Lawmaker Igor Kononenko, a top ally of President Petro Poroshenko, and brothers Grigory Surkis and Igor Surkis have been allegedly involved in corruption schemes at state-controlled power companies, Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe’s Schemes investigative show reported late on March 28.
Oleg Medvedev, a spokesman for Poroshenko’s campaign, and Kononenko denied the accusations, arguing that the expose was being used by Poroshenko’s competitors in the presidential race. Medvedev said Kononenko would file a libel lawsuit against Radio Liberty in a European court.
Schemes published alleged audio recordings of conversations between Dmytro Kryuchkov, CEO of power company Energomerezha, and Kononenko, the Surkis brothers, Serhiy Storozhenko, an aide to Igor Rainin, formerly governor of Kharkiv Oblast and now Poroshenko’s chief of staff, Igor Kotvitsky, a People’s Front lawmaker and a close ally of Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, and other people. The recordings were mostly made in 2015.
Among other things, they discuss the alleged participation of Poroshenko, Rainin, Poroshenko’s former Chief of Staff Boris Lozhkin and Dmytro Vovk, a top Poroshenko ally and ex-head of energy regulator, in the schemes.
The Surkis brothers and Rainin did not respond to requests for comment. Storozhenko, Lozhkin, Vovk and Kotvitsky denied the accusations of wrongdoing.
Schemes said that the authenticity of the audio recordings had been confirmed by independent experts.
In 2016 Kryuchkov was charged with embezzling Hr 356 million from power company Zaporizhzhyaoblenergo and fled Ukraine.
The conversations concern state-controlled power companies Zaporizhzhyaoblenergo, Cherkasyoblenergo and Kharkivoblenergo. The Surkis brothers had stakes in Cherkasyoblenergo and Kharkivoblenergo and still co-own Zaporizhzhyaoblenergo. In the conversations, they discuss the distribution of income from the power companies and ways to disrupt shareholder meetings to make sure that their loyalists run the companies.
Kryuchkov’s Energomerezha firm is being investigated by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine over allegedly embezzling funds by receiving money as an intermediary between the power companies and customers and then failing to transfer the money to the companies.
“Kononenko fulfilled the part of the agreements that were an area of responsibility on the part of Poroshenko and Kononenko,” Kryuchkov told Schemes in a handwritten letter. “We had agreements with them on Energomerezha, Kharkivenergo, Mykolayivenergo, Zaporizhzhyaenergo, Cherkasyenergo, Khmelnytskyoblenergo, Tsentrenergo, the Odesa Portside Plant, the Odesa Power Plant, the Mykolayiv Power Plant and other power plants and companies. Surely we had financial relations with them. According to our agreements, (Poroshenko and Kononenko) received 50 percent to 70 percent of the income from relevant businesses…. The main recipient of the income is Poroshenko.”
“On Friday night we went to P,” Kryuchkov told Kotvitsky in an apparent reference to Poroshenko, according to the alleged audio recordings. “He gave the green light personally.”
Kryuchkov was arrested in Germany in 2018 and was released on bail. Schemes filmed the cars of the Surkis brothers and Poroshenko’s top ally and lawmaker Oleksandr Hranovsky visiting the Presidential Administration simultaneously several days after Kryukov’s arrest. Hranovsky did not respond to a request for comment.
In early March Kryuchkov submitted a request to German authorities to voluntarily return to Ukraine and was sent to an extradition prison, according to Schemes. However, Ukraine has so far failed to accept him.
Deputy Prosecutor General Eugene Enin said on March 29 that the Prosecutor General’s Office had requested Kryuchkov’s extradition and was expected it to take place soon.
