Vlad Yakubovsky, the eminence grise of Trade Commodity, is robbing the Ministry of Defense again.
The Ministry of Defense paid its fuel suppliers 7% VAT, although the government had already set a zero rate on fuel for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at the beginning of the invasion. сообщают "Our money," he writes. Antikor.
According to information obtained by the publication from the State Audit Service, in 2022, a private supplier, through a "rollup" mechanism, immediately withdrew funds intended for tax repayments to the state. The Security Service of Ukraine is currently unsuccessfully trying to find this supplier, who managed not only to roll up but also to sell fuel to the state during the first year of the war at a hefty, far from market, markup of 56-62 hryvnias per ton. This corresponds to a price of 57-63 hryvnias per liter. Such prices were unheard of at any gas station in the country during that period. The most expensive diesel fuel cost a maximum of 55 hryvnias per liter.
Vlad Yakubovsky: How Yura Yenakievsky's "chick" rose to success
Let's help the Security Service. This supplier is Yakubovsky Vladislav BoleslavovichDuring Yanukovych's time, he was the deputy chairman of the State Committee of Ukraine for State Material Reserves and the chairman of the State Agency for Environmental Investments of Ukraine. The man who wasn't shy rob orphans, under the roof Yuri Yenakievsky by embezzling billions of dollars that Ukraine received under the Kyoto Protocol and that were supposed to go, but weren't, to the development of boarding schools, orphanages, schools, etc.
And then, after the fall of Yanukovych, Vladik emerged in the Granovsky-Adamovsky clan, which, under the protection of the gray-haired Hetman, deftly siphoned off the budgets of the Ministry of Defense and Ukrainian Railways with the help of companies from the legendary Trade Commodity group. This group became famous for skillfully destroying everything—the army, the language, and the faith—under the slogan "army, language, faith." Buying fuel from Rosneft, "producing" diesel fuel, which in reality was a concoction of kerosene and base oil, destroying the engines of Ukrainian tanks and other military equipment, and robbing the country of billions in "private deals" with Medvedchuk in Ukrzaliznytsia tenders.
Yes, Granovsky is currently on the run in Vienna, and Adamovsky is under investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU). But the Trade Commodity group is still operating. Because its mastermind and driver, Vlad Yakubovsky, is at large. Few people know this, but it was Vladik who did all the work in the land of the "Commodities." Adamovsky developed the strategy for how rabbits should become squirrels, while Granovsky "decided" in "his" department of the Prosecutor General's Office and in the courts. And the quiet Vladik, after the scandal involving the Kyoto Protocol funds, realized it was better not to sign anything personally, and he took over the management of the group.
So, let's recap what Trade Commodity is, or, as it's known in the market, "commodities." It's a complex system of companies that emerged after Petro Poroshenko was elected president and has become one of the largest tender winners and importers of fuel in Ukraine. According to Nashi Dengi (Our Money), based on an analysis of data from the Public Procurement Bulletin and information from the Prozorro system, during the "Peter the Fifth"The Dressers" won 17 billion rubles in fuel tenders for the state. A group of previously unknown, no-name companies, mostly registered in the Dnipropetrovsk region, entered the market in 2015 and seized on the most lucrative opportunities.
In particular, the dressers received UAH 17 billion in state funds from the following customers:
- Branch "Production Support Center" of JSC "Ukrzaliznytsia" - UAH 10,28 billion.
- Ministry of Defense of Ukraine — 5,53 billion UAH
- State Reserve Agency of Ukraine — UAH 0,42 billion.
- JSC Centrenergo — 0,23 billion UAH.
- Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Combine branch of JSC OGKhK — UAH 0,10 billion.
And the funds were distributed among only 6 companies:
- Trade Commodity LLC, owned by Vadim Mike from Kamenskoye — 5,18 billion hryvnias
- LLC Firma "Fideya" of Evgeniy Golovachov from Kamenskoye - 3,34 billion UAH.
- August Prom LLC, owned by Oleksandr Berkovsky from Kamenskoye — UAH 3,20 billion.
- Optimus Connection LLC (Gaztrade) of Mykola Veselsky from Kamenskoye - UAH 3,06 billion.
- Torum LLC of Dmitry Medvedev from Kyiv - 1,97 billion UAH.
