Jew World Order

nsnbc : Several key partners and associates of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko are being investigated for allegedly profiteering by skimming profits from defense contracts and from state firms through supply contracts.

Ihor Kononenko under investigation. One of “All the President’s men”.

Only three years after the Euromaidan, in part prompted by the corruption and nepotism of the regime of ousted President Yanukovich, and with the 2018 elections drawing near, President Petro Poroshenko and several of his key protegés stand accused of from the defense industry. One of many red flags was raised because defense companies controlled by them tend to receive the most lucrative contracts.

Another issue is the so-called Rotterdam+ coal supply scheme introduced by the energy regulator introduced by President Poroshenko. The Rotterdam+ scheme allowed coal suppliers, power companies, and not least Poroshenko’s investment bank to profit from skyrocketing energy prices. However, Poroshenko denies all “graft” accusations or other “irregularities”.

In March 2017 the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) charged Roman Nasirov, the Chief of the State Fiscal Service  with illegally suspending taxes for gas trading companies of runaway lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko. Onyshchenko has claimed that Poroshenko had instructed Nasirov to delay the tax payments. Nasirov is one of Poroshenko’s key protégés.

Poroshenko, for his part, denied all of Onyshchenko’s accusations and denounced him of being “a tool of the Kremlin”. Nasirov, for his part, apparently believes his case to be fabricated and political.

Odesa Portside Plant

The NABU is also investigating two other of Poroshenko’s top partners; The lawmakers Ihor Kononenko and Oleksandr Hranovsky, and Olga Tkachenko, an ex-aide to Hranovsky, in a graft case linked to the state-owned Odesa Portside Plant, a fertilizer maker. Tkachenko is an ex-member of the plant’s executive board. Oleksandr Vizir, an aide to Kononenko, became a member of Odesa Portside Plant’s board of directors in 2016.

One of the claims of alleged “tool of the Kremlin” Onyshchenko is that he, allegedly, had been paying Hr 2,000 per 1,000 cubic meters in kickbacks to Kononenko from his company’s natural gas supplies to the Odesa Portside Plant and state-owned power producer Tsentrenergo, which Kononenko denies. Before quitting in February 2016, Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius also accused Kononenko of trying to install his proteges at his ministry and many state firms.

Moreover, one of the proteges, Andriy Pasishnik, ex-executive director of Ukraine’s state-owned oil and gas giant Naftogaz, is currently on trial on charges of trying to influence a state official. Kononenko denies Abromavicius’ allegations.

Profiteering from the defense sector

Poroshenko and key associate have also been accused of profiteering from supplies to the military. The accused deny these accusations. Poroshenko and Kononenko own the Rybalsky Kuznia shipyard. The company got, according to public data,  government contracts, including military ones, worth $2.5 million in 2016 and $560,000 in 2017.

But it doesn’t stop there. Poroshenko’s business partner Oleh Hladkovsky, who is the Deputy Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, has considerable clout over the defense industry.  The Nashi Hroshi investigative journalism project reported that he has received several lucrative military contracts for his automaker Bohdan, which was formerly co-owned by Poroshenko. These include supplies of MAZ trucks, 60 military ambulances worth $2 million, as well as Hyundai HD65 and Hyundai HD120 trucks.

However, without denying the facts, Serhiy Krasulya, a Bohdan spokesman, merely noted that there was no conflict of interest because Hladkovsky was not involved in the company’s management despite owning it. Add to that, that Roman Romanov, a former Bohdan dealer, heads state defense firm Ukroboronprom.

A report by the Institute of World Policy from April 2017 mentioned “a pro-government lobby where several private companies either belong to those in power or are controlled by them and benefit from preferences in getting government contracts.” Valentyn Badrak, Head of the Center for Army, Conversion and Disarmament Studies commented :“The biggest problem is that the defense sector is micromanaged. … If some investor wants to come to Ukraine, he needs to go to four particular offices.”

Rotterdam+ Can corruption even bridge the gap between Kiev and the rebelling eastern regions?

Poroshenko et al are also being grilled over the so-called Rotterdam+ scheme. The scheme was introduced in 2016 by Ukraine’s energy regulator, headed by Poroshenko protégé Dmytro Vovk. The coal is supplied from Ukraine’s rebelling eastern Donbass republics and the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to other Ukrainian regions. The coal is being supplied directly to other Ukrainian regions, but there is added an extra cost for the alleged shipment from Rotterdam, in the Netherlands, to Ukraine.

Consequently, the price of electricity from coal-fueled power plants has more than tripled since 2015. Member of Parliament Sergii Leshchenko claimed that President Poroshenko and Ukrainian oligarch Rinat Akhmetov conspired to introduce the skimming scheme. Akhmetov’s DTEK energy group has benefited from the high coal and power prices introduced by the Rotterdam+ circus. However, DTEK denied accusations of wrongdoing and claimed the prices are fair.

Another beneficiary of the Rotterdan+ scheme is the state-owned power producer Tsentrenergo, which allegedly is linked to Kononenko, who denies the connection. However, Onyshchenko claims that Kononenko had been getting $20 per ton from coal supplies coming from Russian-occupied Donbas. Kononeko denies the allegations. An investigation published by the Novoye Vremya magazine concluded that the Rotterdam+ circus has also allowed ICU, an investment bank that services Poroshenko and is controlled by his allies, to earn $250 million.

The ICU purchased DTEK Eurobonds before the Rotterdam+ scheme was introduced and profited when their price soared due to the introduction of the coal circus. However, the ICU bank denies any wrongdoing, and claims that the prices of other Ukrainian corporate bonds have also soared. In another example that suggests that corruption and oligarchical systems know neither conflicts or borders, the generally Russia-friendly politician Viktor Medvedchuk, who has enjoyed relatively good relations with Poroshenko, is also allegedly profiting from the scheme.

Ukrainska Pravda published the result of an investigation and concluded that the Hong Kong-based Arida, which is allegedly linked to Medvedchuk, has supplied coal from the rebelling Donbass republics to Tsentrenergo and passed it off as South African coal. Meanwhile, since November the Security Service of Ukraine and the Prosecutor General’s Office have blocked imports of liquefied natural gas by dozens of traders, accusing them of financing terrorism.

Leshchenko claims the imports were blocked to promote the interests of Medvedchuk and Poroshenko’s inner circle. As a result of the SBU’s actions, the share of gas traders allegedly linked to Medvedchuk increased. However, not unsurprisingly, Oleh Bovavin, Medvedchuk’s spokesman, denied any link between Medvedchuk and the gas traders. However, Bovavin could not comment on the Tsentrenergo scheme.

CH/L – nsnbc 23.06.2017