Kononenko Ihor Vitaliyovych
Official biography
Businessman, former MP.
Date of birth: 21.08.1965
Place of birth. Education.
Born in Kyiv. In 1989, he graduated from the Kyiv Automobile and Highway Institute with a degree in traffic engineering.
Career. From 1984 to 1986, Ihor Kononenko served in the military.
1988-1990 — Secretary of the Komsomol Committee of the KADI.
1990-1991 — Deputy Director of the structural unit of the city headquarters of the student detachment.
1991-1992 — Igor Kononenko was the commercial director of MP Transport.
1992-1994 — Commercial Director of JSC Exchange House Ukraine.
1994-2005 — Deputy, First Deputy General Director, First Vice President of CJSC Ukrainian Industrial and Investment Concern.
2004-2009 — Chairman of the Supervisory Board of OJSC Kyiv Motor Transport Enterprise — 2240.
In 2006, Ihor Kononenko was elected to the Kyiv City Council of the V convocation on the list of Leonid Chernovetsky’s bloc.
2008 — in the early elections to the Kyiv City Council of the VI convocation, Kononenko was again included in the Bloc’s list and became deputy chairman of the Commission on Transport and Communications.
2009-2012 — First Deputy, General Director of the Ukrainian Industrial and Investment Concern CJSC.
2010-2014 — Ihor Kononenko was the Chairman of the Initiative faction of the Kyiv City Council of the VI convocation.
2012 — Chairman of the Supervisory Board of PJSC ZNKIF VEK.
2014 — deputy of the Kyiv City Council from the UDAR party (member of the Standing Committee on Transport and Communications).
On October 26, 2014, in the early parliamentary elections, Ihor Kononenko was elected to the Parliament from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc party under the number 29 seat. He is a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Fuel and Energy Complex, Nuclear Policy and Nuclear Safety.
According to media reports, Ihor Kononenko is one of Petro Poroshenko’s oldest and first business partners. Kononenko met the president while serving in the army. In 1992, Poroshenko, a businessman, invited Kononenko to work for him. A year later, together with Oleh Hladkovsky (Svynarchuk) and Oleh Zimin, the partners founded Ukrprominvest, which was liquidated in 2012 after restructuring the businesses.
Kononenko has already been dubbed the “gray cardinal of the faction” — the MP participates in meetings of the Coalition Council and negotiations between other factions in the coalition. Kononenko himself does not understand his nickname and assures that he is always open to communication with the press.
In the early parliamentary elections of 2019, he ran in the 94th majority district (Kyiv region). According to the results of the voting, he lost in the constituency with a result of 12.01%, losing to the candidate from the Servant of the People party and journalist of the 1+1 TV channel Oleksandr Dubinsky (40.94%).
Family.
Wife — Lilia Ihorivna Kononenko (born in 1966). He has a son, Vitalii Ihorovych Kononenko (born in 1988), and two daughters, Daria Ihorivna Kononenko (born in 1994) and Olha Ihorivna Kononenko (born in 1999).
Compromising evidence
During the presidency of his friend Petro Poroshenko, Ihor Kononenko was called both a “lookout” and a “gray cardinal” of the parliament. His name has been repeatedly mentioned in corruption scandals involving the head of state himself.
The MP was linked to the fact that in 2016, the Minister of Trade Aivaras Abromavičius was forced to resign from his post.
The Lithuanian reformer in the Ukrainian service claimed that Kononenko interfered in the affairs of his ministry and appointed people he wanted to lead state-owned enterprises.
According to Abromavičius, Kononenko promoted to high positions people whose resumes included positions of consultant or advisor.
Given that it is always very difficult to prove political arrangements, these reports show how Ukrainian politics is actually done. After the chat with Pasishnyk, Abromavičius received a “control” call from the Presidential Administration to speed up personnel decisions.
«CENTRENERGO BUYED GAS WITH A DOUBLE OVERPAYMENT FROM ONISHCHENKO, WHO GIVES KONONENKO 20%
People’s Deputy Oleksandr Onyshchenko said that he paid Ihor Kononenko 2000 UAH for each thousand cubic meters of gas supplied to state-owned enterprises.
