Hennadiy Plis - what assets does the head of the State Audit Service own, the “killer” of bank Khreschatyk and friend of the odious Chernovetsky

Hennadiy Plis - what assets does the head of the State Audit Service own, the “killer” of bank Khreschatyk and friend of the odious Chernovetsky

Hennadiy Plis at various times served as deputy state secretary of the Cabinet of Ministers and first deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA). His last position in government was deputy minister of finance in the Honcharuk government.

Since April 1994 he was director of economics at the Production Association (PA) “Pervomaiskvuhillia” (Pervomaisk, Luhansk region). Since April 1996 he was deputy, and since January 1997 first deputy general director for economic and commercial affairs — director of economics of the state holding company (SHC) “Sverdlovantratsyt” (Sverdlovsk, Luhansk region). Since July 1997 he was first deputy general director for economic and commercial affairs — director of economics of PA “Krasnodonvuhillia” (Krasnodon, Luhansk region). Since October 1998 he was first deputy general director of the enterprise “Ukrainian Cause” (Luhansk).

In 1999-2000 he worked as vice president of the firm “Good Tel Invest” (Kyiv). The firm went bankrupt in March 2001. During 2001 he was a private entrepreneur, a consultant.

From December 2001 to September 2002 he held a number of positions from head of the department for material and technical supply, transport, marketing and product sales to director of financial and commercial affairs of SHC “Luhanskvuhlepererobka” (Luhansk). Since September 2002 he was director of the branch of the state self-financing institution “Agency for Bankruptcy Affairs in the Luhansk Region” (Kyiv). In May 2005 Hennadiy Plis headed the Financial and Economic Department of the Ministry of Coal Industry. In 2006 he headed the Main Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the KCSA.

Since August 2012 he was chairman of the supervisory board, and since 2013 director of the Department of Internal Audit and Risk Analysis of PJSC “State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine” (SFGC). Since July 2014 he was adviser to the head of the Organizational and Analytical Support Department of the KCSA head’s office. In October 2014 he headed the Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the KCSA.

Hennadiy Plis was appointed first deputy head of the KCSA by order of Kyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko dated 27 January 2016, No. 42 as a transfer from the Department of Internal Financial Control and Audit of the KCSA. In the absence of the head of the KCSA, Plis, according to the approved distribution of functions, performed his duties.

However, the Cabinet at a meeting on 20 January 2016 did not approve Plis’s candidacy, who was then considered a protégé of Vadym Stolar.

On 4 December 2017 Hennadiy Plis submitted a resignation letter stating he was leaving of his own accord. Later the press service of the first deputy head of the KCSA explained that their boss was not dismissed at his own request, but had submitted a leave request.

According to blogger Oleksandr Aronets, Plis wrote a resignation letter “for personal reasons” and immediately went on leave after information appeared in the media about the involvement of his son Roman Plis and the general director of the company “Bunge Ukraine,” Russian businessman Dmytro Horshunov, in schemes with “fictitious VAT”.

According to Kyiv council deputy Oleksandr Pabat, Plis’s departure was due to a complete loss of control over budgetary processes in the KCSA.

On 5 December Vitali Klitschko confirmed Plis’s intention to leave the KCSA but delayed signing his resignation.

Hennadiy Plis was dismissed from the position of first deputy head of the KCSA by order of Kyiv city mayor Vitali Klitschko dated 18 December 2017, No. 990 as a transfer for further work in the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine.

Since 19 December 2017 Plis has been director of the Department for Regional Policy of the Cabinet Secretariat. By Cabinet order dated 20 December 2017, No. 948-r he was appointed acting state secretary of the Cabinet.

By Cabinet order dated 14 February 2018, No. 89-r (under Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman) Hennadiy Plis was appointed deputy state secretary of the Cabinet for a term of 5 years with a probationary period of 6 months.

By Cabinet order dated 6 September 2019, No. 752-r (Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk) Hennadiy Plis was appointed deputy minister of finance (to Oksana Markarova). In this role he was to handle finance for defense, law enforcement and national security, as well as local budget issues.

He was dismissed from the position of deputy minister of finance by Cabinet order dated 11 March 2020, No.253-r in accordance with para. 4 art. 2 of the Law of Ukraine “On Central Executive Authorities” (due to the dismissal of the minister).

Many years of work at Luhansk coal enterprises suggest that Hennadiy Plis likely has strong ties with local elites, including Oleksandr Yefremov and Natalia Korolevska. There are reports that Minister Viktor Topolov invited Hennadiy Plis to the Ministry of Coal Industry; Topolov had certain interests in the Luhansk region.

