Kings of the Ukrainian Forest

A respectable senior man entered the inexpensive Vienna cafe of the Donau-City business district. Although all the tables were occupied, he came straight to me. This men knew everything about me. And even the things I forgot about long ago. He represented a powerful mafia structure that controls the forestry business of many European countries. The meeting and providing information he explained simply - “it hurts me for Ukraine”.

- These are very dangerous persons. But - you write. They are not all-powerful, ”the man threw away and said good-bye and disappeared into the Vienna Underground.

Part five. Mafia's accountants

Double game

In the previous sections I have described the scheme of illegal export of Ukrainian forest to Europe. Among the offshore companies mentioned above, the largest cash flows were through "English" Biofuel Trading.

One of its managing companies was Bolero, represented by Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta.

(Rimvydas Giedra)

In the first part of the investigation, I examined the activities of the "Seychelles" group, which included these men, as well as the fact that the offshore established and maintained by it were used by diverse international criminal organizations.

However, in addition to the fact that the mafia used Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta to conceal the true owners, there was another duty on the men. In the UK, they have been systematically drafting, filing and signing financial statements for firms.

Accordingly, when serving Biofuel Trading, Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta had banking posting information; transfer of funds; through which companies laundered money; volume of sales of the forest; all the way away.

And most importantly - Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta knew the real forest business owners.

And they "sold" this information.

Biofuel Trading was incorporated in London at 5 Percy Street. Sandford LLP has settled in the same house. Similarly, its management company was Bolero.

Accordingly, Sandford LLP - also serviced Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta.

This company in Ukraine has recorded millions of shares in the business of people associated with Tatarin, which is known as the leader of the organized criminal group of the same name.

And one of the closest partners of this criminal authority - Dmitry Potekhov - was recorded by the beneficiary Sandford LLP.

And here, at some stage Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta “opened up” Biofuel Trading's forestry business.

Kiev is criminal

One of the most influential authorities in the criminal world of Ukraine is soon 63rd. Iskander Kirimov started in the 80's and got his first term.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in the early 1990s, the so-called “Golden Seven” of Kiev criminal leaders emerged in the capital of Ukraine. According to the media, Kirimov - “Tatarin” - entered it.

According to Volodymyr Polishchuk, the former head of the Kiev police press service, this man has been tried three times and he has spent 11 years behind bars.

And Tatarin was repeatedly arrested - "extortion", "storage" of weapons and drugs. But - came out of the water dry.

In the distant 92, Tatarin, together with his entourage, founded his first company, the Alliance. Subsequently, other joint ventures. As mentioned in the media - he invested in business "bandit money".

(Tatarin - archive photo "Ukraine is criminal")

The Alliance Company, together with Tatarin, were started by his right hand - Vadim Pavlenko and Andrey Zadorozhny. And - Dmitry Potekhov, now registered with the beneficiary Sandford LLP.

(Beneficiary of Sandford LLP. Photo - Facebook Dmitry Potekhov)

Elite “Kozyrnaya Karta”

They started business from selling hot dogs, after that opened restaurants and nightclubs.

The Alliance subsequently grew into the largest chain of elite restaurants, the “Kozyrnaya Karta”.

- We have such a mixed scheme that it is difficult to answer for sure. There are restaurants that Kozyrnaya Karta owns - a total of 50-60. There are those that we manage — with and without a share in them — these are the remaining 15–25. We have a network of roadside restaurants, "Mislivets Autogrill", which are not our property. There is a "Kozachok" network - it’s more complicated here: the Kozachok restaurant in Kiev is ours, and in Bukovel we have a long lease, and we have a share in the business ...- explaining the structure of the property A. Zadorozhnyy in the interior of delo.ua.

By 2013, the “Kozyrnaya Karta” included 112 restaurants.

In the 1990s, Tatarin's group became one of the most powerful in Ukraine. Kirimov himself established influential relationships.

- He has made numerous contacts with the authorities. Very often, he was approached by businessmen in the event of an attack by bandits and representatives of bodies, - described the ex-chief of the Kiev State Police, the lieutenant general of militia Mykola Poddubny at "Gordon's Boulevard".

The media mentioned various criminal schemes, which were "attributed" to members of the Tatarin criminal group - from the theft money of state-owned enterprises, and even to the leakage of money from commercial banks through fictitious firms.

Power and politics

Already in the 2000s, Kirimov and his partners turned their eyes to politics.

Tatarin establishes friendly relations with Dmytro Tabachnyk - former Head of the Administration of President of Ukraine L. Kuchma and Minister of Education and Science in Mykola Azarov's government.

The influence of Kirimov's partners is so high that when his business associate Zadorozhny was detained in Croatia - at the request of Ukrainian law enforcement officers on the matter of financial fraud with Rodovid Bank assets - political force "Strike" leader Vitaly Klitschko and influential people's deputy Mykola Martynenko appealed to the Croatian side with a request not to extradite a prisoner to Ukraine.

(Andrey Zadorozhny - photo - "Mirror of the Week")

By the way, after spending almost a year and a half behind the "croatian" grate, Zadorozhny still found himself in a Ukrainian prison. He spent a few hours here. And he was released on bail. And after the change of power in the country, he was fully justified by the court.

At about that time, another high-profile scandal erupted in the media that Yulia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna Party wanted to nominate Anton Kirimov, the son of Tatarin, as Kyiv city council candidate.

