Viktor Bondik: Ammonia Schemes of Three Presidents. Part 1
The most widespread and rampant corruption flourishes at the management level of state-owned enterprises, and it's virtually unaffected by changes in power in Ukraine. A striking example of this is the case of the state-owned enterprise Ukrhimtransammiak, all of whose directors have distinguished themselves in embezzlement and corruption schemes. And the first among them was Viktor Bondyk, who managed the enterprise from 2007 to 2016 and, according to various estimates, defrauded it of between $150 million and $1 billion! But why is Bondyk still not behind bars, while other executives continue to embezzle at Ukrhimtransammiak?
"Viktor Bondyk lived in a house behind a tall fence, and he didn't give a damn about anyone around him." This, somewhat parodying Igor Irtenyev, could be used to describe the public scandal that erupted in 2015 in the city of Bucha, first "making Bondyk famous" nationwide. Back then, he astonished everyone with a 13-meter fence (an absolute record), with which Bondyk separated his estate from neighboring houses and, in general, from the prying eyes of passersby. But Ukrainians didn't yet know that behind this mega-fence lived one of the country's most prominent and "incorrigible" corrupt officials.
Donetsk affairs
Viktor Anatolyevich Bondik was born on October 28, 1971, in Donetsk, to a simple miner's family. However, he has a difficult older brother, Valery (born 1964), who rose to prominence on his own and then helped his younger brother. Despite their age difference, the brothers resemble each other like twins, which is why the media often confuse their photos.
Valery Bondik (still from a TV show)
Valeriy Bondyk is a more well-known and public figure than his brother, Viktor. After all, he was a member of parliament (5th and 6th convocations, on the Party of Regions list), was deputy minister of justice in the Yanukovych government (2007), and then a member of the High Council of Justice of Ukraine. However, his career began as a Soviet political officer, like the current head of the Ministry of Social Policy, Andriy Reva . Valeriy Bondyk briefly served as a company political officer in Turkmenistan, and then, for some meritorious service, was transferred to Hungary, where he became a political officer of a military unit (at least a battalion), where he served for four years. It should be noted that a political officer in the Soviet army was the first assistant of a "special department" and worked closely with the KGB.
In 1990, he left the army and found work as an instructor in the ideological department of the Donetsk City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine. After the State Emergency Committee and the banning of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, communist propagandist Valeriy Bondyk managed to retrain as a legal consultant, finding a job in the Donetsk Railway administration. This marked the beginning of his legal career, although he only received his law degree in 1996, from the Ukrainian Law Academy (now the Yaroslav the Wise National Law University).
Valeriy Bondyk frequently changed jobs, moving between government service and private business. But two moments in his checkered biography are particularly noteworthy. The first is his tenure as head of the legal department at the Donetsk confectionery firm "AVK" (1996-98). This firm was founded by Vladimir Avramenko and Valeriy Kravets, former officials in Soviet trade and supply, and Avramenko even worked for the Donetsk City Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine – perhaps where he met Bondyk. Avramenko and Kravets were members of the "Donetsk clan," but how close they were to its leaders is unknown. However, in recent times, "AVK" has become infamous for a scandalous scheme that allowed it to continue operating in separatist-held Donetsk under the new brand name "Lokond . "
Alexander Leshchinsky
The second important moment in Valeriy Bondik's life was his work for Alexander Leshchinsky . It was Leshchinsky who, in the 90s, was dubbed the "vodka king of Donbas" by the late journalist Igor Alexandrov. And it was for this that Leshchinsky spent over two years harassing Alexandrov with a criminal case for alleged slander. And Valeriy Bondik was Leshchinsky's legal representative in this case!
After the massacre of Aleksandrov, Valery Bondik assisted Leshchinsky in seizing businesses in Slavyansk. He didn't just assist, he even participated in an entire special operation to remove Volodymyr Altynnik, then head of the Donetsk regional branch of the State Property Fund. Leshchinsky decided to replace him with his protégé, Serhiy Lazarenko. To achieve this, they not only pressured Altynnik but also sent him to pretrial detention for several months on charges of abuse of office. It later emerged that he had been held in pretrial detention illegally because the relevant sanction had not been signed by the then Donetsk prosecutor, Viktor Pshonka . The most interesting thing is that Valery Bondik was one of Altynnik's lawyers—and, according to Skelet.Org , it was he who then ensured that his client remained in pretrial detention for as long as possible. "He helped, like Medvedchuk helped Stus," the Obkom publication grimly joked about this.
