Who is the founder of FC “Alta Capital” Vadym Hordiievskyi and why is he still free?

Who is the founder of FC “Alta Capital” Vadym Hordiievskyi and why is he still free?

The new NSDC sanctions against 287 legal and 120 natural persons, enacted by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 10 March, dealt a significant blow to the illegal gambling business in Ukraine.

Also included in this sanctions package was the scandalously notorious “Financial Company Leo,” which specialized in schemes for settling online games and gaming products. The main scheme is the so-called “mis-coding” – a type of fraud in the banking network that consists of changing the payment purpose. Therefore the state treats these financial operations not as bets on a game but as purchases of any other goods and services.

In turn, the National Bank of Ukraine canceled the registration of the international payment system LEO and removed information about this payment system from the Payment Infrastructure Register. This decision was made on 20 March 2023 due to the application of personal special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions) against LLC “FC LEO,” which is the operator of this payment system. As a result of this company’s criminal activity, the state budget of Ukraine was undercollected by tens of millions of hryvnias every month. And this during the war with the Russian aggressor.

On close reading of this decision, our attention was drawn to a very interesting figure who is a co-founder of the “Financial Company Leo.” Meet Vadym Ivanovych Hordiievskyi, who proudly styles himself an investment banker and financial expert. We decided to look into whether that is true. As it turned out, Vadym Ivanovych is an ex-official with a considerable record and experience of corruption, which proved useful to him in the “schemes” at LEO.

Under Viktor Yushchenko in 2008, Hordiievskyi served as deputy head of the Boryspil district state administration and handled land issues. He had a direct connection to Viktor Baloha, who at that time headed Yushchenko’s presidential administration. It was under Hordiievskyi that the Boryspil lands experienced the most large-scale skimming and subsequent sale. That same 2008 he was dismissed from his post in scandal, but the case never reached criminal prosecution. Large sums of money and connections in corridors of power helped, and our protagonist became a dollar millionaire.

Vadym Ivanovych was always considered someone who kept his finger to the wind, and after Yanukovych came to power he, without much thought, became a member of his team. And already in 2012 Hordiievskyi took the chair of head of the road service in Odesa region. Considering that he arrived at the regional road agency exclusively as a capital “airdrop,” ties with local law enforcement and officials were established extremely quickly. He maintains friendly relations with some of them to this day. He remained in the position of head of the road service only as long as there was an opportunity to skim money allocated for road repair and maintenance. And those are multimillion cash flows. He left that post voluntarily after funding for the agency was completely stopped, when, as he liked to say, the cow had been milked to the last drop.

As informed people from Hordiievskyi’s inner circle say, the dizzying mix of being a civil servant, impunity, and the millions of dollars that landed on his head finally drove him mad. Abuse not only of alcohol but of other consciousness-altering substances only worsened the situation. Vadym Ivanovych literally began to shoot blanks at sparrows. He remains in that state to this day.

Besides the Leo company that fell under NSDC sanctions, our protagonist is a co-founder of the little-known but no less dubious “Financial Company Alta Capital.” Again a financial company, as we see. A financial genius, no less. One of the company’s main activities is issuing loans to secure bail for suspects in criminal offenses. Very interesting, you must admit.

Something tells us that Hordiievskyi’s financial company also has every chance of facing NSDC sanctions in the best case for him. And considering his track record, a more serious reaction from law enforcement and the current authorities is quite likely. We can be calm about only one thing: Vadym Ivanovych certainly knows how to get released on bail when there is no money but there is elite and expensive real estate. The only question is that it doesn’t suddenly end up under arrest.

And now we want to remind Vadym Ivanovych Hordiievskyi of his happy Boryspil times. But were they really happy? Time will tell.

The Boryspil mafia

Thieves in Ukraine are not only indestructible, like the Colorado potato beetle, but also have an amazing ability to multiply wildly not only in peaceful times but during crises as well. And you won’t be able to deal with this filth without a gun. Simply because thieves understand no other law.

