Vladimir Sayenko and Dmitry Firtash
Experienced corporate raider and cocaine addict Vladimir Saenko may take over the Social Insurance Fund for Temporary Disability.
Dmytro Firtash, through his deputy at the Federation of Employers of Ukraine, Mr. Dmytro Oleynik, is generously funding efforts to replace the Executive Directorate of the Temporary Disability Insurance Fund (TSIF). The new leadership will be expected to report tacitly to Firtash's man, Volodymyr Saenko (pictured left), deputy head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine.
Vladimir Saenko rose to fame late last year when he became a defendant in a high-profile criminal case of embezzlement and theft of property.
Raid on writers' properties
Volodymyr Saenko, a leader of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine and former first deputy chairman of the board of JSC Ukrprofzdravnytsia, reached a new level of corporate raiding last year. In Crimea, his subordinates at Rosichi LLC, where he ostensibly holds the title of CEO, openly and with police assistance stole financial and legal documents from their opponent in a lawsuit over the Chekhov Writers' House of Creativity. In Morshyn, Saenko's lawyers carried out an operation to liquidate a controversial sanatorium, replacing it on paper with their own entity.
As the National Union of Writers of Ukraine told Novy Region at the time, after executing a court order to seize NSPU property pending the resolution of legal disputes between the Union, the former tenant of the resort, Rosichi LLC, and the new tenant, Pozitiv-Yug, Rosichi officials seized all of Pozitiv-Yug's financial documents, as well as the company's office equipment and safe, from the premises. Moreover, no court order was required for this illegal action: police officers assisted them in removing the folders and computers, even though the safekeeping order prohibits any use of the seized property.
The Kyiv company's haste was driven by the start of the holiday season and the need to restore solvency after receiving the necessary court documents. Moreover, Rosichi intended to maintain the existing lease terms for the Yalta building. At a press conference in Kyiv, Mykola Gritsyk, General Director of the Property Management Directorate of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine (NUWU), stated that the former tenant categorically refused to revise the rent rates established back in 2005.
"Vladimir Saenko, the owner of the Rosichi company, categorically stated at a meeting with the Writers' Union that there would be no change in the rental rate—16 cents per square meter," Gritsik clarified. "Where could such a price be found in a boarding house on the seashore in Yalta? He was informed that a contract would not be signed with him."
Then, after a month of waiting, the NSPU decided to enter into a lease agreement with the company "Pozitiv-Yug," which offered to pay UAH 840 in annual rent, compared to the UAH 200 set for Rosichi. But here, the methods familiar to trade union official Saenko were used. It was later revealed in court that Rosichi had entered into a sublease agreement with the company "Selena Plus" in December 2012. This was done without the consent of the owner of the Creative Center property complex, but the court ignored this circumstance. In turn, Selena Plus demanded an extension of the lease agreement between the NSPU and Rosichi so that it could lease the premises itself. This was a simple scheme to coerce the owner, under unfavorable terms, into essentially ceding the property to the tenant for exclusive use. As a result of a series of counterclaims, Rosichi successfully sought a ruling in the Kyiv Commercial Court to seize the property. This ruling is unique in that the Kyiv Commercial Court had no right to hear Rosichi's claim at all, as property disputes are heard at the location of the property, in this case, Crimea. Furthermore, Judge Tatyana Vaschenko agreed to transfer the property to the former tenant for safekeeping, despite the existence of its owner, NSPU, the company that manages it, NSPU's Property Management Directorate, and a new tenant with whom an unannulled contract has been concluded.
It's noteworthy that in 2010, Vaschenko also seized the disputed property in a similar case, but refused to transfer it to the plaintiff for safekeeping. This is easily explained: the Commercial Procedure Code of Ukraine only provides for the seizure of property as security for the subsequent enforcement of a court order, not its transfer to third parties for safekeeping. By law, such a decision must be made by the state enforcement service.