Interestingly, the Alexandrov and Altynnik cases were handled by the same prosecutor, Yuriy Udartsov, one of Viktor Pshonka's closest and most trusted confidantes (rumor has it they are distant relatives) and a figure in many high-profile scandals. Udartsov was also closely acquainted with Leshchinsky, having provided him with services, and with Valery Bondyk, who worked for him. However, there are reports that Bondyk had met Udartsov and Pshonka before working for Leshchinsky, and that they recommended him. Regardless, Valery Bondyk became a highly trusted member of the "Donetsk clan"—so much so that in early 2004, they delegated him to Kyiv as a member of the Central Election Commission, to work with Sergei Kivalov to plot large-scale fraud during the presidential elections. His membership there was short-lived: on December 8, after the Maidan revolution in Kyiv, the frightened Verkhovna Rada deputies backed down and expelled the Kivalovites, including Valeriy Bondyk, from the Central Election Commission. But he didn't remain idle for long, and by March 2006, he himself had become an MP, and then First Deputy Minister of Justice, under Oleksandr Lavrynovych . According to Skelet.Org sources , Bondyk was appointed to this high-ranking position for a reason, but was assigned to Lavrynovych as his "overseer." Bondyk spent his second parliamentary term (2007-2012) as Deputy Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Justice.
Crimean carve-up
In the spring of 2007, the Bondik brothers managed to cause quite a scandal in Crimea, which everyone has long since forgotten, so it's worth recalling. Incidentally, this was practically the first mention of Viktor Bondik in the press, not counting his appearance on the list of deputies of the Donetsk Regional Council (Party of Regions faction) in 2006. At that time, all that was known about him was that Viktor Bondik had a degree in mining engineering, worked as the development director of Ukrinterstandart, and lived between his native Donetsk and Kyiv. However, a year later, he and his brother began to visit Crimea frequently. The purpose of these visits became known on May 29, 2007, when an open appeal from sixteen deputies of the Livadia village council to the chairman of the Yalta branch of the Party of Regions and Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych himself was published.
The deputies complained to them about Viktor Bondik, who, they said, had "harassed" them in an attempt to force them to allocate land plots in this historical resort area to the companies Levada, Nash Dom Livadia, Livadiyskie Bani, Chairinvest, and Gornoelitetsentr, which the deputies called sham. The plots that Viktor Bondik was laying claim to were also specifically named: 3 hectares of land in the village of Gorny, 2,7 hectares in the village of Vinogradny, six plots in Livadia along Baturina Street (not far from the Livadia Palace), and two plots near the Nizhnyaya Oreanda sanatorium. What a request!
At the same time, Viktor Bondyk called himself "Kyiv's representative in Livadia from the Party of Regions" and "a close friend of the Yanukovych family"—and, judging by these statements, he was laying claim to the role of "overseer." His arsenal, in addition to the loud phrases "Do you know who's behind me?!", included not only threats against individual recalcitrant MPs but also assistance from his brother (then Deputy Minister of Justice) and MP Artem Pshonka , who bombarded the Livadia State Council with parliamentary inquiries and initiated a series of investigations into its activities. Incidentally, while Viktor Pshonka's son was number 128 on the Party of Regions electoral list at the time, Valeriy Bondyk was number 101—and that spoke volumes!
Viktor Yanukovych's reaction to this scandal is curious: he didn't even consider punishing Bondyk, instead telling journalists that many people were citing his name "for business." Thus, Bondyk's claims of being close to the "family" weren't empty boasts.
It's worth recalling some of the other scandals that preceded this story. For example, that same spring of 2007, Deputy Justice Minister Valeriy Bondyk received a corruption charge from the SBU. It alleged that in April of that year, Bondyk and High Council of Justice member Valentyn Paliy had flown to Crimea on a charter flight from Kyiv to Simferopol, and the payment for the flight (amounting to 61,610 hryvnias) was made out to Bohdan Kozlov, who turned out to be... a supermarket cashier! Vitaly Bondyk himself feigned innocence and claimed to have "bought a ticket for the flight for 600 hryvnias," but this charge was supported by documents that later leaked to the media:
Valeriy Bondyk hid from these accusations, first behind his job title, then behind his parliamentary mandate—and then he was forgotten (though it wouldn't hurt to bring him up again). Moreover, in October 2007, he reported to the SBU, not to confess, but under the guise of a journalist attending a press conference , and brazenly demanded an apology from the SBU press secretary.
Moreover, the Bondyk brothers' activities in Crimea weren't limited to Livadia. Throughout 2007, Valentyn Bondyk, with the help of his brother and their Donetsk patrons, waged a war in Crimea against the local prosecutor, Viktor Shemchuk. Shemchuk himself was deeply mired in corruption and also known for his passion for amassing land in elite resort areas. But Shemchuk, from Ternopil, wasn't part of the "Donetsk prosecutors" and was an outsider to them. Moreover, he had found patronage within President Yushchenko's Secretariat. However, in 2013, Shemchuk found common ground with the "Donetsk" ones and even received from Yanukovych the post of governor of Lviv (March) and then presidential advisor (October).
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Viktor Bondik: Ammonia Schemes of Three Presidents. PART 2
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