The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) searched the offices of investment bank ICU and auto producer Bogdan Motors in criminal cases linked to ex-President Petro Poroshenko and his allies.
Poroshenko’s European Solidarity party called the searches a “theater performance aimed at discrediting the political party and its leader.”
On July 19, the NABU conducted searches at the offices of Bogdan Motors, including offices located at the Fifth Element gym complex in Kyiv.
The searches were carried out as part of a case into alleged embezzlement by Defense Ministry and General Staff officials, who purchased the vehicles at inflated prices in 2015 to 2018, the NABU said.
The Ukrainska Pravda news site and other media reported that unknown people had initially tried to prevent NABU detectives from entering an office in the Fifth Element, arguing that it was the office of a Verkhovna Rada member, which would make it off limits under Ukrainian law.
Bogdan Motors denied NABU’s accusations and termed the searches “politically motivated pressure.”
Bogdan Motors was co-owned by Poroshenko and his business partner Oleh Hladkovskyi until 2009. It is currently controlled by Hladkovskyi, who became Bogdan’s president on July 4 after being fired as a deputy secretary of the National Defense and Security Council amid a corruption scandal.
The Fifth Element gym complex, where some of Bogdan Motors’ offices are located, is co-owned by Poroshenko and lawmaker Igor Kononenko, one of the former president’s top allies.
ICU searches
The NABU also searched the offices of investment bank ICU as part of a case into the Rotterdam+ coal pricing formula on July 19.
The company said it interpreted the searches as “pressure with a clear political context.”
“ICU believes the reason for this pressure is the incumbent authorities’ dissatisfaction with the reforms carried out by its predecessors, some of whom previously worked for ICU,” the company said.
The Rotterdam+ formula was introduced in 2016 by the energy regulator, which was then headed by Dmytro Vovk, a Poroshenko protégé and a former ICU executive.
The formula is pegged to prices in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, and sets coal prices unjustifiably high, according to some analysts. Tycoon Rinat Akhmetov’s DTEK energy group has benefited from the high coal and power prices created by the Rotterdam+ scheme.
Most of DTEK’s coal is supplied from Ukrainian mines, and some of it is delivered from Russia and used to be supplied from Russian-occupied territories in the Donbas.
However, the coal’s price, type and quality have no relation to Rotterdam prices. Moreover, the price does not include the transportation costs from Rotterdam, Andriy Gerus, a former member of the energy regulator who currently serves as President Volodymyr Zelensky’s representative to the Cabinet of Ministers, told the Kyiv Post.
Akhmetov’s SCM group denied the accusations of wrongdoing, saying that “you need to have prices set that cover the cost of acquisition and importation or you have insecure energy supplies and energy blackouts.”
ICU bank has been providing investment banking services to Poroshenko and is headed by Makar Paseniuk. Several people from ICU used to hold top government jobs: Vovk, former central bank head Valeria Gontareva, ex-Energy Minister Volodymyr Demchyshyn, and Oleksandr Zhyvotovsky, head of the telecommunications regulator.
In March, Kostyantyn Kulik, a top prosecutor, brought embezzlement and money laundering charges against ICU top executive Kostyantyn Stetsenko in a different case. Later, Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko canceled the charges. ICU denied accusations of wrongdoing.
Chaus case
Meanwhile, State Investigation Bureau Chief Roman Truba said on July 19 that the bureau had opened a criminal case into media reports that Poroshenko’s security guards had transported fugitive judge Mykola Chaus to Moldova. The claim had been made by Anton Shevstov, a former top police official, in an interview with the strana.ua online newspaper.
Chaus was caught with a $150,000 bribe and fled to Moldova in 2016. He was accused of ties to lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky, a close Poroshenko ally. Hranovsky denied influencing Chaus.
Poroshenko’s interrogation
On July 11, the State Investigation Bureau also issued a summons to Poroshenko to be questioned on July 17. The questioning concerns a money laundering investigation involving Poroshenko’s sale of the Rybalska Kuznya shipyard to businessman Serhiy Tigipko for $300 million in 2018.
Poroshenko argued that the criminal allegations against him were a politically motivated aspect of the election campaign ahead of the July 21 snap parliamentary vote.
Poroshenko said he would not come to the questioning because he was busy with the election campaign. Truba said Poroshenko would be summoned for an interrogation again after July 21.
The State Investigation Bureau has opened at least nine criminal cases involving Poroshenko, according to Truba.
