Editor’s Note: The following investigation is supported by Objective Investigative Reporting Program, a Kyiv Post partner and MYMEDIA project funded by the Danish government.
Oleksandr Hranovsky, a lawmaker and top ally of President Petro Poroshenko, has generally avoided publicity.
A short and heavy man, Hranovsky told the Kyiv Post in an interview that he is well aware of his sinister reputation. But he’s no demonic character, he said, as he debunked the numerous accusations of corruption and interfering with law enforcement.
“Please don’t ruin me,” he quipped.
‘Sasha Karavan’
Hranovsky, a 37-year-old native of Kyiv, used to be the CEO of Kyiv’s Karavan shopping mall, for which he earned the nickname “Sasha Karavan.”
He also used to be the chairman of the board of directors of Andriy Adamovsky’s Assofit Holding Limited. Hranovsky was a partner of Adamovsky in several businesses, although he says that the partnership wasn’t on paper and was sealed by verbal agreements only.
His critics say that the agreements still exist and Hranovsky de facto co-owns Adamovsky’s business, which would violate the law. But Hranovsky denies any wrongdoing, saying that his agreements to get stakes in Adamovsky’s businesses had not been implemented in practice.
The former “Sasha Karavan” rose in Ukrainian politics in 2014, when he was first elected to Kyiv’s City Council and then to the Verkhovna Rada.
Hranovsky is a member of the board of trustees of Hillel, a Jewish student group. He got an economics degree at International Solomon University, a Jewish private college in Kyiv, and participated in student exchange programs at Israel’s Hebrew University and Indiana University.
Hranovsky is now getting a master’s degree in law at Ternopil National Economic University as part of a distance learning program. He claims that he knows the practical side of law quite well, and wants to learn the theory.
He denies accusations of having Israeli and Romanian citizenship, although an alleged entry on his citizenship in a Romanian register has circulated in Ukrainian media. Double citizenship is banned by Ukrainian law.
Legal matters
Despite his interest for the law, Hranovsky denies politically interfering in law enforcement, including the department for high-profile economic cases at the Prosecutor General’s Office, colloquially known as the “Kononenko-Hranovsky department,” named after himself and Ihor Kononenko, a lawmaker of President Petro Poroshenko’s Bloc and a longtime business partner of the president.
Hranovsky claimed that he had criticized the Prosecutor General’s Office’s cases against reformist ex-deputy prosecutor generals Vitaliy Kasko and Davit Sakvarelidze and lawmaker Sergii Leshchenko, allegedly calling them “idiotic cases” to Deputy Prosecutor General Yuriy Stolyarchuk.
The investigations were widely seen as fabricated and as a political vendetta by Poroshenko and his loyal former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
Legal ties
Hranovsky, who is accused of influencing the prosecutors and courts, talked about his connections in this area.
He spoke highly of Serhiy Lysenko, a controversial ex-prosecutor from Kyiv’s Dnipro District who was fired in 2015 after threatening to order to beat and rob an activist.
Hranovsky described his threats as “outrageous” but argued that Lysenko had had the “courage” to admit that he had made the threats.
He said he had gotten acquainted with Lysenko when he was questioned as a witness in one of the Sky Mall cases.
“He’s a very interesting, educated and worthy specialist,” Hranovsky said. “He has a lot of information and communicates with (prosecutors) and knows a lot. When I’m interested in something, I can address him and he can find something for me.”
When asked what exactly he had been discussing with Lysenko, Hranovsky said that he “cannot fully answer this question because this is (something) I wouldn’t like to talk about.”
However, Hranovsky denied using Lysenko to promote his business and political interests.
“Lysenko was a mid-level employee,” he said. “…. (Dnipro district prosecutors) didn’t make any major decisions. It didn’t make sense to cooperate with him.”
Security service
He also said that he had been acquainted with another prosecutor, Oleh Valendyuk, for 10 years and with Pavlo Demchyna, a deputy chief of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), for seven years. Commenting on Demchyna’s ties to Hranovsky, the SBU told the Kyiv Post that, under Ukrainian law, it “cooperates with state agencies, companies, institutions, organizations and officials who facilitate the fulfillment of its tasks.”
Hranovsky also has security guards provided by the SBU.
Radio Liberty’s Schemes investigative show on Feb. 23 published video footage of the cars of Hranovsky, Kononenko and Poroshenko simultaneously visiting the SBU building and those of Hranovsky and top SBU officials simultanously visiting the Presidential Administration.
The Presidential Administration did not deny the fact of the visits but denied that Poroshenko had met with Hranovsky and Kononenko. Hranovsky refused to explain with whom he had met and why.
Meanwhile, Leshchenko claimed on Feb. 20 that Demchyna and the “Kononenko-Hranovsky department” of the prosecutor’s office were pressuring natural gas traders to promote the interests of a natural gas firm allegedly linked to pro-Russian politician Viktor Medvedchuk and Poroshenko’s inner circle. The Presidential Administration and Hranovsky denied the accusations.