- Meta Oil LLC, owned by Georgy Gnoyany from Kamenskoye — UAH 0,22 billion
Vlad Yakubovsky, the eminence grise of Trade Commodity, is robbing the Ministry of Defense again.
However, this is far from a complete list of the companies managed by Vlad Yakubovsky from the fifth floor of the Eurasia Business Center at 73-81 Zhylianska Street in Kyiv. This is the business center where Adamovsky's office was located and where a sign hung: "Reception Office of People's Deputy Oleksandr Granovsky."
Therefore, we will supplement the list of companies whose activities are or were supervised by Yakubovsky.
First, a report for the SBU. Companies with which Vlad Yakubovsky is affiliated personally or through his brother, Vyacheslav. Vyacheslav is more than fully devoted to him for his success in life, so much so that he named his daughter after his brother-leader, Vlad.
- So, Construction Point , founded in 2009. The authorized capital is 500,000 hryvnias. Yakubovsky owns 50% of it, and the other 25% each Zaza Zozirova and a citizen of Georgia Zazi GumberidzeSignatory - Irina Shvedovskaya.
- Logistics company "Synergy", founded in 2015. The authorized capital is 716,000 hryvnias. Yakubovsky owns 30% of it (currently through the company "Eurasia"). Daniil Konstantinov 25%, Valery Lozutov 25% and Jan Nemirovsky 20%. All partners in this firm are from the Dnipropetrovsk region. Until 2020, the company was managed by Dmitry Medvedev, then replaced it Oleg Bondar The office of this company was in the same business center "Eurasia".
- Investment company Eurasia , founded in 2016. The authorized capital is 1,000,000 hryvnias. Vlad Yakubovsky owns 50% of it, and the other 50% belongs to To Dmitry Adamovsky , the son of Andrei Adamovsky, through a venture fund Centaurus.
- Ukrainian Locomotive Building Company, founded in 2016. Yakubovsky and Adamovsky own 30% of it through an investment company Eurasia. 29% have Vladimir Vitnitsky through company Full Trading another 29,9% have PAvel Tishchenko through company Solar Energy Green, 10% since 2021 belong Alexander SlyusarchukThis company's office was also located in the Eurasia business center. Among other things, this company is of interest because in 2020, Odesa-American fraudster Lev Parnas, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison in the United States last year, attempted to lobby for its interests. In 2020, in correspondence with Arsen Avakov Parnas asked the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to assist Yakubovsky so that the Ukrainian Locomotive Company could begin operations on the Lviv Railway.
- Association of Ukrainian Railway Carriers was founded in 2019. Its founders are Ukrainian Locomotive Building Company, co-owned by Vlad Yakubovsky, and Western Ukrainian logistics company, registered to a lawyer Oleg YaremaThe signatory of the company is indicated Andrey Miroshnikov, former leader Department of Commercial Work of Ukrzaliznytsia.
- Maxmed International LLC. This company's office was also located in the Eurasia Business Center, and its director was Yulia Pavlichenko, which together with Vladislav Yakubovsky was co-owner Ukrainian Locomotive Building Company. Before that, the lady was known as former leader State Enterprise "Ukrekoresursy" and Deputy Director The Department of Accounting, Financial Planning, and Operations Support of the State Agency for Environmental Investments of Ukraine, which, as a reminder, was headed by Vladislav Yakubovsky.
- UkrPetrol LLC, Element Neft LLC, Western Oil and Gas Company LLC, Alexprom LLC, and Khimprodtorg Ltd LLC are suppliers of fuel, or more precisely, the slop that the “chests of mods” under Yakubovsky’s leadership purchased for the Ukrainian army and railway.
- Neft Capital Group LLC and Skytorg LLC. Owners of the SKY gas station chain, whose rapid growth began in 2015–2016, when Trade Commodity became the dominant bidder in tenders for state-owned companies and budgetary organizations.
- Energomed+ LLC is a company involved in the VAT rollback process, illegally paid to the Ministry of Defense for fuel supplies in 2022. The owner of this company is Konstantin Arsenyev, a resident of the same city of Kamenskoye, who also owns the aforementioned Skytorg LLC.