The publication reports that Onishchenko showed journalists correspondence with Kononenko about gas supplies to Centrenergo. The text of the correspondence was made public by MP Serhiy Leshchenko on Shuster LIVE:
As reported by Nashi Hroshi, in March 2015, Centrenergo signed an agreement with Gaztransproekt worth UAH 194.63 million. It was ordered 19 million cubic meters of gas at UAH 10244 per thousand cubic meters with delivery within a year. This is almost twice as expensive as the maximum gas price for industry set by the NEURC for the summer of 2015 — UAH 6,600.
However, the text of the above-quoted correspondence shows that the gas was supplied at an even higher price — UAH 14,260 per thousand cubic meters. Thus, the UAH 2000 mentioned by Onyshchenko is about 20% of the purchase price of Centrenergo.
ODESA PORT PLANT IS CONTROLLED BY PEOPLE OF MYKOLA MARTYNENKO AND IHOR KONONENKO
According to journalists of the Schemes program, the Odesa Port Plant is controlled by the people of Mykola Martynenko and Ihor Kononenko.
In May 2015, the supervisory board of the OPP was headed by Serhiy Pereloma, a business partner of Mykola Martynenko, who was appointed by Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s personal order. Another member of the board was Mykola Shchurikov, who is also associated with Martynenko. On the other hand, Olga Tkachenko, who used to work as an assistant to MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Oleksandr Hranovsky, who is close to Ihor Kononenko, became a member of the plant’s board.
In July 2016, detectives from the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine detained Perelom and Shchurikov’s associates on suspicion of using the Odesa Port Plant to withdraw funds.
They also withdrew funds from the OPP to buy mineral fertilizers at reduced prices. Initially, the contract was signed with a newly established company, Expotrade Global Limited (Hong Kong), directly linked to Olga Tkachenko. In 2015, the Odesa Port Plant began selling its products to the British Newscope Estates Ltd. According to the NABU, in 2016, the state-owned plant sold urea to this company for UAH 1 billion 630 million with a 5% discount. This, in fact, caused losses to the plant in the form of lost profits, according to NABU.
Correspondence obtained from Olga Tkachenko’s cell phone shows her involvement in the deal with Newscope Estates Ltd.
However, the court refused to admit this correspondence as evidence.
On September 15, 2016, at a closed-to-the-press meeting of Odesa Port Plant shareholders, a decision was made to appoint Oleksandr Vizyr, who in 2015 was an assistant to MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ihor Kononenko, to the Supervisory Board. At the same time, people associated with the People’s Front, Serhiy Nasvyshchuk and Serhiy Perelom, were removed from the supervisory board.
IHOR KONONENKO’S COMPANY RECEIVED A PERMIT TO BUILD AN OFFICE BUILDING INSIDE THE CAPITAL’S INTERCHANGE
According to journalists of the Nashi Hroshi website, Ihor Kononenko’s European House LLC leases a 1.98-hectare land plot at the intersection of Akademika Zabolotnoho Street and Moskovske Highway in Kyiv. This fact is confirmed by a public cadastral map.
It is a plot in the center of a traffic junction on Stolychne Highway in Holosiivskyi district. The firm received this land in March 2007. At that time, the Kyiv City Council decided to transfer the land to European House at the expense of municipal land that was not provided for ownership or use.
The lease was approved for 5 years. The decision specified the following type of land use: construction, operation and maintenance of a service station with exhibition and ancillary facilities. The relevant agreement was signed in May 2007.
When the lease expired in 2012, the Kyiv City Council agreed to extend it for 5 years.
However, a year and a half later, the Kyiv City Council made a new decision. In October 2013, the lease was once again extended for 5 years with the right to renew. At the same time, the same decision changed the type of use of the land plot: the words “service station with exhibition and ancillary facilities” were replaced with “a complex of social and administrative facilities with ancillary facilities and parking”.