Much has been written about land fraud in Ukraine, and in Kyiv region in particular; countless decrees have been issued about fighting these schemes. Boryspil district of Kyiv region led in the number of scandals. There was the activity of raider–drug dealer Hodunok, the murder of Oleh Shevchenko, a series of attempted murders, a scandal with a local judge who in February 2007 deprived about 500 villagers of their plots totaling over 1 thousand hectares. Then the President was forced to intervene personally. And what? Nothing. Boryspil district continues to lead in crimes related to the sale of land. However, now these crimes are committed under a new scheme, but with the same participants. The damage inflicted on the state in Boryspil district in just the last year is estimated in the millions of dollars. The number of residents robbed by local authorities runs to the thousands. So it should not be surprising if shots ring out again soon in Boryspil district.

The players

The administration of Boryspil district is headed by Viktor Baloha’s friend and fellow countryman Yosyp Holovati. As early as July 2008, a joint deputy inquiry from MPs of the Verkhovna Rada from the “Party of Regions” and “Our Ukraine” concerning land fraud by Baloha’s appointees in Boryspil district of Kyiv region was sent to the President of Ukraine. Here is how MPs commented on that event: “At the beginning of July a number of deputy inquiries were sent to the President. Among them were several inquiries addressed to Baloha. No responses were received. We were ignored—and we understand why. Because these documents name people whom Baloha ‘protects.’ These are, first and foremost, the head of the Boryspil district administration and his deputy, whom we accuse of corruption and abuse of office—essentially of facilitating the theft of land in Boryspil district. With concrete facts and criminal cases.”

They also wrote inquiries that one of the deputy heads of Boryspil district was appointed on the basis of forged documents. Before that he had been appointed director of the Department of Capital Construction Management of the Ministry of Emergencies, while Baloha was minister. These people are fully covered by Baloha.

The inquiry also states that about 400 hectares of land were illegally privatized in the name of an alleged employee of the Secretariat (it is now being checked whether they are actually an employee). Baloha covers this too. The SBU and the Prosecutor General’s Office also intervene to cover these crimes. Why do we need a head of the Presidential Secretariat who deceives the President, does not inform him of all this and facilitates crimes in the country?

The thing is, the inquiry was signed not only by representatives of the Party of Regions but also by representatives of “Our Ukraine.” So let the President now decide what to do. Either he will take responsibility for Baloha’s actions and also become a person who encourages the land mafia in the country—or he will deal with Baloha.”

However, residents of Boryspil district themselves believe that the leading role in the land schemes is played not by Holovati but by one of his deputies—someone named Vadym Hordiievskyi (also known as Lazaryev), who heads an organized criminal group that includes the well-known Korzh family in the district as well as a number of criminal authorities.

Vadym Hordiievskyi is a very interesting personality. It’s strange not only that he is still free, but that he has held responsible government positions for several years.

Hordiievskyi’s official biography is rather sparse:

1. Hordiievskyi Vadym Ivanovych – born on 14 March 1974 in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region. Citizen of Ukraine. Higher education: in 2007 he graduated from the Horlivka Institute of MAUP. From December 2005 to January 2006 – senior manager at LLC “Ukraine Agro - Trade - N” Cherkasy. From February 2006 to September 2006 – deputy general director of LLC “Ukragro-N” Cherkasy. From September 2006 to March 2007 – director of the State Enterprise “Directorate of Capital Construction under the Ministry of Ukraine for Emergencies and for the Protection of the Population from the Consequences of the Chernobyl Disaster” Kyiv. From October 2007 to present – deputy head of the Boryspil district state administration for the implementation in the district of state policy in the agro-industrial complex and land relations.

He carefully hides the unofficial version. According to the official version, Hordiievskyi was born in Pervomaisk, Mykolaiv region on 14 March 1974. However, as tax administration documents show, in fact he was born on 14 March 1974 in Horlivka, Donetsk region and bore the surname Lazaryev until 2000. In the same apartment on Lenina Street where Vadym Lazaryev was registered in Horlivka lives his mother, Tetiana Valentynivna Hordiievska, whose surname Vadym took at a rather mature age. Why and for what reason Vadym Lazaryev (Hordiievskyi) “covered his tracks” is unknown to us. Perhaps he was simply wanted. But the penchant for a double life manifested not only in false data about his birthplace and change of surname but in other parts of our protagonist’s biography as well.