An even stranger scene could be observed a year ago in Morshyn, where Saenko, now deputy head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine, was orchestrating a scheme to seize the Prolisok sanatorium for children with parents, a property owned by the State Property Fund of Ukraine. Since 2005, Ukrprofzdravnytsia had been trying to prove its right to the sanatorium in court, despite having no title documents. Then, a lease agreement emerged between Ukrprofzdravnytsia and a certain "Morshyn Sanatorium Prolisok for Children with Parents," headed by a former sanatorium employee. This clearly shady scheme to seize the sanatorium on the spot was reinforced by the presence of a support group consisting of 20 athletically built young men, led by Rosichi lawyer Yevhen Plakhin. These are the same "athletes" who, since February of last year, staged several attacks at the Chekhov Road Traffic Accident.
In 2008, Rosichi, with the support of the Berkut, pulled off a similar takeover of the Republican Department of Road Construction Mechanization in Bortnichi. Without a single document, just a plot of land, the company's employees occupied the premises and immediately began renting them out. The rest of that story, too, was not publicly available.
Saenko has a surprisingly successful way of resolving his problems in the courts. For example, in 2011, the Crimean prosecutor's office opened a criminal case for the illegal transfer of property from the Crimean sanatorium "Ukraine" (Miskhor) to ZAO "Ukrprofzdravnitsa" at a reduced price to OOO "Rosichi." The building in question was building No. 4—the newest and closest to the sea. However, no results of the investigation were reported. As a reminder, the general director of OOO "Rosichi" and the then deputy chairman of the board of "Ukrprofzdravnitsa" are one and the same person, Vladimir Saenko. By 2013, a paradoxical situation had arisen: two websites for the "Ukraine" sanatorium were online, with the Rosichi website copying the official one. It also sold vouchers for all the sanatorium's buildings, but this time through a private entity. The only difference is that the price list on the fake website hasn't been updated since last year and is only marginally higher than the current one. The difference can only be discovered by directly speaking with the Kyiv company's managers.
Interestingly, the rise of Rosichi LLC and the active involvement of Volodymyr Saenko, then a member of Kyiv's Darnytskyi District Council, began in 2005, immediately after the so-called "Orange Revolution," although the company was founded in 1995 as a "wholesale trade company for non-governmental organizations." Media outlets directly link the company to the activities of former SBU head Ihor Smeshko and his first deputy, Volodymyr Satsyuk. After the "Yushchenko poisoning case," the security service's business, which involved the sale of confiscated property, was seriously threatened. Apparently, a decision was made to launder the available funds. It was then that Rosichi invested in the Chekhov Road Accident. And if before 2005 the structure of "Rosichi" included a whole scattering of companies (in particular, the press named the small private enterprise "Laguna-1", private firm "Rosich", LLC "Rosichi-Inter", "Sports club "Rosichi", agricultural LLC Agrofirma "Druzhba", LLC "Aktiv-LTD", LLC "Druzhba+", DP "Rosichi-1" and LLC "Nadosye"), then recently, according to their website, the official "Rosichi Group of Companies" includes the sanatorium "Ukraine", DTP named after Chekhov and a sports club on Darnitsa, as well as a restaurant, a luxury clothing store, a sauna and two strip clubs - "Flower Rhinoceros" and "Star Rhinoceros".
Cocaine arrest
In November last year, Saenko was finally arrested.
As Inter TV reported at the time, this wasn't the first time Vladimir Saenko and his company, Rosichi, had come under the radar of organized crime fighters. His firm didn't produce, buy, or sell anything, but, to put it mildly, it defended the ownership of expensive real estate throughout Ukraine through corporate raiding. Meanwhile, Saenko was pursuing a successful political career and rose to the position of acting deputy head of the Federation of Trade Unions of Ukraine.
Simultaneously with Saenko's arrest on November 22, law enforcement officers conducted searches of his home and office, which was guarded by officers armed with unregistered firearms. In the union official's office, police found documents that shed light on his corporate raids.
