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Mykola Zlochevsky

Mykola Vladyslavovych Zlochevsky (Ukrainian: Микола Владиславович Злочевський; born 14 June 1966) is a Ukrainian oil and natural gas businessman, politician, and an oligarch. Zlochevsky was Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from July 2010 until April 2012 and was the deputy secretary for Economic and Social Security of the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 until February 2014 when Euromaidan occurred.[1][2][3][4] He is wanted by Ukrainian authorities for attempting to bribe the prosecutors in order to drop all charges against him.[5]

Mykola Zlochevsky
Микола Злочевський
12th Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources
In office
2 July 2010 – 20 April 2012
Prime MinisterMykola Azarov
Preceded byViktor Boiko
Succeeded byEduard Stavytsky
Deputy Secretary of the
National Security and Defense Council
In office
20 April 2012 – 26 February 2014
PresidentViktor Yanukovych
SecretaryAndriy Klyuev
Personal details
Born
Микола Владиславович Злочевський

(1966-06-14) 14 June 1966 (age 58)
Kyiv, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union
ResidenceMonaco
EducationInternational University of Business and Law in Kherson [uk] – Accounting and Auditing
Odesa Law Academy – Law Faculty
Known forBurisma Holdings

Biography

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Business

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In 2002, he co-founded the largest independent oil and natural gas company Burisma Holdings with Mykola Lisin [uk] - Zlochevsky and Lisin each owned a 50% interest in Burisma Holdings.[6][7] Lisin, was co-founder of Infoks fuel trading and refining holding, and his former college classmate and party colleague through changing affiliations. Zlochevsky was vice-president of Infoks until, like Lisin, entering parliament in 2002.

Lisin died in a spectacular car crash while driving his Lamborghini Diablo on 17 April 2011.[8][9] At the time Burisma had shares in the Ukrainian gas and oil producers Aldea, Pari, Esko-Pivnich, and the First Ukrainian Petroleum Company.[10][11][12]

Burisma Holdings changed owners in 2011 when it was taken over by the off-shore Cyprus enterprise Brociti Investments, and subsequently, moved addresses under the same roof as Ukrnaftoburinnya (UNB) and Esko-Pivnich, two gas companies which were partly owned by Ihor Kolomoyskyi through off-shore entities in the British Virgin Islands.[13] Kolomoyskiy already controlled the conglomerate Privat Group. In the 2012 the CEO of UNB, Oleh Kanivets [uk], confirmed Kolomoysky as the owner of Burisma saying, “The Privat Group is the immediate owner. This company [Burisma] was founded by Mykola Zlochevsky some time ago, but he later sold his shares to the Privat Group.”[13]

Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine Zlochevsky donated hundreds of millions Ukrainian Hryvnia's (UAH) to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Special Operations Forces and the "Army of Drones" project of the Ukrainian government.[14]

Governmental posts

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Zlochevsky served as Ecology and Natural Resources Minister during most of the first cabinet of Mykola Azarov,[1] and during both the later part of Azarov's first government and all of Azarov's second government, he served as deputy secretary on National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.[1]

Investigations into Burisma and Zlochevsky

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In 2012, Viktor Pshonka,[a] the Ukrainian prosecutor general, began investigating Burisma Holdings owner, Zlochevsky, over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption during 2010–2012.[20][21]

In April 2014, Burisma Holding's board of directors appointed Hunter Biden, son of then U. S. Vice President Joe Biden, to the board, where he was said to have earned over $80,000 monthly.[22] Joe Biden had been made the point man on Ukraine after February 2014, when the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, was ousted and fled. Then U. S. President Barack Obama's administration was prepared to work with the new government, a position shared with European governments and institutions, such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. But they were all concerned about Ukraine's corruption, which had plagued the country ever since it gained independence in the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Joe Biden became a frequent visitor to Ukraine. By his own count, Biden said he went there about a dozen times from early 2014 through early 2016.[23]

In April 2014, the Serious Fraud Office of the United Kingdom froze approximately $23 million belonging to companies controlled by Zlochevsky.[24] At the end of 2014, Zlochevsky fled Ukraine amid allegations of unlawful self enrichment and legalization of funds (Article 368–2, Criminal Code of Ukraine) during his tenure in public office.[25] In January 2015, Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema announced that Zlochevsky had been put on the wanted list for alleged financial corruption.[26] At the end of January 2015, the Central Criminal Court in London released the $23 million that were blocked on accounts of Zlochevsky due to inadequate evidence.[25] In June 2018, the Serious Fraud Office stated that the case was closed.[27]