We quote the newspaper “Dzerkalo Tyzhnia”:

The story of one of the deputies of the Boryspil district state administration has every chance to open a new page in the biography of officials with dubious education.

Although the level of figures in former exposés was much higher, the situation with Vadym Hordiievskyi, who deals with land issues in Boryspil, has state significance. After all, this official is suspected—not a little—in deceiving President Viktor Yushchenko. At least that is how events are presented in the deputy appeal of Hennadiy Moskal, which recently arrived at the head of state’s secretariat.

The document claims that V. Hordiievskyi “knowingly misled” the president by providing “fabricated documents about his higher education.” This allowed him, according to the relevant decree, to take his current post in October 2007.

Moreover, the official used a forged document about higher education for the third time. The first time he presented it to the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management in 2005. As a result, by correspondence in two years instead of five he obtained a second higher education in the specialty “economist — financial manager.” And in 2006 on the basis of the purchased diploma V. Hordiievskyi received the post of director of the state enterprise “Directorate of Capital Construction” under the Ministry of Emergencies, which he held until September 2007.

The student’s failure

They caught the fake student due to his carelessness. In one of the autobiographies for state institutions he stated that in 1992 he entered and in 1996 he graduated from the Ukrainian State Pedagogical University named after Hryhorii Skovoroda. But the university was never named that way. Instead of “Ukrainian” it should have been written “Kyiv.”

But if this slip could be explained by human forgetfulness, the fact that the diploma was issued in the surname Hordiievskyi finally dispelled doubts about the document’s authenticity. The fact is that until 2004 Vadym Hordiievskyi bore the surname Lazaryev, which is the name the diploma should have been registered under. Moreover, the pedagogical university has no record that a student named Hordiievskyi graduated in 1996.

In seemingly harmless manipulations with higher education documents, part three of Art. 358 of the Criminal Code is clearly visible—“Use of knowingly forged documents,” which provides for punishment in the form of a fine of up to 50 minimum incomes of citizens, arrest for up to six months, or restriction of liberty for up to two years.

Therefore in the appeal to the president the MP asks to appoint an official investigation and to suspend V. Hordiievskyi from his duties during its course. In addition, in his opinion the Prosecutor General’s Office should initiate a criminal case on these facts.

A deputy’s appeal on this subject was also sent to the government. It asked Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to instruct the Main Department of Civil Service to look into the situation. No reaction to this signal is known so far. But V. Hordiievskyi continues to work. How successful his activities are is hard to judge. But it can be said unequivocally that the diploma scandal is not the only scandal in which a person with this surname is involved.

The case of the tokens

How can one not recall the theater lover Ruchechnik from the series “The Meeting Place Cannot Be Changed,” known for his ability to unobtrusively pick a victim’s wallet? A story about tokens is also linked to Vadym Hordiievskyi, although it involved 47 at once. It became known from appeals by residents of the village of Dudarkiv.

In April of this year a lottery was held in that village for the distribution of land plots. The deputy head of the Boryspil district administration allegedly brought 620 tokens for the draw, even though according to the compiled lists only 573 people were supposed to participate. According to witnesses, Mr. Hordiievskyi put 573 tokens into the box as required, but put the remaining 47 into his pocket in front of everyone. Villagers suspect that the “extra” tokens concealed the best land plots.

If this is true, it constitutes abuse of office, which also requires a reaction from the prosecutor’s office. Deputies sent an appeal on the matter in May but received no response. They submitted a repeated inquiry in June. But the reaction was most likely the same. The inquiry was forwarded to the regional prosecutor’s office, where it seems to have been forgotten.

Such a reaction, to put it mildly, is alarming. After all, the most sensational and longest-running land scandal involved Boryspil district, when a local judge in February 2007 deprived about 500 villagers of their plots totaling over 1 thousand hectares. The president was forced to intervene.

