What is “Yanukovych’s wallet” doing in the Donbass and Moscow
Now he wants to rob Russia. By providing Russian banks with property seized in Ukraine as collateral for loans. Thus, he will return his fortune, and the Russian Federation will take over legal disputes with the insolvent state.
This is a simple scheme.
However, it was precisely with the help of the simplest schemes that he robbed Ukraine, then the People’s Republics, and now he has set his sights on the Russian Federation.
Meet Sergey Kurchenko.
From courier to disgraced oligarchs
The appearance of a name on the list of the richest people in Ukraine came as a complete surprise to the business community. Having started working as a courier at the Expogaz company in 2004, he very quickly rose to the rank of deputy commercial director, and four years later he opened his own business related to the trading of petroleum products with an annual turnover of 300 million dollars! In 2014, Sergei Kurchenko’s fortune was $226 million, securing his place in the top 100 richest Ukrainians according to the Novoye Vremya publication.
Experts explain the rapid rise of Sergei Kurchenko by his closeness to the family of Viktor Yanukovych, which is confirmed by the equally galloping collapse of the oligarch’s empire after the change of power in Ukraine.
Soon after the overthrow of the current president, the new authorities conducted a thorough audit of Kurchenko’s activities, which, without experiencing outside pressure, revealed interesting facts. To begin with, the Prosecutor General's Office of Ukraine accused Kurchenko of stealing the property of Ukrgasvydobuvannya OJSC in the amount of more than 1 billion hryvnia and causing damage to the Naftogaz company in the amount of $1,6 billion. And the results of the SBU investigation revealed that the Eastern European Fuel and Energy Company, created by Sergei Kurchenko in 2013, caused damage to the state in the oil, gas and banking sectors totaling over 31 billion hryvnia.
Without the support of high-ranking officials and security forces, the oligarch was forced to flee the country, leaving his assets there, which, under pressure from the Kyiv authorities, began to melt like snow in a frying pan. The VETEK group of companies closed in winter. Following this, the Metalist football club, acquired by Sergei Kurchenko shortly before the events on the Maidan, collapsed. And a couple of months later, “Ukrainian Media Holding” began to crumble, in particular, the magazine “Forbes Ukraine” lost its license.
In search of a new refuge, the disgraced oligarch first went to Crimea, where he acquired the Sovremennik gas station chain, taking control of 25% of the regional retail petroleum products market, and the Skif-Media media holding. And then - to Donbass.
It was here that he decided to fully demonstrate his entrepreneurial talent to restore the destroyed financial empire.
Kurchenko's business: blood, pain and tears
On October 15, more than 10 thousand residents of the DPR came out to a rally against the activities of the Donetskoblgaz company controlled by Sergei Kurchenko, which undermined the energy security of the republic. On October 19, the head of the Lugansk People's Republic imposed personal sanctions against the oligarch. Why is the Ukrainian millionaire so fed up with the self-proclaimed republics? He simply ran a business as he had done in all previous years...
Republic takeaway
In the self-proclaimed republics, he began to engage in what brought him the main profit during his work in Ukraine - the fuel market. Having some experience in doing business in the fuel and energy sector, as well as industry connections, Sergei Kurchenko convinced the leadership of the LPR of the need to conclude a contract with his companies for the supply of fuels and lubricants. According to the terms of the contract, the price of fuel and lubricants was to be 10% less than in the region.
They shook hands in the summer.
However, already in the fall it turned out that the Ukrainian oligarch did not intend to fulfill his obligations, as well as return money for non-fulfillment. According to the General Prosecutor's Office of the LPR, the volume of undelivered fuels and lubricants amounted to 70 tons.
As a result of Kurchenko’s fraudulent activities, gasoline prices in the republic soared to catastrophic levels. So, if a liter of 92 or 95 gasoline in Russia costs a little more than 30 rubles, then in the LPR its price at gas stations has long surpassed the 50 ruble mark!
In addition, the Ukrainian businessman managed to profitably play in the region’s coal market. The profit scheme was extremely simple and effective. Lugansk authorities have reserved 6 million tons of coal for sale to the Novocherkassk State District Power Plant in Russia. And in order to implement the deal in the absence of official economic ties between the Russian Federation and the LPR, he turned to the help of Kurchenko, who acquired a closed coal mine in the Rostov region, from which the required 6 tons of fuel were allegedly supposed to be “mined.”
However, having formalized the deal legally, Kurchenko directly and at reduced prices bought coal from the manufacturer, bypassing the government of the republic. From being an intermediary to becoming the main participant in the deal, he at one point ditched the LPR budget, which planned to use the funds received from the sale of coal to pay pensions, benefits and salaries.
Suffered from the scams of Kurchenko and the DPR. The oligarch received an advance payment of $10 million for gas from the republic. The heating season has already begun, but the pressure in the gas pipe in the DPR has dropped... by 8 times!!!
The result of Kurchenko’s “work” in the LPR and DPR were personal sanctions imposed against him, mass protests by Donbass residents, criminal cases initiated, and seized accounts.
By the way, thanks to the investigation that began, it was possible to identify new facts from the business activities of the disgraced oligarch. It turned out that the oligarch was not so disgraced.
Having lost the support and patronage of Viktor Yanukovych, he managed to gain the trust of the new masters of Ukrainian life. According to a special commission of the People's Council of the LPR to investigate the machinations of businessman Kurchenko, 315 million euros were transferred to the accounts of offshore companies of the head of the administration of President Poroshenko, Boris Lozhkin.
According to experts, Lozhkin acted as an intermediary in Poroshenko’s financial schemes, and these funds, on his instructions, were used to finance both the military and propaganda campaign against the people of Donbass. Investigators believe that the funds received by Kurchenko’s companies from actions on the territory of the People’s Republics could have been channeled under the same scheme. It is worth noting that Lozhkin was and remains Sergei Kurchenko’s partner in Ukrainian Media Holding.
Russian impasse of a swindler
After the failure in Donbass, Sergei Kurchenko moved further east. In Russia, he is again trying to regain his former financial well-being, and at the same time monetize some of the assets lost in Ukraine.
As experts note, he intends to trade oil and gas through the Neftegaz trading house established in the Russian Federation. And he intends to obtain loans for the purchase of energy resources from Russian banks secured by property. As a result, Kurchenko will receive “real” money instead of the companies nationalized from him by the new Ukrainian authorities, and the domestic banking system will have a headache due to attempts to regain Kurchenko’s security assets. It will not be possible to return loans issued or profits received from oil and gas transactions.
Kurchenko’s offshore scheme is too well established, thanks to which he has been withdrawing hryvnia from Ukrainian circulation for his own benefit for a long time. According to Ukrainian media, which conducted an investigation into the activities of the oligarch, the businessman has at least 13 offshore companies through which billions of dollars passed from Sergei Kurchenko’s corporation. These include: Histrax Holdings Limited (Cyprus), Portex Limited (Bahamas), Prosperity Developments SA (Panama), Soprema Trading Ltd (British Virgin Islands), Wells Tech Limited (Hong Kong), Zevidon Trading Limited (Belize).
The outcome of this scheme is predictable: Kurchenko will sell his seized funds, and the problem of lifting arrests in Ukraine and further long-term disputes in the courts will be a headache for Russia!
So, this young but very “talented” swindler will again remain with his stolen millions, but it is not clear in which country he will hide after this, and who will be the next victim of this swindler?
Kurchenko’s dealings are now too well known for him to be able to pull off another scam in the Russian Federation.
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