How the Yanukovych Family Hides Assets

How the Yanukovych Family Hides Assets

After the February events, when former president Viktor Yanukovych fled the country, most people close to him began hiding themselves and protecting their wealth.

Ukrainian law enforcement announced a search for leaders of security structures from Yanukovych's era, former prime minister Mykola Azarov, energy and coal minister Eduard Stakhivsky, the "family wallet" – Serhiy Kurchenko, and, finally, the son of the fourth president, Oleksandr Yanukovych.

Many of these people still had business in Ukraine. Courts, licensing, and permitting bodies were redirected to other entrepreneurs. Therefore, companies owned by the Yanukovych circle faced problems from the authorities or competitors.

Under these conditions, the "Family" began to hide its business. One example of such concealment was investigated by INSIDER.

2012 year a new player entered the gas production market – the Interregional Gas Company (IGC), created in December 2011. This firm received special permits to develop gas fields from the Zasyadka mine, controlled by Member of Parliament from the Party of Regions Yukhym Zvyagilskyi.

Yukhym Zvyagilskyi

Zvyagilskyi's mine was included in IGC's charter capital, investing 25 thousand hryvnias in the company. This allowed transferring to it the gas extraction licenses that had been granted to the Zasadyka mine by the cabinet's order of Mykola Azarov in December 2010.

According to the publication Slidstvo.info, Zvyagilskyi arranged this swap in exchange for then-President Yanukovych allowing the deputy to privatize the mine.

Ultimately, IGC received licenses to develop four fields from the mine. Among them are Zolotarivska near the village of Stanitsya Luhanska, Serbska near Slovianoserbsk, Sirotinka near Novoaydar in Luhansk Oblast, and Nizhnyoritshivska in the Izium and Chuhuiv districts of Kharkiv Oblast.

In April 2012, the Luhansk Oblast Council approved IGC's application to lease the Baranikivska area, located in Kreminskyi, Svatovskyi, Starobilskyi, and Bilokurakynskyi raions of the oblast. According to the State Geology and Subsurface Service, all five IGC licenses are active still. Sources of Slidstvo.info reported these five plots hold about three billion cubic meters of gas reserves.

At that time, according to the state registry, IGC through a chain of companies belonged to Donetsk Oblast deputy Eduard Slynyko. Specifically, IGC belonged to the company "Gazinvest Group," owned by SL Group, which Slynyko directly owned.

Now, according to information from the Agency for the Development of the Stock Market, the entire share capital of SL Group is owned by the Dutch company SL Gas Holding. Yet the chairman of the board remains Eduard Slynyko.

The career of the oblast council deputy is closely tied to Alexander Yanukovych's business. By 2011, he was a cofounder of the company "Donsnabtara." His partners in this firm were Valentina Arbuzova – mother of the former prime minister during Yanukovych's era Serhiy Arbuzov, and Alexander Yanukovych himself.

At the end of 2011, Donsnabtara was renamed to KUA "VAR-Invest". The acronym VBR stands for the "All-Ukrainian Development Bank," which belongs to Oleksandr Yanukovych.

From 2009 to 2012, Slynyko headed the company "Management Assets Company" (MACO) – the parent structure in Alexander Yanukovych's business.

Ultimately, Slynyko is the cofounder of the hunting and fishing association "Donbas-Fauna" together with other Yanukovych managers: Volodymyr Kulykov and Serhiy Radchenko. As Ukrainska Pravda reported, this public organization received about 3 thousand hectares of hunting grounds in Donetsk region.

Eduard Slynyko with Dmytro Ilyushenko at a hunting/shooting competition / Photo: forum.guns.ru

Contact with Eduard Slynyko at the number listed on his oblast council page could not be established. The assistant who answered said that questions about Slynyko's business would not be commented on.

A New Curtain on the Old Owner

What is happening now with the GHK gas company? According to the tax service, 2013 hryvnias of income in 41,4 million UAH. In the meantime, the owner changed. It now belongs to IGC Holding from Cyprus.

However, the head of the company, Serhiy Voronkov, was not changed. This manager was a partner of Slynyko in other companies. Together they owned firms "Vuglesintez Engineering", "Gazinvest-Trading", and "MB Service".

INSIDER reached out to MACO Corporation with a question whether IGC is part of MACO's group of companies, including management. The company of Alexander Yanukovych did not respond.

To learn who stands behind the new owner registered in an offshore jurisdiction, INSIDER obtained an extract from the Cypriot register for this company.

It turned out that its founder is another Cypriot firm – SL Holdings. Its name echoes SL Group by Slynyko. And indeed – this offshore directly belongs to the manager of Alexander Yanukovych.

This scheme shows that the new owner in the Family's business does not mean selling the asset. It only indicates another change of the legal facade beneath which the same people remain.

Insider