- LLC "Novaya treyd grupp" and LLC "Optimum-V" are the companies that were used to bankrupt LLC "Trade Commodity" by slapping it with a fictitious debt of 2,7 million UAH, as stated in tax notification-decision No. 0001914614 of the Dnipropetrovsk office of the Office of Large Taxpayers of the State Fiscal Service from 2017.
This list could be expanded with another dozen companies, but we won't abuse the reader's attention.
So how did the "chests of drawers" work?
We'll explore the main fraudulent schemes developed not by Adamovsky, and certainly not by Granovsky, but by the group's shadow director, Vladislav Yakubovsky.
Concluding additional transactions after the tender, price blackmail of the customer
In April 2016, the Ministry of Defense held a tender for fuel procurement, and the then-unknown Trade Commodity won virtually all the lots. The company was to supply the Ministry with various types of fuel worth 1,24 billion hryvnias. According to the investigationAccording to the report published in the Mirror of the Week, the tender had a number of features:
- The largest competitor, the company WOG, literally cleared the way for Trade Commodity, and then supplied the “straw man” with its own fuel so that it could fulfill the contract;
- After the tender was completed, the Ministry of Defense and Trade Commodity twice agreed to increase the price of fuel, and both times they did not publish information about the new price and changes in the fuel names;
- The Ministry of Defense began collecting and paying for fuel not when the price was lowest, but on the contrary, at its peak after reviewing the contracts;
- After the contract revision, the market price collapsed, but there was no new revision—that is, the Ministry of Defense was trying to buy fuel not cheaper, but more expensive;
As a result of price manipulation, the Ministry of Defense overpaid Trade Commodity at least 100 million hryvnias.
The main successor of Trade Commodity is OOO Torum, acted in the same way:
- In 2018, Torum won a tender for the supply of diesel fuel to the Astra plant and didn't put it fuel, because prices rose and the State Reserve refused to raise the price.
- In the same year the company tried sell gasoline, which is banned in Ukraine, to the Ministry of Defense (Trade Commodity had previously tried to sell the same gasoline).
- In the same 2018, Torum supplied UZ with diesel engines worth 700 million hryvnias. overstated, according to the State Fiscal Service, the price. It also failed to pay approximately 920 million hryvnias in taxes on fuels and lubricants imported into Ukraine.
- In September 2020, the management of the tender division of Ukrzaliznytsia was changed - the tender management was put in charge Timur Valiev, a man owned by Arsen Avakov. Just a month later, UZ experienced a fuel crisis: companies that had submitted tender bids for diesel fuel supplies refused to supply fuel at the agreed price because the market price for diesel had risen. The company selected as the largest supplier in that fuel tender was Torum, and it was she who refused to supply fuel first. After lengthy negotiations, UZ paid 30% more.
Exclusion of competitors from tenders due to appeals to the courts and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine
In the spring of 2017, Ukrzaliznytsia announced a 304 million hryvnia tender for 250 gondola freight cars. Three companies were admitted to the tender: the well-known Kryukovsky and Popasnyansky plants, and a then-unknown company. Maxmed International, which was admitted to the tender despite an obvious violation of its terms - it had to provide at least two contracts for the performance of similar work, but provided only one, and that concerned the delivery of one old (1990) platform car to the company KPK-Invest, and the agreement was signed on June 12, 2017, that is, after the Ukrzaliznytsia tender was announced. At the same time, Maxmed International won another Tender Ukrzaliznytsia, by 60 million hryvnias.
During the tender process, Maxmed appealed to the Antimonopoly Committee demanding that its largest competitor, the Kryukovsky plant, be excluded from the tender due to the non-compliance of one of the Kryukovsky railcar components with the tender conditions. This effectively eliminated the Kryukovsky plant from the competition. Maxmed then appealed a number of Ukrzaliznytsia tenders, resulting in the blocking of railcar purchases worth approximately 8 billion hryvnias. Ekonomichna Pravda discovered that the mass appeals against the tenders began when Maxmed International was re-registered to Yulia Pavlichenko.
In total, in 2017, Maksmed filed 157 complaints about procurement, mainly about procurement by Ukrzaliznytsia, and VoxUkraine explored, that she then unusually often did not participate in the contested tenders and came to the conclusion that the company's actions could be interpreted as sabotage.
