei Bliznyuk's corporate raiding. Specifically, in July 2011, Sergei Anatolyevich orchestrated an attempt to seize the Kramatorsk Central Department Store (owner of Nak LLC), using every means at his disposal (government agencies, courts, and security agencies for forceful intervention) by executing a scheme involving the assignment of debt under a loan agreement. However, this attempt failed only thanks to the lightning-fast response of Nak LLC's director, who was able to organize resistance and repay the existing loan debt.
Using similar methods, this time with the assistance of local authorities, Sergei Bliznyuk seized several large plots of land in Krasny Liman, illegally enclosing them with two-meter-high fences. These plots also contain picturesque lakes, but now the enterprising son of the Minister of Housing and Utilities has blocked access to them for ordinary residents of Krasny Liman. Sergei Bliznyuk has no legal right to own the lakes, but as it turns out, the law doesn't apply to him.
Local entrepreneurs are confident that a new wave of corporate raiding will soon begin in Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, and Krasny Liman. In particular, Sergei Bliznyuk has developed an interest in concrete and bread production. The Bliznyuk family is already devoting special attention to the resort business. According to Donetsk media, Sergei Bliznyuk plans to acquire ownership of several sanatoriums in the region. In particular, the family is closely monitoring the oldest mud baths in the Donetsk region, "Slavkurort." This, for reference, comprises approximately 240 hectares of land, sanatoriums, a regional landscape park, an ornithological sanctuary, and mineral water wells.
And, most tragically, all of these plans of Serhiy Bliznyuk and his family are becoming increasingly realistic. Serhiy Bliznyuk has already announced his intention to run for parliament in the Kramatorsk electoral district in the October 26 elections. And the stakes are high: only access to power, which the Bliznyuk family has been deprived of since Yanukovych's flight, can guarantee their further enrichment.
Let's hope the residents of Kramatorsk are tired of the Geminis and will consign all their political ambitions, and themselves along with them, to the dustbin of history. And then the work of law enforcement must begin, and, most importantly, fair and inevitable punishment.
Mamontova Fekla, Elite of the Country
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