Additionally, according to some accounts, despite his “Luhansk registration,” Hennadiy Plis allegedly had dealings with the well-known Donbas “authority” Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (in some circles — Yura Yenakiyevskyi).

Hennadiy Plis worked quite closely with former Kyiv mayor Leonid Chernovetsky, under whom he headed financial control and audit in the KCSA. KCSA employees from that period highly rate Plis’s abilities, claiming that thanks to him Chernovetsky knew exactly where, from whom and how much money could be “taken.”

But the most interesting story, it seems, is connected with the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGC). This corporation was created in August 2010 during President Viktor Yanukovych’s term, allegedly “for” his elder son Oleksandr. SFGC is nominally subordinated to the Ministry of Agrarian Policy, which in 2012-2014 was headed by the fleeing agrarian minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, for whom Hennadiy Plis once served as an adviser.

As Prysyazhnyuk’s adviser and trusted person, Plis chaired the supervisory board of the SFGC and was responsible for internal audit and contracts. For the period from 2012 to 2014 former SFGC leaders are accused of embezzling hundreds of millions of hryvnias.

In October 2016 the name of Hennadiy Plis was directly implicated in the scandal related to the withdrawal of funds from the insolvent bank “Khreschatyk,” which serviced hundreds of Kyiv municipal enterprises.

According to sources of the publication “Ekonomichna Pravda” in law enforcement agencies, the transfers of municipal enterprises’ funds from the bank were allegedly “orchestrated” by first deputy head of the KCSA Hennadiy Plis.

The city of Kyiv owned 25% of the shares of bank “Khreschatyk,” but this did not save the financial institution — at the beginning of April the National Bank declared it insolvent.

The informal and actual owner of the bank was called the “Kyiv Investment Group” (KIG), controlled by developer Andriy Ivanov (37% of the bank’s shares) and his business partner Vasyl Khmelnytsky.

Actions of the KIG–KCSA tandem investigated by law enforcement led to the conclusion that from 31 March to 4 April the bank’s loan portfolio decreased by 1 billion UAH, mainly due to loans secured by pledges from the KIG group.

On 26 May 2016 the Kyiv City Council created a temporary control commission to investigate the circumstances that led to bank “Khreschatyk” being declared insolvent. Anticipating events, as early as 14 April Hennadiy Plis “promptly” stated that the city leadership did not know about the upcoming collapse of bank “Khreschatyk” and did not control the situation there, because, he said, the KCSA allegedly has no specialized experts. Moreover, he said the 25% of the bank’s shares owned by the city community effectively meant nothing.

There were other complaints about Plis’s work. For example, former Kyiv mayor Oleksandr Omelchenko was unpleasantly surprised to learn that while other Ukrainian cities’ budgets receive 60% of VAT paid on their territory, Kyiv’s budget received only 40%. And such “losses” — whether through stupidity or some obscure “schemes” — were constantly affecting Kyiv’s city budget, including due to Plis, because directors of KCSA departments subordinate to him systematically allowed themselves to thoughtlessly spend budget funds on completely inappropriate procurements.

In Plis’s annual declaration, which he submitted as deputy minister of finance on 9 March, it states that he owns a plot of land and a house in Bilohorodka, Kyiv region, as well as an apartment of 35 square meters in Mukachevo, Zakarpattia region. The official’s son owns an apartment in Kyiv of 90 square meters.

Plis owns two motorcycles — a KTM 690 SMC-R 2016 and a Ducati Multistrada 1260 2018 model year (the latter costs half a million hryvnias, editor’s note). Another motorcycle, a Yamaha T-MAX 2018 model year, he has the right to use; it belongs to a third party. Plis and his wife have the right to use an Infiniti FX37 2011 model year car.

Last year Plis earned 669 thousand 928 hryvnias at the Cabinet Secretariat and another 341 thousand 24 hryvnias at the Ministry of Finance. He also received income from the sale of movable property — 675 thousand hryvnias, rental income — 60 thousand hryvnias, insurance payments — 48,4 thousand hryvnias, compensation for property damage — 68 thousand hryvnias, and over 51 thousand hryvnias in interest from a deposit at JSC “Universal Bank”. His son earned from renting property 154 thousand 800 hryvnias.

On bank accounts Plis holds 262 758 UAH, 2 253 UAH, 29 475 UAH, 303 US dollars and 7 euros. His wife and son hold negligible amounts in hryvnias across two accounts. In cash the official holds 50 thousand US dollars and 33 thousand hryvnias. His wife holds 15 thousand dollars.

politica.com.ua