Another Hranovsky ally in state agencies was ex-State Fiscal Service Deputy Chief Kostyantyn Likarchuk, formerly an employee of the Avellum law firm, which was providing legal services to Adamovsky and Hranovsky.
Horizon Park
Another example of Hranovsky’s alleged legal clout is the scandal around the Horizon Park office building.
In 2016 Ukrsotsbank said that a company called Proyekt-A had been trying to illegally take over its Horizon Park using fake documents, the Novaya Vremya magazine reported. The bank said that Hranovsky had suggested solving its legal problems with Proyekt-A, and the bank signed a preliminary deal to sell Horizon Park to Nash Dim.
Nash Dim is a firm headed by Serhiy Kalynychenko, a lawyer who represents Hranovsky’s interests at the law firm FCLex.
Ukrsotsbank said that Hranovsky and Nash Dim had not implemented any of the terms of their agreement. But last November Nash Dim filed a lawsuit to require the bank to sell Horizon Park to it – a legal action interpreted by the bank as a corporate raid.
Hranovsky denied having anything to do with Nash Dim and Horizon Park.
Media clout
Apart from law enforcement, Hranovsky has been accused of trying to influence the news media, including through the Bukvy news site, founded by Kateryna Roshuk and Petro Terentyev.
“I don’t have anything to do with Bukvy,” Hranovsky said, adding that he had met Roshuk once or twice.
Both Roshuk and Terentyev are known to aggressively lash out at critics of Hranovsky, Kononenko, and sometimes Poroshenko.
While denying the links to Bukvy, Hranovsky said he had told Bukvy not to attack his major political opponent, lawmaker Leshchenko, so often.
Hranovsky praised Leshchenko, but said that his corruption accusations against him were unfounded.
“I respect Leshchenko,” he said. “I believe he’s competent and talented and has achieved a lot.”
Duumvirate
Hranovsky also denies the main accusation against him: that he has been running corruption schemes with lawmaker Kononenko.
Hranovsky had to interrupt the interview with the Kyiv Post to receive a phone call from Kononenko.
“I have friendly and close relations with Kononenko,” Hranovsky said. “I don’t know anything about his schemes. He’s not handling any of them through me.”
Hranovsky and Kononenko have been accused of being linked to an alleged corruption scheme being investigated at Odesa Portside Plant that involves Olga Tkachenko, an ex-aide of Hranovsky.
“Tkachenko is an independent person, and I haven’t seen her for a long time,” he said. “I’m sure that she hasn’t been involved in any criminal activities.”
In 2016, Oleksandr Vizir, an aide to Kononenko, became a member of Odesa Portside Plant’s board of directors.
Railway supplies
Another alleged corruption scheme involves Trade Commodity, which recently won three contracts worth Hr 3 billion to supply diesel fuel to railway monopoly Ukrzaliznytsya.
Leshchenko claims that the company is linked to Adamovsky and has accused Hranovsky of lobbying for his interests.
Adamovsky did not respond for requests for comment, while Hranovsky said he had nothing to do with the company.
Sky Mall saga
At the center of corruption accusations against Hranovsky is the dispute over the alleged seizure by Hranovsky and Adamovsky of the Sky Mall shopping center from Estonian businessman Hillar Teder and Czech investment banker Tomas Fiala’s Dragon Capital in 2012.
Hranovsky accused Teder’s firm Arricano of bribing judges, forging and backdating documents and faking auditors’ reports. He promised to show documents proving his claims to the Kyiv Post but, as of Feb. 23, had failed to do so.
Arricano responded to the claim by saying that he was bluffing and had no proof.
“Foreign citizens are trusted more by default than Ukrainian ones,” Hranovsky said, referring to Teder and Fiala. “…Opinion leaders are not interested in taking account and analyzing information (on accusations against Arricano).”
Tax problems
Another accusation concerns Hranovsky’s tax payments.
During a legal dispute with businessmen Ihor Filipenko and Andriy Malitsky in the British Virgin Islands in 2012, Hranovsky testified that he had received $700,000 from Filipenko.
Ex-lawmaker Yegor Firsov said last year that he had seen Hranovsky’s tax returns and the money had not been included in them.
Hranovsky said he had not included the money because he had failed to receive the money and had instead gotten a stake in the Gorky Park real estate project from Filipenko, so there was nothing do declare.
The statement appears to run contrary to Hranovsky’s testimony in the British Virgin Islands, where he said “I got it (the $700,000) in cash.”
Everything sold?
Hranovsky also said he used to have some minor stakes in businesses as well, but sold all of them when he was elected to the Verkhovna Rada in 2014, as required by the law.
However, Hranovsky was registered as an entrepreneur until Feb. 2, 2016, according to the Justice Ministry’s register of entrepreneurs. Ukrainian law bans lawmakers from running a business.
Hranovsky argued that this was a mistake.