At the time of the first decision of the Kyiv City Council on the land allocation in 2007, the owner of European House LLC was Serhiy Shkurat. According to journalists of the Nashi Hroshi website, since the end of 2010, the company has been owned by ZNKIF VEK, whose ultimate beneficiary is Ihor Kononenko.
Given that Ihor Kononenko was a deputy and head of the Initiative parliamentary faction in the Kyiv City Council of the VI convocation, there are reasons to suspect him of facilitating the adoption of decisions favorable to his business.
Conflict over Ukrtransnafta
On 19.03.2015, the governor of Dnipropetrovs’k region, oligarch and owner of the Privat group, Ihor Kolomoisky, stated that the situation with Ukrtransnafta was being handled by MP Ihor Kononenko from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
In addition, Governor Kolomoisky accused businessman and MP Ihor Yeremeyev of trying to monopolize the gasoline market by destroying the only state-owned enterprise that produces fuel for cars.
POROSHENKO AND KONONENKO PRIVATIZED ELITE LAND IN THE CENTER OF KYIV FOR FREE
In 2009, the Kyiv City Council, headed by Oles Dovgyi, transferred two hectare plots of land in the center of the capital to Petro Poroshenko and Ihor Kononenko’s structures for free through a chain of fictitious enterprises, according to journalists of the Schemes program of Radio Liberty. According to journalists, the city budget did not receive about $25 million, which was the value of the land at the time.
In the fall of 2003, Zelenbudservice-K LLC was established. This company became an investor in the construction of a new base for the Pechersk District Green Space Maintenance Utility at 61 Zaliznychne Shosse. In 2006, Kononenko himself became one of its founders, and the following year the LLC was transformed into a service cooperative with the same name and the same EDRPOU number. In 2008, the construction was completed, and the utility moved to a new base, freeing up two plots at 5 Radialna Street.
On April 23, 2009, the majority of the Kyiv City Council voted to transfer the two land plots to the Zelenbudservice-K service cooperative free of charge. According to lawyer and human rights activist Oleksandr Dyadyuk, according to the law, only people in need of housing improvement, i.e. those who are registered with the housing authorities, have the right to create a housing cooperative. Radio Liberty’s Schemes journalists filed a request with the Department of Construction and Housing at the Kyiv City State Administration and learned that none of the 12 members of the cooperative were on the housing register.
The then Secretary of the Kyiv City Council, Oles Dovhyi, was involved in this story and agreed to develop documentation for the transfer of the plots to the cooperative.
Further, both plots (46 and 63 hectares) were mortgaged, as the Zelenbudservice-K cooperative acted as a guarantor for the Ridna Marka Group of Companies LLC, which is probably close to Poroshenko, to the mortgagee, the private enterprise Ukrsel. According to the Agreement on Satisfaction of the Mortgagee’s Claims, the plots were transferred to Ukrsel. Petro Poroshenko and Ihor Kononenko subsequently purchased the land from Ukrsel formally for UAH 10.8 million and UAH 8.2 million, respectively. However, after talking to former Ukrsel director Mykola Bilyi, journalists of Radio Liberty’s Schemes program suggest that the plots were transferred to Poroshenko and Kononenko for free. In 2010, the company was declared bankrupt by the court.
Journalists assume that Oleksandr Lutskyi, a person close to Petro Poroshenko, is also involved in this story. Granting him a power of attorney to represent Poroshenko’s interests was probably intended to confuse Radio Liberty journalists and hide the details of the scheme.
A COMPANY LINKED TO POROSHENKO, KONONENKO AND GLADKOVSKY FAILED TO REPAY A LOAN TO A BANKRUPT BANK
According to Slidstvo.info journalists, the Motor Transport Enterprise-2240, allegedly controlled by President Poroshenko and his longtime business partners, MP Ihor Kononenko and NSDC Deputy Secretary Oleh Hladkovsky, has not repaid a loan to the bankrupt Kyivska Rus bank.
The company received a $6 million loan in 2007. The loan was secured by a building on Pavlo Usenko Street near Darnytska Square in Kyiv.
