As we know, the arms business "loves silence." And the noise we've been seeing around it lately is certainly not to the liking of its key players. Among them are the "protagonists" of our investigation—the former director of Ukrinmash, Stanislav Khosh, and Spetstechnoexport, Yevgeny Trishnovskiy. Although the former officially left his position long ago, and the latter holds a modest position at Spetstechnoexport, they continue to carry out their dubious schemes, and by all appearances, they're doing quite well.
Two old friends from their college days, Khosh and Trishnovskiy, amassed their fortune over a long 15 years in the Ukrainian arms business. Yevgeny Trishnovskiy has begun construction on a house near Kyiv, while Stanislav Khosh is successfully venturing into the restaurant business. He, along with his wife, Anna Kozachenko, and another interesting figure tainted by arms scandals, another college friend of Khosh and Trishnovskiy, Mr. Konstantin Cherednichenko and his wife, Sabina Cherednichenko, own a glamorous restaurant in downtown Kyiv called "Milk Bar." Since the glamorous "Milk Bar" is only growing, they can safely remain in the shadows, waiting out these turbulent times and awaiting their return to leadership positions. Incidentally, our heroes, using their many years of experience working in the "gunsmith" industry, even attempted to develop a very interesting operating scheme worthy of the close attention of regulatory authorities.
The Triangle diagram. How it was supposed to work.
To be fair, it's worth noting that everything is designed in such a way that it's very difficult to understand. Of course, since our "heroes" have over a decade of experience in this rather murky business.
Let's take a closer look at the scheme involving Triangle Group Incorporated, which, fortunately for our country and to the dismay of our friends, was never destined to happen. The document below is called the "End User Certificate." It's the key document in this business, without which it would be impossible to carry out the scheme in a legally binding manner. It outlines the customer's guarantee not to transfer the received weapons to third parties, and is used by the State Export Control Service of Ukraine (SECU) to issue export permits.
This document suggests that, at a conservative estimate, the value of these weapons is approximately $500 million and they are destined for the Saudi Arabian Army. The exporter is Ukrinmash (at the time headed by Stanislav Khosh, with his first deputy and closest collaborator being none other than the aforementioned Konstantin Cherednichenko), and the "intermediary" is listed as a UAE company, Triangle Group Incorporated. This is not inconsistent with arms business practices, but in our case, this company was clearly being used for other purposes. This company is managed by a certain Mikhail Buyankov, a native of Zaporizhzhia and a close friend of Konstantin Cherednichenko. This is evident from Norvik Bank banking documents obtained by our editorial team.
Mr. Buyankov, according to the document, also owns several other companies. The companies' business descriptions state that they deal in scrap metal and the sale of spare parts and equipment. In reality, this is a front for pocketing a percentage of the transaction, which, for the uninitiated, averages 20% in this business.
The "arms barons"' scheme failed only because the sale of Ukrainian Ministry of Defense property has been halted due to the situation in the country.
However, let's return to the invented scheme. After receiving payment from the client for the supposedly "intermediary" services provided, Triangle receives 20%, which amounts to no less than $100 million out of $500 million. One can imagine how upset the friends were, who had probably already figured out where to invest these considerable funds.
Messrs. Khosh and Trishnovskiy, understandably shy of the spotlight, aren't on social media, but finding Mr. Buyankov wasn't difficult. Below are links to his page, which reveal that Mikhail is indeed a longtime friend of Konstantin Cherednichenko.
Mikhail Buyankov - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001446151758 HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001446151758&fref=ts"& HYPERLINK "https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001446151758&fref=ts"fref=ts
https://ok.ru/profile/127303052651
https://vk.com/id6038573
(A copy of Mikhail's passport is attached)
The above scheme isn't the only one, but merely illustrates the operating principle. It's clear where these gentlemen get their money for their houses, luxury cars, and private restaurants. Another deal we'd like to discuss is no different. This is the already-high-profile "Libyan contract." Media outlets have already reported that a ship carrying ammunition (7,62mm – 35,000,000 units; 12,7mm – 1,400,000 units…) worth millions of dollars was first arrested and subsequently sank off the coast of Greece, hiding its tracks. Subcommission agreements were signed between Ukrinmash and Spetstechnoexport to fulfill this contract.
An interesting fact is that at that time, UN Security Council sanctions were in effect on arms supplies to Libya (Resolutions No. 1970 (2011) of February 26, 2011, 1973 (2011) of March 17, 2011, 2009 (2011) of September 16, 2011, 2016 (2011) of October 27, 2011, and 2017 (2011) of October 31, 2011). This means that legally supplying weapons to Libya was only possible with the permission of a special UN Security Council Committee. Thus, the UN could influence the situation in the country by supporting one of the then-governments with weapons. The billions in Gaddafi's frozen accounts allowed for purchases at prices that were several times, if not dozens, times inflated. The management of Ukrinmash could not pass by this opportunity either.
By law, the Ministry of Defense approves a cost estimate when concluding property sales contracts, including the costs of paying the aforementioned "intermediaries." This is the only reason our defendants were unable to earn the exorbitant sums they desired. However, given that the average selling price for 1000 7,62mm rounds across the three contracts was $85, one and a half times higher than the average export price of similar rounds at the time, this would have allowed everyone involved to reap considerable profits.
The question remains as to how Ukrinmash's management, under the embargo, was able to obtain permits from the State Export Control Service of Ukraine and even approval from the UN Security Council Committee, which was nonetheless obtained, albeit after the ship's sinking.
As we mentioned at the beginning of our article, the arms business moguls, accustomed to operating in silence, began to bustle about after the searches at Spetstechnoexport and the uproar surrounding the arms business, and began making vigorous attempts to correct their past transgressions. For example, Mr. Konstantin Cherednichenko quickly changed jobs and, after resigning from Ukrinmash, found himself working at another arms company, Ukroboronservis. The situation with the other two defendants is even more interesting. Messrs. Stanislav Khosh and Yevgeny Trishnovskiy, using connections they had long acquired through their involvement in corrupt state communications, including connections with Russia's top leadership, urgently traveled to Greece to meet with the country's leaders. The purpose of this voyage was to discuss the possibility of raising a sunken vessel carrying millions of rounds of ammunition of various calibers and ultimately delivering it to Libya. According to our data, the said gentlemen should have received the lion's share of the profit just after the cargo was delivered to the recipient.
One cannot help but be amazed by the fact that the audacity and greed of these gentlemen is so great that, after receiving confirmation of the Greek authorities' interest in "settling" the issue with the vessel (you can imagine the sums offered and approved), our heroes continued their voyage to the United States, where, according to their own assurances, a meeting had already been arranged with UN leadership, at which the issue of attempting to return the remnants of the family of the ousted Colonel Gaddafi to power in Libya was raised. Surely the deadly cargo, delivered on the sunken ship, will immediately be used for its intended purpose, to achieve this goal.
You can imagine the serious steps and sacrifices these "heroes" are willing to make to profit from this shady business.
(investigation ongoing)
Author: Oleg Pyshny
Antikor
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