Borulko (Rychkov) Pavlo Viktorovych
Official biography
Pavlo Viktorovych Borulko was born on February 11, 1975, in Kostiantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, in the family of the director of the Konstanivka Glassworks Research Institute. He graduated from high school with a silver medal, which is tacitly considered a labor medal, unlike a gold medal — he seemed to try hard, studied, but failed some subject — and the benefits at the time of admission were the same. Usually, these are given to teachers’ children.
In 1997, Borulko graduated from the most prestigious Faculty of Economics and Law of Donetsk State University, and from the 4th year of his studies he began to hold responsible positions in various banks in his native Donetsk region.
Family and connections
Pavlo Borulko’s mother is a teacher. It is also interesting that his uncle, Vitaliy Lobas, is a former deputy governor of Donetsk Oblast, who still retains a serious influence in the region. As you know, talents need help. And here, by the way, Mr. Borulko discovered that his wife is Mr. Medvedko’s niece. Yes, that’s right — the Prosecutor General of Ukraine. This is where, as the saying goes, the card went off — as soon as the aforementioned refinancing of troubled banks began, namely, from October to December 2008, only the share of Evropeyskiy Bank, to which Mr. Borulko is directly related, received UAH 350 million (despite the fact that the number of loans issued by the bank was almost twice as high as the number of deposits).
Compromising evidence
With the participation of Avtokrasbank, controlled by Borulko, $875 million was transferred to the accounts of foreign entities, and this was at a time when we were only guessing about the crisis. I think the question about the author of the scheme is rhetorical. In addition to Avtokrasbank, European, National Standard, Slavutych and other banks, also controlled by Mr. Borulko, participated in similar transactions.
As a result, a certain network of banking structures was created that ensures cashing, laundering and export of money from the country. What can we say about absentee lending to individuals for tens of millions of dollars secured by virtual land plots in the Obukhiv district of Kyiv region? And yet refinancing continues — more than 480 million hryvnias have already been allocated to European and National Standard banks alone, which is probably the NBU’s faith in Pavlo Borulko… Volodymyrsky Commercial Bank, controlled by businessman Pavlo Borulko, has been sold. The buyer was a certain Donetsk investor. The name of the investor and the amount of the deal have not yet been disclosed. The new owner has proposed a financial recovery plan for the bank.
It is also planned to change the current management of the financial institution. This trend may mean that Donetsk financial and industrial groups are strengthening their positions in the banking sector of the Ukrainian economy.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has completed the investigation of a criminal case on embezzlement of UAH 620 million from the Deposit Guarantee Fund. The investigation found that the funds were embezzled by a group of individuals led by Pavlo Borulko, owner of National Standard, European and Volodymyrsky banks. This was reported by Kommersant-Ukraine.
The SBU investigators announced the scheme that stole the money back in November last year. According to it, the day before the revocation of banking licenses, 1339 accounts were opened in banks, to which non-existent funds were documented. After the license was revoked, a group of people led by Borulko, according to the investigation, demanded that the DGF compensate depositors for the lost funds. Last year, the SBU reported the amount of 444 million, but now, as the publication has learned, the amount has increased to 620 million.
In addition, according to the newspaper, the SBU opened a case in March this year against Pavlo Borulko, who, in prior conspiracy with one of the MPs, organized the embezzlement of the National Bank’s funds in 2009 for a total of UAH 315 million. The investigation, according to sources, has faced blackmail and threats against it, and a plan to oppose the investigation and compromise the SBU leadership was seized from one of the accomplices. Pavel Borulko is currently in Belarus, where he was arrested by the KGB. The Ukrainian side has submitted documents for his extradition. According to open sources, Borulko is the husband of the niece of the ex-Prosecutor General’s wife.
Fugitive banker claims he did not receive any money in 2011
The scandalous banker Pavlo Borulko filed a declaration with the Central Election Commission in which he stated that he had no income at all last year.
The document, which is at the disposal of Ekonomichna Pravda, notes that the banker’s family members did not have any income in 2011 either.
According to the document, Borulko has only a 74-square-meter apartment.
The banker and his family also have no vehicles.
The declaration also states that Borulko has repaid a loan of 120 thousand hryvnias. There is no money in the bank accounts of the banker and his family members. It is known that the banker was going to run for MP in the 198th constituency (Smila, Cherkasy region).
However, on August 22, the Central Election Commission canceled his registration. Borulko appealed this decision to the Kyiv Administrative Court of Appeal, but on August 27, the court upheld the CEC’s decision. Borulko is one of the defendants in the case of embezzlement of UAH 620 million from the Deposit Guarantee Fund in 2009. Fleeing persecution by the SBU, he went into hiding in Belarus. The Belarusian authorities refused to extradite the banker to Ukraine.
In exchange for political asylum, Borulko testified about his work when he was the main shareholder of the European and National Standard banks.
During the interim administration, fictitious deposit accounts were opened in these banks for the population, which were used to pay compensation to the Guarantee Fund.
According to some reports, Borulko’s testimony contains dirt on high-ranking officials in Ukraine.