In early November 2014 Deutsche Bank reported that $24 million of funds from his companies were wired from Cyprus to the Latvia branch of PrivatBank, the bank co-owned by the oligarch in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, and nationalized at the end of 2016.[28][29][30]

Zlochevsky returned to Ukraine in February 2018 after investigations into his Burisma Holdings had been completed in December 2017 with no charges filed against him.[31][32]

On 18 April 2018, an alleged recording of part of a conversation between President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and fugitive Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko was released by Onyshchenko which implicated Zlochevsky in graft.[3][33][34]

On 15 June 2018, after the Solomyansky District Court in Kyiv had annulled the ruling of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP) to close a criminal proceeding against him in 2017, Zlochevsky was accused of having illegally issued, while he was Ecology Minister in 2010–2012, oil and gas licenses to the companies that belonged to him.[35]

According to Ukrainian authorities Zlochevsky is suspected of "theft of government funds on an especially large scale".[36] Authorities said the criminal investigation on suspicion of embezzlement is currently on hold because Zlochevsky's whereabouts cannot presently be determined.[37] As of 2019, Zlochevsky is reported to live in Monaco.[38] According to an investigation by Al Jazeera he bought Cypriot citizenship somewhere between 2017 and 2019.[39]

On 1 August 2023 the High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine convicted, after 2.5 years of trial, Zlochevsky to a fine of four thousand tax-free minimum incomes, equivalent to 68,000 Ukrainian Hryvnia's.[14] This case was started in 2020 and was about the "record bribe" of $6 million given for closing a criminal case against Burisma he had offered to (then) SAP head Nazar Kholodnytskyi and the leadership of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine.[14][40] The verdict was part of a plea agreement between Zlochevsky and SAP in which Zlochevsky admitted guilt.[14]

Personal life

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In 2019, Zlochevsky bought two apartments in Dubai for $11 million.[41] In 2022, he transferred ownership of the apartments to his daughter Anna.[41]

In 2023, Zlochevsky's daughters Anna and Karina bought real estate in Ukraine's capital Kyiv.[42]

Notes

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  1. ^ After the fall of Viktor Yanukovych's government in February 2014, Pshonka, a Russian citizen[15] with an arrest warrant issued for him,[16] fled from Ukraine to Russia and was last publicly seen on 13 April 2014 at Rostov-on-Don in Russia.[17] The Pshonka gold jewelry businesses, formerly located in Kramatorsk, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine, moved to Sevastopol in Russian annexed Crimea in the fall 2014.[18][19] Russia has illegally occupied Crimea since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2014.