For a long time in politics another partner of Kirimov - Vadim Pavlenko. Today, he is the first Vice President of the Judo Federation of Ukraine, headed by former head of the State Fiscal Service - Roman Nasirov. In parallel with the restaurant business, Pavlenko is in power. He was the deputy mayor of Cherkasy, a deputy of the local regional council from the “Batkivshchyna”. And later, for Yanukovych, already from the Party of Regions, he worked as a deputy of the Kiev regional council.

(Vadim Pavlenko - photo - Judo Federation of Ukraine)

Tatarin also had joint affairs with the “owners” of ministerial portfolios.

 “Our money” was named by the real beneficiaries (among them Kirimov and Potekhov) in the fraudulent scheme for seizure of premises of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy of Ukraine, which was turned over by nominal owners with the assistance of Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. Subsequently, he was declared suspected of committing this crime, and as is known - Prisyajnyuk managed to flee the country.

In the final stage of the operation, the premises in the center of Kiev were owned by PPMG. Subsequently it co-founder became Tatiana Kirimova, Tatarin's wife.

(Restaurant in Ministry Rooms - Photo - "Our Money")

For our history, this case is interesting because in the course of the search, numerous documents, a registration case, reports and seals of the London-based Sandford LLP were found.

Dmitry Potekhov - the beneficiary of this offshore - has been developing the restaurant business for many years.

According to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individual Entrepreneurs - Tatiana Kirimova acted as a co-owner in many companies.

As I pointed out, business interests are also recorded in Sandford LLP.

Like with Kirimova - Sovky Restaurant.

Or with Tatarin - “ Kurenivsky ” and also “Kurenivka”.

By the way, in recent years, a considerable number of companies and shares in companies have been redesigned from Tatarin to his wife.

(Iskander Kirimov with his wife. Photo - Facebook Tatiana Kirimova)

And again: the criminal authority of Vova Mord

What we have in the end is information about Biofuel Trading's activity - which is banking; transfer of funds; through which companies laundered money; volume of sales of the forest; volumes - Rimvydas Giedra and Sergiu Valuta "surrender" to Tatarin's entourage. And then events happen staggeringly.

(According to the YouControl analytical system, the used “Kozyrnaya Karta” photo)

For about 15 years, this respected structure has another business partner. Restaurateur. Alexander Galushko, who joined to “Kozyrnaya Karta” at least in 2005. (several months ago, it ceased to exist).

He has been in direct business with Tatarin in numerous projects - Kozachok Service (now owned by a family of authority), Kozachok's Dishes, and BIM.

T. Kirimova - co-owned with Galushko in Kozachok-Shchaslyve, and with his son in Djera.

With Tatarin and Potekhov, the son of the restaurateur was also a co-owner of company "Polyanytsya".

Today Galushko is the manager of Kozachok-Demydiv, where he has a stake with T. Kirimova.

(The former Galushko restaurant in Lviv - photo - http://galushko-consulting.com)

It is unknown what place in the criminal world - and indeed whether - occupies Galushko.

But he is a co-owner of the Lviv company Klyasa. Its director is Vladimir Didukh (the criminal authority of Vova Morda). He, like Galushko, is the co-owner of this company.

The Galushko restaurant of the same name operated for several years at the address of company registration. And today - Johnnie's Tavern.

Despite the name change, both phones and email addresses remain the same.

In addition, Galushko with Didukh, for many years, according to the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and Individuals of Entrepreneurs, are partners in the hotel and restaurant business in Crimea - "Kozachok-Bakhchisaray".

Explosives and machine guns

In the previous sections, I described export operations.

Hidden in the offshore, the English and Estonian companies of N. Lysiy and A. Voronovskiy, bought timber from the state-owned enterprises at a reduced price. And they resold it to Europe. According to the investigation, the difference was distributed among the participants of the scheme, went to bribe management of the forest industry and laundered through a dozen companies controlled by Ukrainians.

Buying and selling were carried out according to the documents, instead the wagons with the wood went from state-owned enterprises directly to the European processing plants. And, the scheme with the use of intermediary companies was used solely to accumulate the price difference.

In many cases, timber banned from the law was exported from Ukraine under the guise of firewood.

Two executors took me to a close environment of perhaps the most powerful criminal authority of Ukraine - Bohdan Kopytko. He is viewed like the brain and the organizer of the export scheme.

According to the facts gathered, it was precisely for the control of the "forest money" that a bloody war broke out.

Initially, an attempt was made on the Kopytko - three bodyguards were killed. Investigation said that B. Havrylyuk was the organizer of attempt. He is known as the leader of the combat wing of the Vova Morda brigade, the head of another powerful criminal structure.

Subsequently, special forces detained a group of killers who were preparing to shoot Vova Mordu from the DShK machine gun.

The Attorney General called this planned murder a revenge in response to B. Kopitko's failed attempt.

Sources in the GPU gave information for journalists - the "co-organizer" of the assassination was Andrei Soltis .

Through his business partners and ex-firms, traces his connection to companies that have laundered money in the forest export scheme…

* Letters requesting comments were sent to persons involved. At the time of publication, no response was provided. If, however, the questions are answered, they will be published in the following sections *

Taras Zozulinskyy, 31.08.2019

This material was supported by the "OPEN Media Hub", and funded by the European Union

The investigation used a "YouControl" analytical system

The first part of the investigation - "Offshore Estonia and criminal Albion"

The second part of the investigation - "CRIMINAL AUTHORITY"

The third part of the investigation - "Advocate"

The fourth part of the investigation - "ATTORNEY GENERAL"