Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said in a June 4 interview with the Yevropeiska Pravda online newspaper that lawmaker Ihor Kononenko, a top ally of President Petro Poroshenko, had tried to install Ihor Umansky as a deputy finance minister to lobby for his interests.
Kononenko denied the accusations.
Pressure has been building on Danylyuk to resign amid his conflicts with Kononenko, another Poroshenko Bloc lawmaker Nina Yuzhanina, as well as Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. Danylyuk has accused Groysman of blocking the appointment of Yana Bugrimova as his deputy and sabotaging the reform of the State Fiscal Service.
Abromavicius scandal
Kononenko has been accused of attempting to insert his allies into the government in the past: In 2016 former Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius resigned and accused Kononenko of trying to make his protégé Andriy Pasishnik a deputy economy minister. Abromavicius also accused Kononenko of profiteering from state companies, which Kononenko denied.
Pasishnik is currently on trial on charges of unlawfully interfering with a state official’s activities.
Abromavicius claimed Kononenko had “interests” at ammonia shipping company Ukrkhimtransamiak and had been trying to install his protégé as the chief executive of the firm.
Kononenko has also been trying to have his people appointed to Derzhzovnishinform, a market research company, and to powder metallurgy companies and the National Accreditation Agency, Abromavicius said.
The Slidstvo.info investigative show on May 10 also published about 350 alleged Whatsapp messages implicating fugitive lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko and allies of Poroshenko, including Kononenko, of corrupt dealings.
Hranovsky scandal
Meanwhile, Kononenko’s close associate and lawmaker OIeksandr Hranovsky uses numerous undeclared luxury cars, according to a May 25 investigation by Radio Liberty’s Schemes show. Most of the cars are registered to associates of lawyer Viktor Barsuk, a close acquaintance of Hranovsky.
Hranovsky has also declared a high-end car that he rents from an unemployed person who could not explain the origin of the funds he used to acquire the rental firm and its assets, according to Schemes.
Hranovsky did not respond to a request for comment.
Schemes also filmed the cars of Hranovsky, Poroshenko and the Surkis brothers visiting the Presidential Administration on April 20. Hranovsky is believed to be a gray cardinal in charge of the law enforcement system, which he denies.
The visits followed the arrest in Germany on April 14 of Dmytro Kryuchkov, a suspect in a corruption case into power company Zaporizhzhyaoblenergo investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. The Surkis brothers are also investigated in the case, while Kononenko has been accused of profiteering from Zaporizhzhyaoblenergo, which he denies.
The Presidential Administration and the Surkis brothers said they had discussed soccer-related issues on April 20.
