Zelensky helped Poroshenko steal state money through “Forge on Rybalsky”

Vladimir Zelensky covers up the corruption schemes of his predecessor Petro Poroshenko. Former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine Renat Kuzmin stated this on air on the Zik TV channel.

As a PolitNavigator correspondent reports, he said that we are talking about the shipbuilding plant in Kyiv “Forge on Rybalsky”, which belonged to Poroshenko and received orders for construction infamous boats for the Ukrainian Navy. Not long ago, debts incurred by the enterprise under Poroshenko were repaid from the budget. In fact, we are talking about a corruption scheme.

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“This is a tradition of the Ukrainian government, this is a common scheme for theft of money: an official, in this case the president, takes out a loan for his company, the company resells it to a figurehead, the figurehead refuses to repay the loan, and who pays the loan? The one who guaranteed the repayment of the loan, in our case, the state of Ukraine. Because the state assumed obligations under this loan. After all, when a loan was taken out, the lender demanded guarantees, they were given by the state of Ukraine, and when the owner changed, and the new owner refused to pay this loan, the guarantees were fulfilled by the state.

What did the official who signed this guarantee receive? The official who signed this guarantee was today appointed Minister of Finance. This means that the power of President Zelensky, his team is the same Poroshenko team that helped the previous regime rob the country. They did everything for this and continue to do so, because the current regime entered into a conspiracy with the previous regime,” said Renat Kuzmin.

The Kiev shipyard “Kuznitsa na Rybalsky” (formerly “Leninskaya Kuznitsa”), which belonged to former President Petro Poroshenko, took out a loan of 528,98 million hryvnia under state guarantees.

The loan funds were provided by the state-owned Ukreximbank back in 2017, as stated in the agreement, to increase the defense capability of the state.

The company had money: in 2017, its profit increased 2,2 times (by 10,123 million hryvnia), and reached 18,621 million. Total income then grew at a faster pace - 6,6 times (by 658,1 million hryvnia), to 776,2 million hryvnia

In August 2017, Kuznitsa on Rybalsky transferred part of its capacity to its subsidiary, Stroy-Renovatsiya. According to the state register of legal entities, the founder of Stroy-Renovatsiya is the same plant “Kuznitsa na Rybalsky”, and its ultimate beneficiaries are Poroshenko and Verkhovna Rada deputy Igor Kononenko.

In July 2020, the Ministry of Finance, as a guarantor for the loan, paid Ukreximbank 101,77 million hryvnia. Of this, 81,38 million hryvnia was the loan payment for January-May of this year, and another 19,85 million hryvnia was interest for January-April, as well as 539 thousand hryvnia - penalties.

At the end of March 2017, the shareholders of the Leninskaya Kuznitsa shipbuilding plant renamed the enterprise to the “Forge on Rybalsky Plant” and changed the form of ownership to a private joint-stock company (PJSC).

49% of the company’s shares belonged to the closed, non-diversified corporate investment fund Prime Assets Capital (Kyiv), which was indirectly owned by Petro Poroshenko. And another 49% of the shares were controlled by Igor Kononenko through ZNKIF Vik.

In October 2018, the company Evins Limited (Cyprus), affiliated with businessman Sergei Tigipko, bought a 94,03% stake in the Kuznitsa na Rybalsky shipbuilding plant.