The company also failed to return the collateral, which could have covered the bank’s losses. “Avtotransportnoye Predpriyatie-2240 was declared bankrupt, and all the buildings were transferred to Pro Development Tim before liquidation. The sale, according to journalists, had signs of fictitiousness, as the property remained in the same hands. The founder of Pro Development Tim was the Virginian company Intraco Management ltd, and its owner was the deputy general director of Roshen Corporation, Sergey Zaitsev.
For five years, Autoexpo LLC had about 11 hectares of land “for the operation and maintenance of a part of the property complex and open parking lot at 8 Pavlo Usenko Street.” Autoexpo LLC was also transferred the land previously used by the Autotransport Enterprise-2240. This company is also associated by journalists with “friends of the president”. It is noteworthy that these decisions did not cause much discussion in the Kyiv City Council, as the president has a majority in the council.
Meanwhile, the Deposit Guarantee Fund has been granted the right to demand repayment of UAH 5 billion worth of loans previously issued by Kyivska Rus Bank. The Fund itself told Slidstvo.info journalists that it would make every effort to recover the credit debts of the 2240 Motor Transport Enterprise.
A COMPANY FROM THE ORBIT OF MP TRIGUBENKO WILL WORK FOR THE STATE-OWNED CENTRENERGO AND CHERVONOLIMANSKA MINE
MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Serhiy Trigubenko, a neighbor of presidential business partner Ihor Kononenko in the parliamentary hall, has taken control of state-owned coal assets, journalist Alisa Yurchenko reports in an investigation by the Our Money with Denys Bihus program.
The journalists found out that the co-founder of the Kharkiv company, to whom it had been registered for a long time, is entrepreneur Ihor Tupikov. In March-September 2015, he was also an assistant consultant to MP from Kharkiv region Serhiy Trigubenko. He resigned from his position 9 days before the Torgovyi Dim-Resurs, which he founded, signed a contract for UAH 520 million with Centrenergo.
It is noteworthy that the firm of Trigubenko’s former aide sold coal to Centrenergo from another state-owned enterprise, the Krasnolimanska mine. However, contracts with this company are not profitable for the state mine. It sells the mined coal to the intermediary company at a lower price than the end user, Centrenergo, pays for it, which means that the miners lose out on profits. At the same time, a private intermediary, which does not produce coal but only buys and resells it, makes a significant profit due to its proximity to the “industry curators.”
Back in 2014, the previous management of the state-owned mine claimed that Serhiy Trigubenko was installing management under his control at the enterprise. However, shortly after the Maidan, a case was opened against the mine’s management, and Oleksandr Dubovyk became the new director of the Krasnolimanska Mine.
In November 2015, the company entered into a subcontract with Torgovyi Dom-Resurs, transferring the right to mine the seams. It is noteworthy that in 2014, the first post-Maidan management of the mine took these layers from another private company, Krasnolimanske LLC, owned by Donetsk businessman Serhiy Kuzyara and partners. So, instead of Kuzyara’s company, the seams were controlled by a Kharkiv company from the orbit of Serhiy Trigubenko.
Serhiy Trigubenko denies his influence on the Krasnolimanska mine and Centrenergo. The politician also denied the fact that Ihor Tupikov, a co-founder of Trade House Resources, worked as his parliamentary assistant.
It should be added that another former assistant of Serhiy Trigubenko, Yulia Semik, worked as an advisor to the Minister of Energy and Coal Industry Ihor Nasalyk.
Also among Serhiy Trigubenko’s assistants was Ihor Balabanov, who was the head of Centrenergo until the fall of 2015.
MP KONONENKO ILLEGALLY BUILDS A RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX NEAR A NUCLEAR REACTOR
The Anti-Corruption Action Center team, following an investigation by the Schemes program “Life at the Reactor,” initiated consideration by the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Corruption Prevention and Counteraction of the issue of illegal construction of the Panoramic Town residential complex of Tekhenergo LLC in Kyiv by a company belonging to the orbit of the deputy head of the presidential faction in the parliament, MP Ihor Kononenko, as reported on the website Ukr.av.