Pavlo Borulko: a forgotten legend of bank fraud
Every time an economic crisis hits Ukraine, “defrauded depositors” take to the streets. But who is deceiving them? How many Ukrainians realize that their bank deposits are not actually “burned” but transferred to someone else’s accounts, that the bankruptcy of banks is not the fault of the crisis but of their own owners, who often deliberately drive them to ruin. Moreover, it also happens that the “deceived depositors” themselves are the ones who are being fraudulently deceived. We can learn about the tricks used by fraudulent bankers from the example of Pavel Borulko, the former owner of Evropeyskiy, National Standard and AvtoKrazBank. SKELET-info believes that he was not the biggest, but the most brazen fraudster!
Alexander Medvedko and Viktor Pshonka
BACKGROUND ON PSHONKA: Viktor Pshonka: the rise and fall of the prosecutor’s Caesar
In the mid-90s, several key events took place that radically changed Pavlo Borulko’s already good life. First, his father completely ruined the Kostiantyniv Glass Plant, after which it was liquidated, and on the basis of its main workshops, the Avtosklo Production Association (which produced mirrors, tempered glass, and glazing for airplanes and locomotives) was created, later transformed into SpetsTehSklo CJSC. Secondly, Vitaliy Lobas was appointed deputy to the new head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, Viktor Yanukovych. Thirdly, Pavlo Borulko graduated from university and in 1997 was employed by the Konstantinovka branch of Privatbank, and then as a senior manager of the credit department of the branch of Ukrinbank. Fourth, he met his future business partner, Serhiy Kirichenko, while there. And fifth, and most importantly, he married Alla Kuzmina.
Husbands and wives
Our hero’s wife (first wife) is a very mysterious person. The media called her the niece of prosecutor Oleksandr Medvedko, and once even suggested that she might be related to the well-known Donetsk prosecutor’s family of Kuzmins (read more about them in the article Renat Kuzmin: Family Business of Outlaw Prosecutors). At the same time, rumors abound on the Internet that claimed that her maiden name was Golutvina and that she became Kuzmina in her first failed marriage, and that she had no relation to the said prosecutor families. However, her colleague and business partner Dmitry Goncharov claimed that Alla Nikolaevna is a good close friend of Oleksandr Medvedko’s wife and daughter.
Well, in any case, Alla Nikolaevna “rose” too quickly for a simple, unrelated woman. Moreover, in their family business tandem, it was she who played the role of the “locomotive,” not the pampered major Pasha. And it was she who set him up with her friend’s husband, Dmitry Goncharov. Moreover, SKELET-info’s sources reported that she not only introduced her husband to the financial and banking business of Donbass, but used him as her personal deputy. But here’s the most interesting thing: this “banking family” of Alla and Pavlo Borulko had equally interesting business partners. The names of the married couples Dmytro and Iryna Honcharov, Adamov, Eduard and Oksana Prutnik did not appear in the criminal chronicles of Ukraine later on, like the Borulkos’ name, but they started together and ended together.
A document from the court registry:
Now it is difficult to figure out which of them started first, but from the available information we can assume that Eduard Prutnyk (born in 1973) was the best placed in the late 90s. He, in turn, could have been pulled (or pushed) up by his wife Oksana Yuriyivna (born in 1968), who also worked in the financial business, or Vitaliy Lobas could have done it, since in 1997 Eduard Prutnyk became an adviser to the deputy head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration. Anyway, in 1999, he held the position of first deputy director of the Directorate of Bank Ukraine in Donetsk region, and then suddenly went into “private business” for two years, after which he suddenly rose sharply: as we wrote earlier, he became deputy head of Yanukovych’s Donetsk Regional State Administration, then in 2002-2005 he was an adviser to Prime Minister Yanukovych, and after the first Maidan he made a name for himself as a banker and businessman. He also became Serhiy Lovochkin’s godfather (read more about him in the article Lovochkin. The Gray Cardinal and His Sister), who apparently supervised him.
So, it was during the period when Eduard Prutnik was engaged in “private business” in 1999-2001 that this wonderful team of family financiers was formed, who held various positions in two banks: the Donetsk branch of Slavutych (the future National Standard) and Donkreditinvest (the future European), which were then called the conversion centers of the “Donetsk” ones. At the same time, these banks differed in the specifics of their work: “Slavutych operated according to the “Soviet restaurant” system, while Donkreditinvest operated according to the “Soviet grocery store” system. What does this mean? Let’s recall the Soviet past: restaurants and grocery stores were the center of Soviet corruption, embezzlement and criminal schemes, and “dark deeds” were carried out within their walls every day, while most restaurants were always closed to ordinary people and served only their “regular customers,” but grocery stores, on the contrary, were full of noisy people standing in long lines. Likewise, Slavutych had a minimum of branches and worked only with its captive businesses and selective VIP clients, while Donkreditinvest had many branches and many clients — yet both provided the same “special services” within the walls of their accounting offices.
