Kyiv’s Solomyansky Court on April 21 started considering the issuance of an arrest warrant for ex-People’s Front party lawmaker Mykola Martynenko, a top ally of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk.
The bureau on April 20 arrested Martynenko and charged him with organized crime and embezzling $17 million during uranium ore sales to the state-owned Eastern Ore Dressing Plant.
The Ukrainska Pravda online newspaper reported in 2015 that Austria’s Steuermann Investitions, which is allegedly controlled by Martynenko, was selling Kazakh uranium ore at a huge profit to the Eastern Ore Dressing Plant, which sells uranium to Ukraine’s state nuclear power monopoly Energoatom.
Martynenko, a top ally of former Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, denies the accusations. He resigned from parliament in 2015 after he was targeted by several graft investigations.
Helped by allies
People’s Front lawmaker Giorgy Logvynsky and Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan, who also has links to the People’s Front, offered to vouchsafe for Martynenko to get him out.
Sports Minister Ihor Zhdanov and Education Minister Lilia Hrynevych, who were delegated by the People’s Front, as well as People’s Front lawmakers Pavlo Pynzennyk and Mykola Knyazhytsky, also came to the court to support Martynenko.
Some of the lawyers who represent Martynenko also defended State Fiscal Service Chief Roman Nasirov, who was arrested in a corruption case in March.
Onyshchenko’s audio
Meanwhile, the strana.ua news site on April 20 published an audio recording of a conversation between a person whose voice resembles Martynenko’s and fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko in London. In February strana.ua also published an alleged recording of their conversation in Spain.
Onyshchenko, a suspect in a graft case, fled Ukraine in July and later published several recordings implicating President Petro Poroshenko and other politicians in alleged corruption.
During the court hearing, Martynenko confirmed having met with Onyshchenko in Spain but said that, as far as he remembers, he had not met him in London.
Energoatom scheme
In the latest recording, the person alleged to be Martynenko implicates Poroshenko in his schemes linked to Energoatom. Onyshchenko told the Kyiv Post that Martynenko had been talking about the Eastern Ore Dressing Plant and that Poroshenko had allegedly wanted to get a share in Martynenko’s schemes.
Poroshenko has vehemently denied accusations in Onyshchenko’s recordings, accusing him of being a tool of Kremlin propaganda.
“(Poroshenko) hasn’t solved my business issues with Energoatom,” the person alleged to be Martynenko said. “He started bothering me and asking if he could see documents and access keys.”
Martynenko also said that the Security Service of Ukraine had started pressuring him and that Poroshenko had “broken” his schemes at Energoatom that he had been building for 10 years, according to the recording.
Ukrainian, Swiss and Czech authorities have also been investigating Martynenko on suspicion that he accepted 30 million Swiss francs from Czech engineering firm Skoda to give it a contract to supply equipment to Energoatom.
The person whose voice resembles Martynenko also said that Poroshenko and his business partner Kostyantyn Grigorishin had “decided to divvy up the entire energy industry.” Grigorishin has previously denied such accusations.
Kononenko and Hranovsky
Another claim made by the person is that Poroshenko’s gray cardinals and lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky had extorted bribes worth $50,000, $15,000 and $10,000 from Yaroslav Moskalenko, leader of the People’s Will faction in parliament, for releasing oil and gas company Naftogaz’s ex-executive director Andriy Pasishnik from custody.
According to messages leaked from ex-Economy minister Aivaras Abromavicius, Kononenko has tried to impose Pasishnik as a deputy minister. Pasishnik has been charged with illegally interfering into the ministry’s work.
Hranovsky did not respond to a request for comment but he had previously denied Onyshchenko’s accusations.
“I do not comment on any statements by a person suspected of corruption and high treason for the benefit of Russia who has fled Ukraine to escape punishment,” Kononenko told the Kyiv Post.
Odesa scheme
Martynenko said that Kononenko had seized an ore dressing plant from Rinat Akhmetov and that Kononenko and Hranovsky had delegated “their girl” to the Odesa Portside Plant – a reference to Olga Tkachenko, a Hranovsky aide and a top official at the plant, according to the recording.
A trading company controlled by Kononenko and Hranovsky had received a 13 million euro prepayment for Odesa Portside Plant products from a buyer and had failed to supply anything, the person alleged to be Martynenko said.
The bureau is investigating Kononenko, Hranovsky and his former aide Tkachenko in a corruption case at the Odesa Portside Plant. In 2015 the vlasti.net news site published an alleged $16 million contract signed by Tkachenko between the Odesa Portside Plant and Hong Kong-based Expotrade Global Limited, which is accused of buying fertilizers from the plant at below-market prices.
Meanwhile, Oleksandr Vizir, an aide to Kononenko, became a member of Odesa Portside Plant’s board of directors in 2016.
The bureau is also investigating Martynenko himself over alleged corruption at the Odesa Portside Plant. Under the scheme, a firm called Antra supplied natural gas to the plant in exchange for ammonia and other fertilizers that are produced from the gas. Investigators say that the plant effectively supplied fertilizers to Antra at below-market prices, which deprived it of revenues.
Martynenko’s background
Martynenko has been an associate of Poroshenko since they were both part of ex-President Viktor Yushchenko’s inner circle in the 2000s. Martynenko and Poroshenko also used to be business partners.
In 2005 Yushchenko’s chief of staff Oleksandr Zinchenko resigned and accused Poroshenko, Martynenko and their ally Oleksandr Tretyakov, currently a Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker, of corruption.
Martynenko is also a close confidante of Yatsenyuk, who has been accused of being involved in his schemes and denies the accusations. Martynenko is alleged to be the main cash cow for Yatsenyuk and the People’s Front.
The Prosecutor General’s Office has investigated ex-lawmaker Ihor Skosar’s claim that he gave a $6 million bribe to Yatsenyuk through Martynenko for a place on the Batkyvshchyna Party’s parliamentary list in 2012.