In their investigation, the journalists of the Schemes TV program cite irrefutable facts that the land for the Panoramic Township residential complex, allocated during Chernovetsky’s mayoralty, was allocated illegally, but that the site of the residential complex should have been a completely different building, not a residential complex with hundreds of apartments.
The investigation of the program “Schemes” found that the sole founder of the company “Tehenergo” is a public joint-stock company “Closed non-diversified corporate investment fund ‘VEK’, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individuals. The head of the investment fund was Vitaliy Ihorovych Kononenko, the son of MP and deputy head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction, Ihor Kononenko. Moreover, the MP himself is the sole founder of the fund.
“There was a regulatory submission from the Prosecutor General’s Office that this object belongs to the 5th category of complexity, and therefore the developer must obtain a permit to start construction work. At the moment, it is unauthorized construction,” says Serhiy Shevchenko, head of the legal work department of the State Architectural and Construction Inspectorate in Kyiv. And even when the SACI canceled the registration of the construction declaration on August 15, 2014, the company did not stop building the complex, which means it was unauthorized construction.
As a result of the active actions of civil society activists, the Kyiv City Prosecutor’s Office reported that the Holosiivskyi District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine in Kyiv was conducting a pre-trial investigation in criminal proceedings No. 12014100010011469 of 10.12.2014 on the grounds of Article 356 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine on the fact of unauthorized actions during the construction of the Panoramic Town, as well as in criminal proceedings No. 12014100010011736 of 16.12.2014 on the grounds of Part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code on the fact of fraudulent actions during this construction.
PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE SEARCHES UKROBORONPROM ON SUSPICION OF COOPERATION WITH FICTITIOUS COMPANIES AND HOW POROSHENKO’S ENTOURAGE IS CONNECTED TO THIS
In 2014-2015. The Ministry of Defense ordered the Kyiv Armored Plant (KBTO) to repair and maintain special vehicles. The KBTO allegedly purchased spare parts for UAH 5.3 million from an intermediary company, Renal LLC. However, the firms from which Renal LLC had already purchased parts and components were probably fictitious and used to withdraw money by the “managers” of President Petro Poroshenko, according to the investigation “Our Money with Denys Bihus”.
“Inter Steel LTD and Optimumspetsdetal ordered goods from 4 other companies that turned out to be fictitious during a criminal investigation launched by the Military Prosecutor’s Office in 2015. 42015110350001275.
After prosecutors interrogated Volodymyr Volokhach, the head of Optimumspetsdetal, who admitted that the company had no transport or warehouses, investigators obtained a court order to seize the company’s procurement documents. After that, there are no traces of further investigation in the register, and no sentences for the participants in the scheme.
The journalists of the Nashi Groshi program conducted their own investigation and found that Optimospetsdetal received another UAH 7 million from the Kuznya na Rybalskomu plant, and the final beneficiaries-owners of the plant were (before the story was released in 2017) President Petro Poroshenko and his ally, partner and friend, MP Ihor Kononenko from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc.
WHEN IT DECIDED TO BUILD ON COMMUNAL LAND, DESPITE THE INCONSISTENCY WITH THE GENERAL PLAN, WHICH WILL MAKE MILLIONSFOR THE “FORGE” OF POROSHENKO AND KONONENKO
Nashi Hroshi journalists reported that the Kyiv City Council adopted an illegal detailed territory plan (DTP) in September 2016, which contradicts the current Kyiv City Master Plan. According to the journalists, the land plots used by Kuznya na Rybalskomu Plant PJSC, which is about 40 hectares of land, will be used to build residential neighborhoods.
The legal start of the scheme took place on July 30, 2015. At that time, the Kyiv City State Administration allowed one of the companies that was to lease several hectares on the peninsula to develop a DPT for all 130 hectares of Rybalsky. On behalf of the KCSA, the agreement was signed by Andriy Vavrysh, deputy director of the Department of Urban Development.
Until 2018, when the plan was being developed, the ultimate beneficial owners of Kuznya na Rybalskomu Plant PJSC were the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and MP Ihor Kononenko. Currently, the only ultimate beneficial owner is Mr. Tigipko.
