The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) under the procedural guidance of prosecutors of the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecution Office (SAP) states the exposure of a criminal organization led by the former chairman of the State Property Fund (SPF) of Ukraine, whose participants during 2019-2021 seized over 500 million UAH funds of JSC “Odessa Port Plant” (OPP) and JSC “United Mining and Chemical Company” (UMCP).
“At the same time, the amount of unlawful benefit received by members of the criminal organization for the entire period of control of JSC “OPZ” is more than 2 billion UAH,” the NABU reported on its website on Wednesday.
In the message there is no direct reference to the name of the head of the IGF, except “DS” or “Dima”. Meanwhile, at the time in question, the Fund was headed by Dmytro Sennichenko, who in 2019-2020 three times surrendered to the NABU who offered him bribes, including $5 million for the appointment of OPZ director.
As the NABU now claims, the criminal organization led by Sennichenko also included a person close to him (co-organizer), an adviser to the head of the IGF, two acting OPZ director, the acting head of the OGHK, two owners of LLC – the winner of the auction for toll processing at the OPZ and two more individuals.
The report indicates that the OPZ’s acting director and an adviser to the head of the State Property Fund have been detained. Seven persons – the former head of the SPF, a person close to him, the acting director of the OPZ, the acting head of the OGCC, two LLC owners and one individual – were notified of the suspicion in accordance with Article 135, Article 278 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (in writing), while one more person was personally detained.
As reported, the OPZ has been idle since late April 2018. The company called work on give-and-take conditions the only possible option for the resumption of its work in conditions of failed attempts at privatization and accumulated debt for gas to Naftogaz of Ukraine, which exceeds 1.5 billion UAH.
In August 2019, the plant resumed work under the contract signed with Agro Gas Trading LLC (Kiev, “ATG”) under the tolling scheme until December 1, 2019.
In September 2019, Dmitry Sennichenko was appointed head of the GPF instead of Vitaly Trubarov, who reported on December 11 that the updated composition of the new leadership of the GPF board of directors agreed with the davalter to increase the price for processing.
In mid-December, it was announced that the OPZ’s board of directors had agreed to a supplementary agreement with AGT to the tolling agreement for the period from January 1 to April 30, 2020.
At the end of January, 2020 OPZ announced a tender for the selection of a supplier of 50-60 million cubic meters of gas per month on give-and-take terms for the work of the enterprise in May-December the same year. The minimum bid price was $37 per ton of ammonia and $48 per ton of urea (excluding VAT).
At the end of February 2020 First Deputy Director of OPZ Mykola Shchurikov said that the company accepted bids from eight companies to participate in the tender for the selection of a partner for toll processing of gas into mineral fertilizers during May-December 2020: IBE Trade (USA), Basis Trade AG, MADDOX SA (both Switzerland) and Ukrainian Agro Gas Trading LLC, Trading House Socar Ukraine LLC, Tech Prom Gas LLC, Ukrnaftoburnia JSC and Yug Gas LLC.
In early March, Shchurikov said that Ukrnaftoburinnya (UNB), owned by Igor Kolomoysky and Vitaliy Khomutynnyk, offered the best price conditions in the final stage of the tender: $77 for processing a ton of urea and $39.5 for processing ammonia.
On March 10, when the results were officially announced, the OPZ National Assembly cancelled the tender for the selection of the investor. The SPF stated that the reason for the cancellation was “an overpriced, economically unreasonable proposal” by UNB, which, in the opinion of the agency, is unprofitable for the mining company.
The OPF Board of Directors stated that it saw in such actions of the “UNB” owners “an aspiration to gain leverage to manage the plant and take it under their control, which will result in the return of corrupt schemes at the plant, reducing its market value and creating the preconditions for the transfer of the OPF into private hands for next to nothing.
NABU, SENNICHENKO, ОГХК, ОПЗ
The team of Advantage Ukraine investment platform operating in partnership with the Ministry of Economy of Ukraine prepared and sent the first investment projects, totaling $430 million, to the American Corporation for International Development Finance (DFC) for consideration, the Ministry of Economy said on its website on Wednesday.
“The first five projects have been accepted for consideration by the DFC. In particular, these are projects of Ukrainian investors in the sectors of construction, production, e-commerce and residential real estate – a total of $430 million. Each of them will be evaluated separately. Also the project of crediting a foreign investor for the production of building materials for a few million, “- the department quotes Deputy Minister Oleksandr Griban from a meeting with business, organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine.
He also clarified that at the moment several projects are at the early stages of processing, which Advantage Ukraine hopes to transfer soon to the DFC, in particular, projects in the sectors of logistics, deep agro-processing, energy, livestock and production of building materials.