It should be added that at the same time, Serhiy Lovochkin was actively developing the financial schemes of the Donetsk ones, but his name was mentioned against the background of other, larger banks that later became the main captive banks of the Donetsk oligarchs. But the Donetsk branch of Slavutych (Serhiy Kyrychenko was the director, Borulko was his deputy) and Donkreditinvest (Goncharov was the head of the currency department) were quite possibly used as conversion centers: so to speak, even if the cops get them, it’s not a pity — these banks had much less equity than the main banks. “Donetsk” banks.
Giant frauds
In the summer of 2005, an ethnic deputy, Ihor Pluzhnikov, who owned Intercontinentbank ICB, died. As the subsequent investigation showed,
Pluzhnikov, together with one of his business partners, had been engaged in fraud:
He lent money to fictitious construction sites registered to homeless people.
The boss died, the scheme collapsed, and the deceased’s partners began to “cover up”.
— As a result, 40% of the bank’s cash flowed into the “black hole” of fraud with construction sites.
The State Bank of Ukraine, NBU, began to prepare for the introduction of a temporary administration at ICB, when suddenly the adherents of the Borulko and Goncharov banks offered their own proposals for resolving the difficulties.
With the support of Anatoly Shapovalov, the old deputy governor of the NBU, they pulled off the deal, which was later described by the SBU investigators as follows:
unidentified persons, with the aim of non-return of credit funds to the accounts of ICB and seizure of the bank’s assets, organized the conclusion of agreements on the assignment of the right to request credit funds in favor of other banking institutions, namely:
AKB Evropeyskiy, CB Slavutych LLC and CB Volodymyrskiy LLC.
Fake Pashka
But while Serhiy Arbuzov and Anatoliy Shapovalov somehow got away with participating in this scam, the authorities quickly became interested in Pavlo Borulko — his brazen fraud, which “exposed” the state for a total of 620 million hryvnias, was too resonant! This is not to mention the investigation into his possible involvement in the attempted assassination of Dmytro Fomenko, the chairman of the supervisory board of Financial Union Bank, in January 2008, which resulted in his injury. Fomenko stated that the reason for the assassination attempt could have been his conflict with Rodovid Bank co-owner Oleksandr Shepelev, who was Borulko’s business partner. Shepelev, by the way, was arrested in Budapest in 2013, transported to Kyiv, held in a pre-trial detention center, and then transferred to a hospital, from where he safely escaped on July 6, 2014.
In general, Pavel Borulka also had to flee — but for some reason he chose Belarus as his refuge. Probably because only there could neither the Western Interpol nor the Russian police get to him — after all, when his regionalist friends came to power, Borulka’s criminal case was not thrown into the trash. Well, with money, you can do well in any country. And yet, in Belarus, Borulko was a little nervous when, in December 2011, he was arrested by the local KGB (border guards) because of his fake passport. But he didn’t worry for long: he was released on his own recognizance three weeks later. Moreover, the Minsk prosecutor’s office refused to extradite him to Ukraine, stating that it was guided by Article 19 of the International Convention (this could cause some harm to Belarus).
Delighted Borulko, who by that time had already divorced his wife Alla (or was abandoned by her due to further uselessness), immediately decided to organize another scam! To begin with, he married a 25-year-old resident of Gomel, Natalia Richkova, and then took the opportunity to change his surname. His plan almost succeeded after the 2014 Maidan, when Pavel Borulko began to prepare to return home to Ukraine. But, realizing that he could be “accepted” there even despite the change of government and the resulting political and legal mess, he decided to run in the parliamentary elections — but under the name Rychkov!
It would have been fine, because the law does not prohibit changing one’s surname, unlike stealing money from depositors and the National Bank.
However, Pashka Borulko was again let down by greed and overconfidence: the fact is that he also decided to play it safe and get a Russian passport with the name Borulko. And in June 2014, he received a Russian passport as a resident of Feodosia, who had registered there on February 20, 2014 (as if he knew about the imminent annexation). This did not seem enough for him, and in September 2014 he appeared in Kyiv, where he received a Ukrainian passport under the name Rychkov. But at the same time, he indicates that he has been a resident of Feodosia since March 20, 2014. In short, it is a complete lie and fraud! By the way, Pavel Rychkov-Borulko lost the election in a landslide. But although there has been virtually no news about him since then, this does not mean that this great crook will not try to return to his homeland again. Or maybe he’s already here, doing his old business under a new name?
A telephone conversation between MP Shepel and Borulka.
President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko granted citizenship for a bribe
As soon as the economic crisis overtakes Ukraine, defrauded investors take to the streets. Most Ukrainians know that bank deposits do not burn up, but are transferred to fraudsters’ accounts, and that the bankruptcy of banking institutions is not the fault of the crisis, but of the owners of banks who deliberately bring them to bankruptcy.
We were able to find out what fraudulent bankers will do by following the example of Pavlo Borulko, the former owner of European, National Standard, and AvtoKrasBank.
Following Rychkov’s text, Pavel Borulko’s new surname is Pavel, and he is considered not the biggest, but the most cunning and brazen scammer in Ukraine.
Summary
Pavlo Borulko is a banker fraudster who has defrauded hundreds of people and organizations. In addition to financial fraud, he was involved in murder and bribery. After his deeds, he moved to Belarus and changed his surname to try to return to Ukrainian politics. Fortunately, it didn’t work out.