Despite the fact that Kyiv’s General Plan clearly states that almost all of Rybalsky Island’s land is for warehousing and industrial purposes. Already on September 29, 2018, the KCSA vote gathered enough votes from the pro-presidential Solidarity party and the faction of ex-mayor Omelchenko’s Unity party to approve the detailed plan of the territory.
MP Yuriy Levchenko filed a lawsuit with the Kyiv District Administrative Court against the KCSA decision, which was adopted in violation of the law. He claimed two violations: non-compliance with the General Plan and the absence of public hearings. Judge Keleberda canceled the decision of the Kyiv City Council session. However, on April 3, 2018, the appeal (K. Babenko, V. Kuzmenko, A. Stepaniuk) overturned the decision of the District Court. The Supreme Court upheld the appeal decision.
POROSHENKO-KONONENKO’S “SMITHY ON RYBALSKE” ACTED AS AN INTERMEDIARY FOR THE REPAIR OF THE FRIGATE “HETMAN SAHAIDACHNY” AND RECEIVED ABOUT 10% OF THE PRICE.
On March 11, 2017, the military unit A0456 (Odesa) ordered repair services for UAH 14.50 million from PJSC Leninska Kuznya Plant following a tender. This was reported in the Prozorro system. According to TSN journalists, one of the requirements for the contractor is that its shipyards should have access to the Black Sea, but PJSC Leninskaya Kuznya Plant is based in Kyiv.
Prior to the tender for the frigate’s repair and other military orders, Leninskaya Kuznya PJSC On January 24, the company signed an agreement with the Ilyichevsk Shipyard PJSC that the presidential firm would repair warships at the company’s production facilities in Chornomorsk, according to the Nashi Hroshi publishing house. The money is transferred in advance. But the work is done at the Ilyichevsk Shipyard. Thus, the presidential Kuznya received 10% of the cost of the work.
According to UNIAN, the Kyiv “Kuznya” of Petro Poroshenko earned more than half a billion hryvnias on the repair of this ship alone. In particular, in October 2017, UAH 91 million was paid for comprehensive repair and modernization work. In May 2018, the money seemed to run out, and another UAH 229 million was added for the same work. The repairs continued, and in October 2018, it was decided to repair the engines for UAH 23 million. And on New Year’s Eve, Kuznya na Rybalskomu received another huge tranche for modernization work — UAH 218 million. In total, UAH 561 million was allocated from the budget for the frigate.
At the time of the tender agreements, the Closed Non-Diversified Corporate Investment Fund Prime Assets Capital of President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko held an 83% stake. Another 11.5% belonged to PJSC ZNKIF VIK, owned by MP Ihor Kononenko, deputy head of the Petro Poroshenko Bloc faction.
“KUZNYA NA RYBALSKOMU” OWNED BY POROSHENKO AND KONONENKO BOUGHT 3 THOUSAND TONS OF CHEESE, WHICH MAY INDICATE TAX EVASION
PJSC “Plant ‘Kuznya na Rybalskomu’ (formerly Leninska Kuznya), which until 2018 belonged to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and MP Ihor Kononenko, probably resorted to a dubious tax optimization scheme in 2013-2015, as described in a journalistic investigation by Lesya Ivanova for the program ‘Our Money with Denys Bigus’.
PJSC “Plant ‘Kuznya na Rybalskomu’ is an industrial enterprise whose main activity is the construction of ships and floating structures (CEA 30.11). According to the investigation, in 2013-2015, along with purchasing production materials for its industrial production, Kuznya purchased cheese and milk powder on the same industrial scale. According to the program, in 2013-2015, the plant transferred to the firms PE Consulting Firm Prometheus, LLC Myrhorod Cheese Factory, and PE Ros (all three were part of the Milkiland-Ukraine group of companies) a total of more than UAH 220 million for 2,721 tons of cheese and 215 tons of milk powder.
The Milkiland group of companies confirmed the sale of Kuznia cheese. At the same time, they noted that after the sale, Kuznya’s cheese was not physically delivered, but was exported by Milkiland on behalf of Leninskaya Kuznya under a commission agreement. Kuznya na Rybalskomu PJSC refused to provide the contracts for these transactions to journalists.