Artificial restriction of competition
After the introduction of the UZ special certification of companies that can supply UZ lubricants, it became one of two companies that received the necessary permits to operate. The second company, Agrinol, is linked to a former member of parliament, a Russian citizen. Alexander Ponomarev (Will of the People).
Ukrzaliznytsia's lubricant needs in 2018 were fully met by companies affiliated with the two aforementioned business groups: Agrinol supplied the railway with 7,941 thousand tons, while companies from the Trade Commodity group supplied 7,861 thousand tons. This is because UZ blocked all but the two aforementioned groups from obtaining these permits. This practice continued in 2019, after Petro Poroshenko's presidency. Specifically, UZ ordered another 1197 tons of lubricants from Miroil and Torum, produced by Agrinol and KSM plants, worth UAH 53 million.
A similar scheme operated at the Ministry of Defense. The terms of tenders for the supply of a certain brand of oils within the military department were specified for only one company—Agrinol—but the "commodity contractors" made money by selling Agrinol products to the ministry.
This monopoly on supplies led to the failure of tank engines. In 2018, the SBU investigated the case. According to the investigation, officials from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, "acting with the knowledge and prior collusion of representatives of the Russian Federation's special and intelligence agencies and business entities," had been purchasing motor lubricants for tank engines with substandard performance properties for the needs of the Ukrainian Armed Forces since 2016. MP Serhiy Sobolev spoke about the cooperation with FSB suppliers from the podium of the Verkhovna Rada, noting that when the SBU exposed this scam, on January 27, 2017, in Slovyansk. the train burned down with 350 tons of this lubricant.
The disruption of tenders in collusion with Medvedchuk's supporters with the help of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine and the courts
In 2019-2020, the government changed, new players began to enter tenders, and state-owned enterprises acted cautiously and tried to avoid obvious deals with participants.
Vlad Yakubovskyi employed a new tactic: disrupting "illegal" tenders through lawsuits and complaints to the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. He quickly found common ground with Medvedchuk's entities—Glusko, Proton Energy, and Kornet Holding, Ukrzaliznytsia's new lubricant supplier.
With the help of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine alone, three-quarters of Ukrzaliznytsia's tenders were disrupted in 2019-2020, following complaints from the Medvedchuks and "commodity men" (Torum, August Prom, and others). Of the planned tenders worth UAH 66 million, only UAH 149 million was actually awarded, leading to fuel shortages and disruption to the state-owned company's operations.
For these purposes, the "Komods," at Yakubovsky's instigation, bought the entire deputy head of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU), Natalia Buromenskaya (dismissed by presidential order in October 2021), and Judge Yevhen Ablov, a figure notorious even in the Ukrainian judicial system, owner of a "golden" Porsche, and deputy to the legendary head of the OA. It's worth noting that Ablov is a very expensive judge, but the funding was so generous that Yevhen Valerievich literally felt sorry for himself and held hearings for "friend Vlad" even at night.
Diluted fuel and tax evasion
This is perhaps the most scandalous page in the activities of the "commodes" and Yakubovsky, since by supplying "badyagi" to state-owned enterprises, they not only caused economic damage to the state, but also deliberately carried out sabotage against Ukraine's defense capability, intentionally destroying its strategic enterprises, working in the interests of the aggressor state.
The Main Investigative Department of the National Police, in criminal case No. 42015000000000717, established that in 2015-2016, companies from the Trade Commodity group sold gasoline containing hazardous chemicals under the guise of A-80, A-92, and A-95 grades, as well as diesel fuel. The list included four fuel suppliers to Trade Commodity: UkrPetrol LLC, Element Neft LLC, Western Oil and Gas Company LLC, and Alexprom LLC. The "Bodega" was produced on the premises of the Pavlograd Chemical Plant (PCP) State Enterprise, where the scammers operated an illegal oil refinery. Low-quality fuel was sold for cash to a number of companies, including Trade Commodity LLC, which, by artificially increasing fuel quality at illegal depots, fraudulently sells low-quality fuel, passing it off as a standard product. The final buyers of the fuel were the state-owned enterprises Southern Railways, Southwestern Railways, and Lviv Railways.