References

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  1. ^ a b c "Search for gas and oil is key task of Ecology Ministry, says PM". Interfax-Ukraine. 23 April 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  2. ^ "Azarov orders new minister to develop environmental protection strategy". Interfax-Ukraine. 3 May 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b "VIP-клієнти Миколи Злочевського (розслідування)". Radio Svoboda (in Ukrainian). 2 February 2017. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  4. ^ Risen, James (8 December 2015). "Joe Biden, His Son and the Case Against a Ukrainian Oligarch". New York Times. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  5. ^ "Микола Злочевський: Біографія, досьє, фото Микола Злочевський". forbes.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 2023-04-23.
  6. ^ "Factbox: Burisma, the obscure Ukrainian gas company at the heart of U.S. political row". Reuters. 24 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Burisma Holdings". PEP.ua.org. Retrieved 19 September 2018.
  8. ^ Dead lawmaker continues to vote in Ukraine parliament, kyivpost.com, 23 April 2011
  9. ^ The edge of darkness, intellinews.com, 25 May 2011
  10. ^ Kupfer, Mark (13 April 2018). "11 people control much of Ukraine's oil and gas sector". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  11. ^ "11 politically exposed persons own a quarter of all permits for extraction of oil and gas in Ukraine –Report: Who Owns the Oil and Gas Fields of Ukraine?". Anticorruption Action Centre. 13 April 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  12. ^ "Zlochevsky's Brociti Investments formalizing control over two oil and gas companies". Interfax-Ukraine. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  13. ^ a b "Kings of Ukrainian Gas". Anti-Corruption Action Center. 26 August 2012. Archived from the original on 11 August 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2019.
  14. ^ a b c d Bilobrova, Kateryna (1 August 2023). "Ex-Minister Zlochevsky is sentenced: UAH 805.5 million transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of proceedings". Obozrevatel. Retrieved 18 December 2023.
  15. ^ "Пшонка та його син мають громадянство Росії" [Pshonka and his son have Russian citizenship]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 13 June 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Ukraine: Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov named interim president". BBC News. 23 February 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  17. ^ Тарасовська, Наталя (Tarasovska, Natalya) (5 November 2016). "З дачі Пшонки зникли мармурові леви - журналіст" [From Pshonka mansion disappears the marble lions - journalist]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 November 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  18. ^ "Родина Пшонки перевезла ювелірний бізнес до Криму – "Схеми"" [Pshonka's family transports jewelry business to Crimea - Schemes]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 4 November 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  19. ^ Чорновалов, Олександр (Chornalov, Alexander) (4 November 2016). "Золото Пшонки (розслідування)" [Wheat gold (investigation)]. Radio Svoboda (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 November 2019.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  20. ^ Vogel, Kenneth P. (22 September 2019). "Trump, Biden and Ukraine: Sorting Out the Accusations". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 23 September 2019. Retrieved 25 November 2019.
  21. ^ Ivanova, Polina; Polityuk, Pavel (27 September 2019). "Ukraine agency says allegations against Burisma cover period before Biden joined". Reuters. Kyiv. Retrieved 26 November 2019.
  22. ^ Trump continues campaign to find dirt on Hunter Biden and asks Putin to release it amid war in Ukraine, fortune.com
  23. ^ What Were The Bidens Doing In Ukraine? 5 Questions Answered, NPR
  24. ^ Bullough, Oliver (12 April 2017). "The money machine: how a high-profile corruption investigation fell apart". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  25. ^ a b Liliya Hryshko. Lifehack from Zlochevsky, how to return to Ukraine (Лайфхак від Злочевського – як повернутись в Україну). Deutsche Welle. 7 February 2017.
  26. ^ Timtchenko, Ilya (8 January 2015). "Prosecutors put Zlochevsky, multimillionaire ex-ecology minister, on wanted list". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  27. ^ "Ukraine money laundering investigation" (Press release). Serious Fraud Office. 29 January 2015.
  28. ^ "Outcry in Ukraine over song mocking ex-central bank chief". 21 October 2019.
  29. ^ "A bank scandal, an oligarch and the IMF: Ukraine's president has a lot to deal with right now". CNBC. 20 September 2019.
  30. ^ Kozyreva, Tanya; Leopold, Jason (12 July 2018). "Here's How Ukraine's Ousted Government Got Away With $40 Billion: US investigators delivered troves of documents about Viktor Yanukovych, Paul Manafort, and "The Family." Why isn't Ukraine taking action?". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  31. ^ "Burisma: all cases against group and group's president Zlochevsky in Ukraine closed". Interfax-Ukraine. 1 December 2017.
  32. ^ "Media: Ex-Minister of Ecology from the Yanukovych administration returned to Ukraine". UA Wire. 3 February 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  33. ^ Sukhov, Oleg (20 April 2018). "Onyshchenko releases alleged recording implicating Poroshenko, Zlochevsky in graft". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  34. ^ "Ukraine's presidential administration calls Onyshchenko recordings about Zlochevsky fake". Interfax-Ukraine. 19 April 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  35. ^ Romanyshyn, Yuliana (16 June 2018). "Court reinstates case against Mykola Zlochevsky". Kyiv Post. Retrieved 18 September 2018.
  36. ^ Golding, Bruce (2019-11-23). "Impeachment inquiry may be complicating Ukraine's Burisma probe". New York Post. Archived from the original on 2019-12-06. Retrieved 2019-12-06.
  37. ^ Zhegulev, Ilya (2019-11-20). "Ukraine widens probe against Burisma founder to embezzlement of state funds". Reuters. Archived from the original on 2019-11-20. Retrieved 2019-11-20.
  38. ^ Olearchyk, Roman; Seddon, Max (29 September 2019). "Ukraine gas company feels heat of US impeachment probe". Financial Times. Retrieved 6 October 2019.
  39. ^ "Кіпр продавав громадянство корупціонерам, у списку є впливові українці – розслідування" [Cyprus sold citizenship to corrupt officials, and the list includes influential Ukrainians under investigation]. Ukrayinska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 23 August 2020. Retrieved 23 August 2020.
  40. ^ "NABU and SAP leaders were offered $6 million for the closure of Zloczewski's case – source". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). 18 December 2023. Retrieved 12 June 2020.
  41. ^ a b Ovsyaniy, Kyrylo; Andrushko, Serhiy; Tolstyakova, Kira (2024-05-14). "Dubai Unlocked: How Yanukovych-Era Ukrainian Officials Poured Millions Into Secretive U.A.E. Real Estate". Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
  42. ^ Lukashova, Sonya (18 December 2023). "How money Evil wins. Part 2. New business of the Zlochevsky family". Ukrainska Pravda (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 18 December 2023.
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