Milkiland notes that the cheese deals were a completely legal tax optimization forced by Ukrainian tax realities. In other words, Milkiland received money immediately, rather than waiting for VAT refunds from the state, and PJSC Kuznya na Rybalskomu Plant offset its tax debt by claiming that it was now entitled to VAT refunds from the state.
However, according to lawyers, such a benefit for PJSC “Plant ‘Kuznya na Rybalskomu’ is very low, which may indicate another benefit, namely the payment of income tax. His logic is simple: when there is no profit, there is nothing to pay tax on.Journalists claim that over the past 15 years, the company has declared tangible profits only twice, and the rest of the time it reports either losses or “breaking even.”
Ihor Kononenko may have assisted the SURKIS brothers and businessman Kryuchkov in withdrawing hundreds of millions from southern regional power distribution companies.
Ihor Kononenko apparently assisted the Surkis brothers and businessman Kriuchkov in siphoning off hundreds of millions from semi-state regional power distribution companies, according to journalists of the Schemes: Corruption in Detail program in the story “P. gave the OK: How Kononenko, a friend of the president, made money on energy scams.”
After becoming deputy head of Poroshenko’s parliamentary faction, Ihor Kononenko got one of the key and most profitable state sectors — energy — under his supervision and the opportunity to exert shadow influence on it.
“The Schemes managed to obtain records of telephone conversations between Dmytro Kriuchkov, the main person involved in the investigation into the embezzlement of Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo, which is more than 60 percent owned by the state, and other criminal offenses that caused damage to the state in the amount of more than UAH 1.4 billion, and Ihor Kononenko himself.
During the conversation, dated April 19, 2015, Dmytro Kriuchkov reported to Kononenko that a scheme had already been devised to disrupt the Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo shareholders’ meeting scheduled for April 21 so that its CEO would not be replaced at the meeting.
And indeed, two days later, a story about how unknown people tried to disrupt the meeting was broadcast on TV. “Skhemy analyzed the agenda of the company’s meeting and found that it was indeed planned to terminate the powers of Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo CEO Ihor Kornilenkov, a protege of the Surkis brothers, that day. This was exactly what Kryuchkov, the Surkis brothers, and, as it turned out, Ihor Kononenko himself were trying to prevent.
It was in 2015 that Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo, led by Ihor Kornilenkov, agreed that large local industrial enterprises would pay for the electricity already supplied to Kriuchkov’s private company Energomerezha. And this company, in turn, would pay Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo. The following oligarchs’ factories have entered into these simple trilateral agreements: “Zaporizhzhia Titanium and Magnesium Plant, Dniprospetsstal, and Zaporizhzhia Ferroalloy Plant. However, Zaporizhzhiaoblenergo did not receive money for electricity from Kriuchkov. Thus, in 2015 alone, the semi-state enterprise lost half a billion hryvnias.
The Schemes journalists also obtained a conversation between Kriuchkov and Ihor Kononenko concerning the shareholders’ meeting and the establishment of control over Kharkivoblenergo.
ONISHCHENKO was probably an intermediary in the purchase of MPs’ votes between the presidential party and the Batkivshchyna party.
The Slidstvo.info article “Book Club” describes how Petro Poroshenko’s associates agreed to buy positions and votes to pass favorable decisions in parliament for the presidential party, and Oleksandr Onyshchenko was the intermediary between the pro-presidential party and the Batkivshchyna party between 2010 and 2014.
In the correspondence that journalists received from the fugitive MP Oleksandr Onyshchenko, the interlocutors called the “book” a million. According to the journalists, it was about a million dollars for one vote. Not only politically favorable bills were bought and sold, but also bills concerning preferences for a particular business sector. Onyshchenko himself admits that he participated in corruption deals, but insists that he did so in agreement with the President and his people.
А. Onyshchenko reported buying votes for the appointment of members of the High Council of Justice and the head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine. In 2015, the Petro Poroshenko Bloc parliamentary faction nominated Oleksiy Malovatskyi. At this time, Onyshchenko receives a message from MP Ihor Kononenko, who is close to the President: ). Vlasenko is against it.
