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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
The Lucky Code of Khomutynnik
Khomutynnik, at Klyuyev’s suggestion, pushed through parliament the elimination of customs duties on silicon, without which solar energy is unthinkable. And after that, Khomutynnik’s father-in-law’s partner entered the solar business.
And sometimes they just get lucky. Whether that’s how stars are made or whether the Christian ‘do good and good will come back to you’ works, in every case the deputies from the Party of Regions became true favorites of fate. At least in recent years.
Vitaliy Khomutynnik did not stand out as a white crow among his colleagues. Having done a favor for the Klyuyev brothers’ “solar business,” he, or rather his family, received an unexpected satisfaction. So here’s how it happened.
First let’s go back to November 6 2012. Then photographer Vlad Sodel photographed how MP Serhiy Klyuyev (brother of NSDC Secretary Andriy Klyuyev) slid Khomutynnik a phone with an SMS from someone called “Dyakon.”
The SMS contained a request to reduce one of the silicon customs tariff rates from 5% to 0%. “Dyakon” also advised how to insert this amendment into Khomutynnik’s bill No. 9241-d, which that day was to be voted on in parliament.
The advice was as follows: “You can try to say that amendment No. 33 had a technical mistake – in the table the code 2804610000, under which the rate changes the same way as for code 2804690000, was not reflected,” wrote “Dyakon.”
The photo shows Khomutynnik transferring the content of the SMS into the draft of his bill. And that same day he politely carries out the request.
According to the transcript of the Verkhovna Rada session, at 13.33 Khomutynnik went to the podium to explain all the improvements his bill on amendments to the Law “On the Customs Tariff of Ukraine” would bring. The matter of amendment No. 33 was reached at 13.37.
We quote the transcript:
KHOMUTYNNIK V.YU. 33-th. For the transcript. A code technically fell out here, I will say for the transcript: 2804610000. In addition to KaraKay’s 33-th proposal, the same rate applies to it as to the code that is taken into account, 2804690000.
THE CHAIR. Yes, I ask you to vote for this proposal to amendment 33. Please vote.
KHOMUTYNNIK V.YU. I ask for your support.
13:37:49
For-257
THE CHAIR. Supported.
Here is how Khomutynnik’s bill changed the customs rates:
When the photographer published a picture of the SMS on his page with a corresponding comment about the mental capacity of Ukrainian parliamentarians and added photos of their watches (Klyuyev’s Breguet Classique Complications 3577 Tourbillon Chronograph priced from $90 thousand, Tourbillon Souverain priced from $125 thousand for Khomutynnik, photo below), everyone once again scolded the so-called elite and moved on.
Our Money, while examining the Klyuyevs’ transnational business empire, found a continuation of this story.
The Klyuyevs are monopolists in the polysilicon semiconductor market. The Zaporizhzhia “Semiconductor Plant” from the Ukrpidshipnyk corporation annually imports hundreds of tons of silicon into Ukraine. And guess what codes imported silicon products have at customs? Correct: 2804690000 and 2804610000. Those are the codes for which the duty was zeroed out, thereby reducing revenues to the state budget and increasing the profits of silicon importers. Among them one of the main stars is the Klyuyev-owned “Semiconductor Plant.”
The price of the matter is measured in tens of millions per year; the profit margin is 5% of the customs value of the silicon that Khomutynnik removed from customs duties. And formally he did not violate the law on MP status. Because his hands only wrote and voted, helping businessmen save on customs duties, which fill the state budget with money used to pay salaries to teachers and doctors.
But that’s not even what we’re talking about. More interesting turned out to be the future — namely how it was distorted to the benefit of Khomutynnik’s family.
A small digression is needed here.
Vitaliy Khomutynnik is married to Kateryna Sopelnyk, daughter of Donetsk developer-businessman Viktor Sopelnyk. The MP’s father-in-law even tried in 2012 to join the ranks of his son-in-law in parliament. However he lost the majoritarian election in Kramatorsk. At the same time, the father-in-law of the “regional” MP cynically ran in the election under the flag of the opposition party UDAR.
So Viktor Sopelnyk, who did not win a parliamentary mandate but changed his Donetsk registration to Kyiv, has a so-called “regular” business partner — Oleksandr Tsarevych (they jointly founded NPK “Ukrbudinvest,” “Yur-Factor”).
And this Tsarevych brings us directly to the silicon topic. The father-in-law’s partner, after the successful zeroing of the silicon duty, joined the founders of TOV “Talia Solar,” receiving 30% of the company. A piece of the company was allocated to him by its initial founders — Italian Nicola Sergi and the Italian firm “Ofelio.”
The Italian has been doing business in Ukraine for ten years, owning more than a dozen different companies. Among other things, he develops solar energy. His firms “ICS International – 1,” “ICS International-2,” “ICS International-3” and “ICS International – 4” received 200 hectares for a solar power plant in the Chernobyl zone a year ago. “Malyn Energy Park” at that time received 28 hectares for the same purposes in Zhytomyr region. Two other Sergi firms — TOV “Kraymia Solar One” and “Kraymia Solar Two” — have names very similar to firms from the Klyuyevs’ “Active Solar” group - “Kraymia Solar 1” and “Kraymia Solar 2.”
So we have the following scheme. Khomutynnik, at Serhiy Klyuyev’s suggestion in November 2012, pushed through parliament the elimination of customs duties on silicon. And after that Khomutynnik’s father-in-law’s partner entered the solar business.
Recall that this type of business is now very profitable in Ukraine. As we already wrote in the piece about the solar energy of Zakarpattia Governor Oleksandr Ledyda’s family, capital investments in his case pay off in six years. After that there is a pure profit until the end of the 25-year lifespan of the solar panels.
However we hasten to cool the enthusiasm of those eager to rush into this business. The Verkhovna Rada also passed a law that reduced the margin for solar power plants commissioned from April 2013. That means Klyuyev, who earlier managed to build the largest plants, will receive excess profits in full. All other newcomers, in the words of Mykola Azarov, are “late.”
Or, to speak in civilized terms — everyone else was “unlucky.” In this political season only the chosen ones get lucky.
Yuriy Nikolov
Our Money
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Щасливий код Хомутинніка". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