The Ministry of Economy reminded that DFC has recently announced its readiness to mobilize more than $ 1 billion of private capital to support the Ukrainian economy.
It is noted that the Ministry of Economy and the DFC cooperate in the preparation and formation of the list of investment projects with the help of Advantage Ukraine. The project team of the initiative works with the support of the USAID Competitive Economy Ukraine Program and pre-selects projects, working with applicants.
Metinvest’s network of steel service centers in Ukraine, Metinvest-SMC, has donated steel to the Pivden Operational Command as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative to manufacture mobile buggy vehicles, which are in high demand at the frontline.
According to the press release, a buggy is a small light vehicle with high cross-country ability with open wheels, used for off-road driving. There are no such vehicles in service in Ukraine. Activists, volunteers and representatives of some military associations manufacture and supply them.
It is noted that buggies are compact, fast, maneuverable, have high cross-country ability and are easily camouflaged. They are relatively inexpensive and are indispensable in reconnaissance missions, able to attack in small groups and make quick raids behind enemy lines. That is why the buggy is a good alternative to a conventional wheeled vehicle on the front lines.
Metinvest-SMC was recently approached by representatives of the UC Pivden: the military needed equipment for the production of buggies. At their request the company provided 3.8 tons of rolled metal – angles, sheets, and tubes – for the manufacture of 10 front minivans, free of charge.
According to the press service, everyone can also help the defenders of Ukraine: if there are any unused old Zhiguli 01-07 cars, they can be transferred to the AFU (Operational Command South in FB or e-mail coll-centr_ok_pivden@post.mil.gov.ua).
It is recalled that Metinvest group has already allocated 1.6 billion UAH for the projects of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative.
“Metinvest” is a vertically integrated mining group of companies. Its main shareholders are SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%) that jointly manage the company.
Metinvest Holding LLC is the managing company of Metinvest group.
Insurance Group “TAS” (Kyiv) in February 2023 collected UAH 212,43 mln of insurance premiums, which is 19,1% more than in February of last year, according to the web-site of the insurer.
Thus, under CASCO contracts the insurer collected UAH 53,21 million of payments, which is 25,05% of the total monthly receipts of the company and is 43,5% more than in the accounting period of 2022.
Besides 34,19% or 72,63 mln UAH of the received payments fell on motor third party liability insurance (+19,8%), 22,44% or 47,66 mln UAH on “Green Card” (+41,4%), 7,56% or 16,06 mln UAH of payments on voluntary medical insurance.
TAS IG has attracted UAH 5,05 mln on property insurance contracts in February – it is 5,3% more than the corresponding figure for the second month of the last year.
TAS IG has collected UAH 17.82 mln of payments under other insurance contracts during the reporting period.
State Ukreximbank (Kiev) on March 21 signed an agreement with the Entrepreneurship Development Fund (EDF) to attract on three programs to support Ukrainian enterprises 250 million UAH, the press service of the bank reported on Tuesday.
According to the message, credit resources for Ukreximbank will be provided at the expense of both own funds of the FRD, and the means of the project “SME support”, funded with the support of the German government through the German Development Bank KfW and the EU within the initiative EU4Business.
It is indicated that a significant portion of credit funds is planned to support the financing of small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in export operations, which will contribute to the expansion of national production in world markets.
Ukreximbank was founded in 1992. The only owner of this financial institution is the state.
According to the National Bank of Ukraine, as of November 1, 2022 Ukreximbank by total assets was in 3rd place (267.423 billion UAH) among the 67 operating in the country.
The Verkhovna Rada on March 20 passed a law “On Amendments to the Code of Ukraine on Bankruptcy Procedures” (No. 4409), under which bankruptcy filings will now be considered in simplified proceedings without summoning the parties, the Ministry of Justice said.
“The bill also simplifies the work of bankruptcy trustees. It provides for the creation of an automated information system “Bankruptcy and insolvency,” uniting the necessary registries and databases and which will include an electronic office of the trustee in bankruptcy,” the Ministry of Justice said in a press release on Wednesday.
The department reminded that the bill number 4409 was adopted as a basis back in June 2021. In preparation for the bill for the second reading of 248 amendments were filed, of which 112 were proposed to take into account.
Deputy Minister of Justice Valeriy Kolomiets thanked the head of the profile subcommittee of the Rada Oleksiy Movchan “for persistence and for being in crime” in the difficult process of adopting the document and wished a little more patience, because the adoption of the bill on “military bankruptcies” and the implementation of EU Directive 2019/1023 until September this year.
