Valentyn Nalyvaichenko, former head of Ukraine's SBU security service, on Oct. 15 accused Ihor Kononenko, a lawmaker and deputy head of President Petro Poroshenko's bloc, of money laundering and profiteering from services provided to the president.
The allegations come as other associates of Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk are suspected of corruption by watchdogs and lawmakers, including Serhiy Leshchenko.
Kononenko denied the accusations, while Poroshenko’s spokesman Sviatoslav Tsegolko did not reply to a request for comment.
Nalyvaichenko presented the Verkhovna Rada’s anti-corruption committee documents that allegedly show Kononenko’s involvement in providing chartered and private flights for Ukraine’s political leadership, including the president.
The documents were published by British journalist Graham Stack on Oct. 9 on the Business New Europe news website, Nalyvaichenko added. The report also mentioned that the executive flights were also provided to high-ranking officials in ex-President Viktor Yanukovych’s administration when he ran the country.
“At least one of the Cessna aircraft provided to clients was owned directly by UPI (UkrPromInvest) together with Raiffeisen Leasing, according to the documents, and registered in Austria as OE-GBY,” according to the Business New Europe report. “The lessee was a local Viennese firm, JB Park GmbH, run by Dmytro Lytvynets, who is also director of Bogdan GmbH, an Austrian affiliate of Bogdan Corporation, the automotive subsidiary of Ukrprominvest.”
Citing the documents, Nalyvaichenko said that $100,000-$300,000 was “laundered” every month through Ukrprominvest group, created in 2005 by Kononenko and Poroshenko. The Ukraine-registered business entity was liquidated in 2012.
The group included five confectionary factories and Bogdan Motors Corporation, which sells foreign-made automobiles and motorcycles and manufactures vehicles and ships. Poroshenko still owns a stake in Bogdan Corporation.
The Ukrprominvest money was moved to the British Virgin Islands through offshore companies Intraco Management Ltd and Ernion before ending up in Latvian and Austrian banks.
Intraco pays for business jets used by Poroshenko, Nalyvaichenko said.
According to some Intraco payment documents, Dariya Kononenko, Ihor Kononenko’s daughter, received money for the jet services. Nalyvaichenko said this implies that Ihor Kononenko is a provider of business jet services to Ukraine’s elite.
The lawmaker, whom analysts believe to be the most influential in the presidential party, brushed off the accusations.
Kononenko said at the same anti-corruption meeting that he’s not an owner or chief executive of any of the companies.
“The origin of the documents is unknown to me. Those are just transfers by payment order, they don’t bear my signature. Those are not billing documents,” Kononenko said.
He said he had visited a prosecutor’s office in Kyiv to give his account of the case. He also invited Nalyvaichenko to inspect his tax returns.
“I have paid some $20 million to the state during these years (since 1999), which is almost Hr 450 million now,” he said. “I can provide you with all the documents.”
Nalyvaichenko was appointed SBU chief after the EuroMaidan Revolution in February of 2014, but was dismissed by the parliament on Poroshenko’s initiative on June 18. Poroshenko criticized Nalyvaichenko’s work at the SBU, saying that he had failed to stop smuggling and establish a border with the separatist-occupied territories in the east.
Kononenko believes the timing of such scandals is suspicious, since the accusations were brought up on the eve of the Oct. 25 local elections. Poroshenko’s party, Solidarnist, is running in the elections.
“My enemies want to discredit me personally and our political force,” Kononenko said after the parliamentary committee meeting.
Meanwhile, Viktoria Voytsitska, a lawmaker with Samopomich party, has accused Kononenko of running schemes at state power company Tsentrenergo to supply natural gas to the company at inflated prices.
Kyiv Post staff writer Olena Goncharova can be reached at [email protected]. Kyiv Post staff writer Oleg Sukhov contributed to this story.