It seemed that after that the new land scams would be forgotten. But civil society organizations continue to seek the truth and appeal to the country’s leadership for help in sorting out the theft of land in the villages of Velyka Oleksandrivka, Shchaslyve, Hora, and others.

There is nothing surprising in this. After all, the country still has not heard what punishment was meted out to those responsible for the share scandal in Boryspil district. In other words, punishment is effectively absent.

In such conditions demand grows for “one’s own people” in the civil service. They are not intimidated by Criminal Code articles. They have something more than education, work experience, or knowledge—they are used to solving any problems without asking how legal their methods are.

Hordiievskyi–Lazaryev, the Korzh family and others

Our protagonist—Vadym Hordiievskyi—despite being a civil servant, is the founder of several firms:

CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION “UKRAINIAN ECOLOGICAL FUND 3000” – together with his own wife, Hanna Serhiivna Hordiievska, and some Oleksandr Eduardovych Yehorov. This trusted associate of Hordiievskyi has a number of firms in Kyiv and Cherkasy: “TEHNIKS-95”, “EVROBUDINOK-3000”, “UKRAINAAGROTREYD-N”, the farming enterprise “DANAT”, “SLUZHBASPETSBUD-N.”

All these firms are in one way or another connected to Hordiievskyi’s land schemes in Boryspil district. Hordiievskyi’s know-how is a method of reselling land. Data about a sold land plot is simply deleted from the district cadastre, new owners are entered, who receive technical documentation for the land and obtain state acts. And when previous owners, shocked by such arbitrariness, try to reclaim their land—they are advised not to go to law enforcement or to court. So as not to find themselves one day with a fractured skull.

In preparing the technical documentation and in the force component of the scams, Hordiievskyi is assisted by the well-known Korzh family in Boryspil district. The Korzhs’ main enterprise is the firm “Shyrota,” which in 2004 changed its name to LLC “Agati-5.” This firm conducts the main land schemes. Among its founders are Ivan and Mykhailo Korzh, Iryna Kosianchuk, Tetiana Pechatnova, Vasyl Kushnirenko and Bakirov Tumbat Samed Ogly. Mr. Bakirov plays a responsible role in the OCG in liaising with criminal communities of the Azerbaijani diaspora, which provide force cover for the fraudsters. Also among the founders is the wife of Samed Ogly Bakirov—Kateryna Serhiivna Bakirova.

Another Korzh firm is LLC “Kroky -5”, which specializes in falsifying surveying, geodetic and hydrographic work. Its founders include Ivan Korzh, Oleksandr Pechatnov, Mykola Kyiashko and Vasyl Kushnirenko. The Korzhs also run the Association of Investors of Boryspil District, which would more aptly be called the Association for Deceiving Investors. Founders of the Association, in addition to the Korzhs, include Volodymyr Sytnyk, Dmytro Kutakh, Petro Kliuchka, Vladyslav Chervinskyi, Anatoliy Bidiuk, Oleksandr Kondrashov, Mykhailo Herus and Dmytro Kryshtal.

The next Korzh enterprise is the servicing cooperative “Sakura,” located in Hnydyn, Kyiv region, which supposedly manages real estate. Among its founders, in addition to the Korzhs, are someone named Mariia Bodnar (who lives in Vinnytsia region), Oleksandr Lesnichuk (who lives in Brovary), Ihor Makarenko (who lives in Kyiv) and Kyiv resident Pelageia Kuzmenko. There are grounds to suspect that the firm is fictitious and used to launder cash.

The most interesting Korzh company is “ALTLANDS OVERSEAS CORP.,” which is located in Belize at Princess Margaret Drive 5756. Why do “modest” Boryspil land schemers need an immodest offshore in Belize? To launder the money out. After all, sooner or later they will have to flee, and the Korzhs understand this well. Besides the Korzhs, the offshore’s founders include some Natalia Yevhenivna Kulykova, who lives in Kyiv on Povitroflotskyi Avenue 23, apt 61. She has reportedly already left.

To be continued…

Source: ORD