"A variety of weapons and high-quality cocaine are not the most interesting things seized from the house and office," the TV channel's correspondent noted.
"Documents related to the case have been seized, as well as 15 company seals that bear signs of being fictitious," said Oleksandr Gorbachov, deputy head of the Kyiv Department for Combating Organized Crime.
Given the seriousness of the charges, the court set Saenko's bail at 7 million hryvnias. Over time, he cleared himself completely, and the case against him was dropped.
The National Union of Writers of Ukraine won back its Crimean property from Saenko, but it won't be able to use it, as Russia annexed the peninsula. This, however, didn't stop our hero from continuing his corporate raiding activities in the temporarily occupied territory. Two weeks ago, Saenko's firm, Rosichi, attempted to seize the "Ukraine" sanatorium in Gaspra (Greater Yalta).
Trade union "scheme"
However, let us return to Firtash’s “multi-move” game.
Firtash needs a change in the leadership of the Social Insurance Fund for Temporary Disability so that he can acquire 7% of the shares of Ukrprofzdravnytsia PJSC and 4% of the shares of Ukrproftur PJSC (these shares are owned by the Fund, - ed.).
Following the purchase, the complete privatization of these trade union associations is planned. Thus, more than 80 health resorts and approximately 70 tourist farms throughout the country, along with all their hectares of land on the banks of rivers, seas, lakes, and near forests, will become the property of D. Firtash.
In order for privatization to become possible, D. Fitrash needs to obtain a signed decision from the Fund's Board on the sale of shares in PJSC Ukrprofzdravnytsia and PJSC Ukrproftur.
Such a resolution already exists; it was voted on back in 2004. But to this day, not a single Director General of the Foundation has agreed to sign it.
Therefore, Vladimir Saenko's role is to replace the current General Director of the Foundation with Valery Sitaylo (Deputy General Director of the Foundation, - ed.), who has already given his consent to sign the decision from 2004.
In confirmation of the above, there is a written order from the Chairman of the Board, D. Tretyakov, to the General Director of the Social Insurance Fund for Temporary Disability, V. Tkachenko, to look into the issue of the need and advisability of being a shareholder of the enterprise "Ukprofzdravnitsa" and to prepare documents for the Board for the sale of these shares.
But it seems the state has decided to cut off the oligarch and his henchmen's ability to lay their hands on trade union property with one blow.
According to Vesti, a new wave of reprivatization is looming in Ukraine—or more precisely, the return of trade union assets to state ownership. According to lawyers, this could be triggered by the recent Supreme Court of Ukraine ruling No. 3-107gs14, in which the Supreme Court sided with the Kyiv Prosecutor's Office. The Prosecutor's Office represented the state in a dispute with the Federation of Trade Unions over the administrative building of the Ukrainian Trade Unions' medical and health institution, Ukrprofzdravnytsia, located at 39-41 Shota Rustaveli Street in Kyiv (where the organization's central office is located).
"The Supreme Court of Ukraine defended state interests and affirmed a key principle: if the sale of a trade union asset (in this case, Ukrprofzdravnytsia) was carried out without permission from the State Property Fund, it is illegal. Accordingly, it must be returned to state ownership. This same principle can now be applied to other trade union property sold after the collapse of the USSR. If permission from the State Property Fund was not obtained for the sale of a boarding house or hotel, it doesn't matter who currently owns it—whether it still belongs to the Federation of Trade Unions or to the new owners. It must be returned to state ownership. I think we'll see a new wave of lawsuits against the current owners of assets and reprivatization. The fact that the hotel was resold several times and changed hands five or six times is irrelevant. The state has the right to reclaim it," Rostislav Kravets, senior partner at the law firm Kravets & Partners, told Vesti.
Saenko is already complaining to journalists that, due to the threat of reprivatization, he will not be able to profitably sell the already "squeezed" trade union property...
The country's elite
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