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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
“Smearing the tracks”: Russian oligarch Viktor Ponomarchuk rewrote oil plants in Ukraine to a Cypriot citizen
He changed citizenship to Cypriot, closed some companies, and re-registered the rest to other persons? And all this to circumvent likely nationalization of the business. Three companies in the orbit of the Russian-Ukrainian businessman Viktor Ponomarchuk were seized last year, but the court soon removed them from sanctions. It is assumed that the oligarch is trying to preserve control over profitable assets and engaged a law firm associated with the notorious lawyer Bugay.
A well-known Ukrainian-born businessman, the actual owner of the industrial group ViOil Viktor Ponomarchuk, is being accused in the media of Russian citizenship. After all, as early as 2015, Ponomarchuk himself claimed in an interview that he lives in several countries: he has business in Ukraine and a family in Moscow. And this is all—after the annexation of Crimea and the start of hostilities in Donbas. Supporting evidence for a close tie to Russia is also provided by data from the National Securities and Stock Market Commission site, where in the profile of LLC “ViOil-Invest” the ultimate beneficiary was listed as Viktor Ponomarchuk, a citizen of the Russian Federation.
However, as StopCor learned, after the start of full-scale Russian aggression and the introduction of a law on nationalizing assets linked to the aggressor country, Viktor Ponomarchuk obtained a new passport—a Cypriot citizenship. Strangely, the timing of this event coincided with a series of active moves around the companies under his control.
According to YouControl, Viktor Ponomarchuk is a historical founder and beneficiary of about 30 enterprises in Ukraine. The core group consists of agro-industrial companies concentrated in Vinnytsia region, where the pro-Russian businessman comes from. However, in the last 5 years, most of these structures officially ceased to exist.
Three more companies within Ponomarchuk’s sphere of interest came under the focus of police and the State Bureau of Investigation. Law enforcement opened criminal proceedings against LLC “Vinnytsia Oil and Fat Plant,” LLC “Chernivtsi Oil and Fat Plant,” LLC “Vinnytsia Industrial Company” on charges under Part 3 of Article 212 of the Criminal Code (tax evasion) and under Part 3 of Article 258-5 (financing terrorism by a criminal group / on a large scale / or actions resulting in other serious consequences).
In April 2022, the property of the mentioned companies was seized, but in the summer the Pechersky district court of the capital removed the sanctions from them. And already in spring of this year both oil-and-fat plants (in Vinnytsia and Chernivtsi) de jure changed the beneficiary. The new founder in the registries is still Ponomarchuk, but Oleksiy—by a strange coincidence—also a Cypriot citizen and with a father’s name identical. It can be supposed this is the biological brother of the previous owner.
Meanwhile, in collaboration with Ponomarchuk’s industrial group, a law firm of the notorious Denys Bugay was noticed. On Bugay’s firm’s Internet page, in the portfolio of one of the lawyers—Denys Shkarovskyi, whose specialty is “defending business from claims by law enforcement”—the list of clients includes the industrial group ViOil, with which the Russian citizen Viktor Ponomarchuk is closely linked.
Denys Bugay is known as a lawyer of the Yanukovych era, suspected of involvement in the Sergei Kurchenko schemes. Bugay was involved in the case of BnB (Brokbusinessbank) and even spent time in a pre-trial detention center. According to media, Bugay’s father-in-law is former SBU Major General Serhiy Hanza, who since 2022 works in “security” in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region. It should be added that Hanza’s rise in the SBU also falls during the same period.
Ponomarchuk himself and related structures do not comment on ties with Russia and emphasize Ukrainian origin of the business.
“Victor Ponomarchuk, chairman of the board of directors of the ViOil industrial group, emphasizes: as a business representative, he feels a special responsibility for the fate of Vinnytsia and its urban community in these difficult wartime times. After all, he spent his childhood and youth in his native city, earned a higher education at Vinnytsia Polytechnic Institute, and started his own business in a economically challenging period 1990 years ago. His parents are buried here,” say the industrial group controlled by Ponomarchuk.
Recall that asset and corporate re-registrations to a new beneficiary did not help yet another odious Russian businessman—the owner of the UniGran group, Ihor Naumenets, avoid sanctions. Although the new owner of the property formally became a citizen of the United Kingdom, Naumenets fell onto the NSDC blacklist.
stopcor.org
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