In addition, journalists learned that not only political influence is sold and bought in the Verkhovna Rada, but also laws that give preferences in various types of business. For example, on March 13, 2015, Onishchenko received a message from Serhiy Berezenko asking him to talk to Tymoshenko to support the urban planning law: “This is not politics. It’s a working request. I’ll dance it off”.
Poroshenko’s Spanish neighbors: business partner, Rada member Ihor Kononenko and NSDC Deputy Secretary Oleh Hladkovskyi
Two close friends of President Petro Poroshenko, MP Ihor Kononenko and Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleh Hladkovsky, own villas in Spain.
This is stated in an investigation by the Schemes program.
It is noted that Kononenko’s villas are registered to his company. They are not reflected in the declaration, but the companies themselves are declared.
“Several paid requests to the Spanish real estate registers helped to establish that the company Lancashire Big SL has a land plot registered. Like the president, it is on the coast, but near Marbella,” the investigation says.
Thus, Kononenko’s Spanish company Lancashire Big SL owns almost 26 acres of land right on the Mediterranean coast.
Kononenko’s second declared Spanish company, Treck Holdings Coast, has a mansion registered for it, which is two kilometers away from the land plot. The 768-square-meter house is located in the second line from the sea. It takes 25 minutes by car to get to Poroshenko’s Spanish residence.
In a commentary to the Schemes program, Kononenko said that according to the Law of Ukraine “On Prevention of Corruption” he is not obliged to declare property owned by his companies. The journalists emphasize that the companies of Petro Poroshenko, Ihor Kononenko and Oleh Hladkovsky, in whose names the villas are registered, have the same administrator, Iryna Viktorivna Petrovska.
She is registered in the village of Khodosivka near Kyiv. However, they say that she left for Spain a long time ago.
Police open criminal case for bribing voters by Ihor Kononenko
The police are investigating the fact of bribing voters by representatives of Ukrainian parliamentary candidate Igor Kononenko. The corresponding entry in the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations appeared on July 15.
As noted, on July 15, the Vasylkiv Police Department of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Kyiv Oblast received statements from several citizens that on July 14, 2019, two strangers came to their place of residence and offered them to vote for the candidate for people’s deputies Ihor Kononenko in the parliamentary elections. For this, they were to receive cash in the amount of UAH 2000.
The criminal case is being investigated under Article 160 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Sytnyk: NABU opened criminal proceedings against Kononenko
The criminal proceedings against MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ihor Kononenko, announced by the head of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine Artem Sytnyk, concern the declaration of false information.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has opened criminal proceedings against MP from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Ihor Kononenko, a business partner of the fifth President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko. NABU Director Artem Sytnyk told Ukrainian News.
“Yes, a criminal proceeding has been registered,” he said. According to Sytnyk, the investigation was based on “certain conclusions.”
“Ukrainski Novyny notes that the proceedings were opened under Article 366-1 (declaration of false information) of the Criminal Code of Ukraine and relate to the MP’s failure to declare corporate rights.
In July, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption reported that Kononenko had indicated in his revised declaration for 2015 false information about the number and nominal value of shares in three joint-stock companies and two foreign companies registered in Ukraine that he owned, and also failed to declare his daughter-in-law’s income.
Income
Ihor Kononenko’s declaration, filed on the eve of the 2014 parliamentary elections, shows more than UAH 30 million in total income. The bulk of this amount is dividends and interest. The businessman’s salary amounted to UAH 125 thousand. According to him, he owns two houses, an apartment and a land plot.
According to Ihor Vitaliyovych, he drives a 2002 Mercedes-Benz. Kononenko’s family also owns Subaru and BMW cars. He has no bank accounts. His family members have about 280 thousand UAH declared in the bank.
Resume.
Ihor Kononenko, together with his good old friend Petro Poroshenko, are plundering the country in various ways. A huge number of fictitious companies, offshore companies through which the looted funds pass, tax evasion, and a huge list of actions that Kononenko does to the detriment of the country.