Throughout their existence, the "dressers" have not hesitated to supply slop to agencies that are responsible for national security—Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ministry of Defense, and the State Reserve.
Specifically, in 2017, the head of the State Reserve, Vadim Mosiychuk, reported a conflict with Trade Commodity over the delivery of low-quality fuel. The conflict arose because the delivered gasoline began to separate in the tanks after two weeks.
In 2019, a State Fiscal Service investigation established that in 2018–2019, fuels and lubricants (diesel fuel, gasoline, jet fuel, aviation fuel for JET A-1 gas turbine engines, and base oil) were imported into Ukraine with understated customs duties. The petroleum products were mixed and then sold to businesses at inflated prices.
According to investigators, the following companies participated in the criminal activity: First Group LLC (which supplied the Ministry of Defense with gasoline worth UAH 0,5 billion that same year), Soft Oil LLC, Firma Fideya LLC, Torum, Gold System LLC, August Prom LLC, Optimus Connection LLC, Itioli LLC, Skytorg LLC, Tsel Oil LLC, and Mergen LLC—that is, all the “commodity” structures controlled by Yakubovsky.
Investigators believed this scheme was a cover for importing diesel fuel into Ukraine under the guise of aviation fuel for JET A-1 gas turbine engines, instead of diesel fuel, another excisable commodity, which carries a significantly higher tax rate. Until the end of 2018, certain types of aviation fuel were subject to customs clearance at an excise tax rate of €21 per 1000 liters. Meanwhile, the excise tax rate on diesel fuel was €139,5 per 1000 liters. Supplies of base oil, which is not an excisable commodity, are not subject to excise tax at all.
In other words, a scheme for reaping astronomical profits was created solely by evading excise taxes: buy aviation kerosene and base oil, mix them in a ratio of 85% to 15%, and sell them to the state as diesel fuel. Profit. This is precisely how the "commodities" operated throughout their entire existence. Tellingly, after the Medvedchuk brothers entered the picture, the kerosene and oil were purchased from Rosneft, delivered to Oleshky in the Kherson region, and then circulated among oil depots in Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and Oleshky.
Who was punished? No one, really. But what about Vlad Yakubovsky?
In 2018, NABU completed Pre-trial investigation. The following were found guilty:
- Deputy Minister of Defense Igor Pavlovsky,
- director and employee of the department of the Department of State Procurement and Supply of Material Resources of the Ministry of Defense,
- official of the Internal Audit Department of the Ministry of Defense,
- the actual owner of Trade Commodity.
In 2019, NABU put forward charges regarding this tender against officials of the Ministry of Defense and Trade Commodity.
Also in 2019, Andrey Adamovsky gave interview "Ekonomicheskaya Pravda", in which he stated that he is only an investor in Trade Commodity, and that the ultimate beneficiaries of the company are "a group of young guys", whose names he declined to name.
Let's shed some light on this issue. The young guys are Vlad Yakubovsky.
Vlad Yakubovsky. From the beginning
Despite Adamovsky's assurances that Trade Commodity is, so to speak, "everything," this is not the case. And it's not just about the Defense Ministry's skewed VAT. Vladik Yakubovsky has big plans for his life.
He intends to leave The group entered the aviation refueling market under the SKY Avia brand. This is evidenced by the group's trademark application on the website of the Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property (Ukrpatent).
The application to enter the aviation fueling market was submitted by Neft Capital Group LLC (Kyiv). This company owns the SKY trademark for its gas stations and Roadhouse restaurants in Dnipro and Kamenskoye. The company also leases the land where the group's mini-refineries are located in Kamenskoye. According to the application, the SKY Avia trademark will be used for "aircraft maintenance and refueling."
There's no doubt that the product will be of "brand-name" quality, and this is a direct threat to national security, as the fuel will be for Ukrainian combat aircraft. Therefore, we urge the SBU to be vigilant in its search for "young men."
Maxim Protsenkov
By topic: Under Poroshenko, firms from the Trade Commodity orbit won tenders worth 17 billion.
Media: Yuriy Rodin of Pivdenny Bank may be jailed over Trade Commodity
Trade Commodity Scandal: Experts Find Evidence of Theft at the Ministry of Defense
Journalists are ready to prove that Granovsky is connected to Trade Commodity through Bank Yuzhny.
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