Ukrainian investigators are moving as fast as they can to
track down all that was looted from the country in the past three years. The amount is staggering, $40 to $70 billion
dollars. They are finding millions in
loose change at the properties of several ex-ministers. The following are clipped from three articles
cited below.
On March 21, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office has conducted 32 searches at the firms connected with ex-energy and coal industry minister Eduard Stavytsky and ex-agrarian policy and food minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk.
An organization in Russia put together a booklet of Putin’s
luxury items from estates and palaces to ships to watches called “Life of a
Galley Slave”.
On March 21, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's office has conducted 32 searches at the firms connected with ex-energy and coal industry minister Eduard Stavytsky and ex-agrarian policy and food minister Mykola Prysiazhniuk.
Interior Minister Arsen Avakov said,
"We have seized $286,000 plus UAH 659,000 and several expensive watches of
famous brands from Prysiazhniuk, and $1.717 million plus UAH 1.25 million from his
deputy Symonov." He clarified that the searches were carried out as a part
of a criminal investigation into embezzlement of budget funds at the Agrarian
Policy Ministry.
Another search, conducted in the
apartment of a former high-raking Agrarian Policy Ministry official close to
Stavytsky, produced $1.7 million, 1.4 million hrivna and several thousand Euros
in cash, he said.
"The former civil servants
managed to transfer a larger share of their assets to foreign bank accounts.
What was found in the searches was cashed-in assets. We think the cash had been
taken out of the country in bags in several flights," the deputy
prosecutor general said.
Just one police raid on March 21 on
a property that belonged to former Energy Minister Eduard Stavitsky uncovered a
fortune that cannot be explained by his $15,000 in earnings declared last year.
“One safe was completely stuffed
with cash – about $5 million. Another safe was fully stuffed with gold and
jewelry – 50 kilograms of gold bars, and jewelry made of various metals – gold,
platinum and diamonds,” Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitskiy said on March 22.
The previous day, Ukraine’s law
enforcement agencies searched 32 different premises that belonged to Stavitsky
and another former top official, Agriculture Minister Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. In
his flat, he kept $300,000 and Hr 800,000 in cash, among other things. Both
ministers were a part of overthrown President Viktor Yanukovych’s close circle.
The raids also yielded many title
deeds to land, ownership documents of offshore and other companies and details
of various bank accounts that would be enough to keep law enforcers busy for
months, untangling webs of business deals and chasing stolen assets.
But there has barely been a day when
the law enforcers did not get back home with an impressive catch, which has
been both satisfying and extremely depressing for the nation, which is
discovering just how much it has been looted from over the past few years.
Moreover, the job has turned into a
truly international project as teams from the United Kingdom and the U.S.
stepped in earlier this month to help trace international operations of
Ukraine’s corrupt elite, many of whom already face travel and economic
sanctions and asset freezes by the European Union, the U.S. and a few other
countries.
Bounty hunters, the lawyers who
specialize in asset recovery, are digging into company documents in exotic
destinations anywhere from North Africa to Central America.
In the meantime, journalists at home
continue combing through files found in presidential real estate Mezhyhirya and
gluing back together shredded documents from the offices of Serhiy Kurchenko, a
young former billionaire whose companies served as a front for the business
activities of the president and his family. Investigators have uncovered Kurchenko’s gas
trading schemes that robbed the state treasury of $1 billion.
This link has pictures of the loot:
Then there is Mr. 50%, Yanukovych, himself.
This blog post in the Financial Times explains
how Yanukovych rose from being a small time government gangster in the Donetsk
region to establishing mafia-like control of the entire country. http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2014/03/24/guest-post-viktor-yanukovich-mr-50-per-cent/#axzz2wuxthxCI
Once Yanukovych became Prime Minister in 2002, he was in a
position to provide cover for his “friends” for which he charged them a mere
50%. Because Government officials are
immune from prosecution under Ukrainian law, The Party of Regions became
popular after the Orange Revolution for former Kuchma era officials and
oligarchs who wanted protection, initially from the Yushchenko election
campaign slogan of ‘Bandits to prison!’ and then from Yulia Tymoshenko’s
anti-elite populism. Once they were elected as Deputies or had friends who were
in a position to protect them, they were safe.
Documents found in Yanukovich’s ostentatious Mezhihirya
palace, first-hand evidence from businessmen who had been corporate raided and
interviews provided by business leaders all point to his long-established rule
of a 50 per cent tribute in return for providing a krysha (roof). After
Yanukovich fled Ukraine, Dmytro Oliynyk , the deputy head of the executive
council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine spoke about the 50 per cent
rule having become the norm ‘in recent years’. (See link above for how it
worked).
To see pictures of ONE of his homes, the famous (infamous) Mezhyhirya,
just Google it under images. There are
scores of great picture and more added every day as investigators continue to
go through his house.
Which brings us to Mr. Putin and his life as a galley slave
for Russian people.
"As for my
personal perception, I am not ashamed before the citizens who voted for me. All
these eight years I worked like a galley slave, to spare no effort. I am
happy with the results"
An organization in Russia put together a booklet of Putin’s
luxury items from estates and palaces to ships to watches called “Life of a
Galley Slave”.
Here are some examples with photographs of the 20 palaces,
villas and residences at President Putin’s disposal including a $1 billion
dollar palace at Sochi.
Here is the original Life of a Galley Slave site in Russian but
you can use Google translate to get a half decent English version. I have seen a copy and you can download it
from the site below as a PDF.
A few other pictures of his Sochi palace here:
Medvedev can’t begin to touch him as he has only this little
cottage at Sochi
It just gets worse, and worse, and worse.I expect it will take years to find tens or hundreds of billions of dollars diverted to the "presidential pocket." No wonder the country is in so much trouble. Of course the IMF will make things worse.
ReplyDeleteBlessings and Bear hugs!
I am sure these guys feel they are all entitled to steal from their people for the great service they have done. Is there any deterrent at all in place or is justice only done in revolution?
ReplyDeleteThe interim government is in process of cleaning up the judiciary and the police though it is very difficult as virtually all were involved in helping enforce Yanukovych's diktats.
Delete