A company close to Azarov, with the help of the Ministry of Energy, is trying to collect 150 million from “Ukrenergo” – mass media
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“Ukrenergo” is forced to fight in court against a company related to former Prime Minister Mykola Azarov, which is trying for the second time to collect UAH 150 million from the energy company based on documents with signs of fictitiousness.
Regarding this fact, he conducted investigation Radio Liberty’s “Schemes” project, which revealed signs of falsification in the debt documents, as well as the fact that the company close to Azarov was being helped by officials of the Ministry of Energy.
As the investigators note, it is about the company “Zvyazoktechservice” from the orbit of the son of the ex-prime minister – Oleksiy Azarov. During the premiership of Azarov Sr., firms related to his son’s business regularly received contracts from state enterprises. National Energy Company “Ukrenergo” was no exception.
On her order, “Zvyazoktechservice” was to build the “Prydunayska” electrical substation in the Odesa region. This object in the south of Ukraine was needed for the development of the business of Azarov’s then fellow party members from the “Party of Regions” – brothers Andriy and Serhiy Klyuev, who were building a network of solar power plants across the country at the expense of the state.
“Zvyazoktechservice” performed the work. The customer – the state-owned “Ukrenergo” – settled.
45 million of almost 100 million hryvnias were paid immediately. As for the rest – 55 million hryvnias, in 2019 a settlement agreement was concluded between “Ukrenergo” and “Zvyazoktechservice”. According to which “Zvyazoktechservice” waived penalty and inflation charges. And “Ukrenergo” in turn paid the rest of the debt. This is confirmed by the payment document, which was at the disposal of the journalists.
But in 2020, the company “I-Tech Ukraine” appears, which declares that it has a contract of assignment of the right of claim. They said that the state-owned company still owes money, but not to “Zvyazoktechservice”, but to the new company – “I-Tech Ukraine”. That is, there was a second attempt to collect millions from the state-owned Ukrenergo.
These events, which took place under the previous government, are currently the subject of separate criminal proceedings by the National Police of Ukraine.
Representatives of the company from the entourage of the former fugitive prime minister insist that at the moment when the state finally settled with “Zvyazoktechservice” in 2019 – this company was no longer controlled by its real owners (Azarov’s people), but it became the object of a raider attack . Therefore, they say, the money did not go to whom it should have.
The first thing that catches the eye is the price for such a right. That is, one company from the circle of the Azarov family – “Zvyazoktechservice” – decided to give another company from its orbit – “I-Tech Ukraine” – the opportunity to collect 55 million hryvnias from “Ukrenergo” for only 1 million hryvnias – which, it turns out, is less than 2% of the debt amount. Moreover, “I-Tech Ukraine” also received a 3-year postponement of the payment of this 1 million – in other words, the company could not pay this money during all this time.
The second thing that journalists drew attention to was a message from “I-Tech” addressed to “Ukrenergo” in 2020, that the company allegedly signed an agreement on the assignment of the right of claim 4 years ago.
The state enterprise turned to the experts of the Kyiv Independent Forensic Expert Institution with a request to investigate the real date of this notification (since the state company does not have the original of the contract itself). Experts found out that there was a fake date.
However, it turned out that there are those who help the company from Azarov’s entourage in the process of demanding debt from the state-owned enterprise. And the current officials of the relevant department – the Ministry of Energy, headed by Herman Galushchenko – are involved in this.
In 2022, the Ministry of Energy conducted an internal audit of Ukrenergo for the four-year period of operation of the state-owned enterprise. One of the items noted by the auditors is problems due to the calculation for the same works on the equipment of the electric substation in the Odesa region.
“Ukrenergo’s unjustified transfer of debt in the amount of UAH 47 million as a method of settlement with “Zvyazoktechservice”, and not in favor of the new creditor “I-Tech Ukraine”, led to the loss of financial resources (losses) of “Ukrenergo”, – the document says. .
It is noteworthy that the chief auditor of the Ministry of Energy at that time was Maksym Ponomaryev. Now he heads the internal audit department of the ministry. And earlier – he represented the interests of “I-Tech Ukraine” – a company close to the Azarov family – in court.
When Radio Svoboda asked if he did not see a conflict of interest in his actions, Ponomaryev said: “There is already a court decision that has entered into legal force, which resolves this issue. Where the legal factor is fully established, according to which my work is not a conflict interests”.
The press service of the Ministry of Energy also noted that the validity of Maksym Ponomaryev’s attorney’s certificate was suspended even before he became the head of the Department of Internal Audit of the Ministry of Energy. “Therefore, there is no conflict of interest in his activity.”
The press service of “Ukrenergo” informed RFE/RL that they have already applied to the SBU and NABU with statements about the commission of a crime.
According to Youcontrol, “I-Tech Ukraine” has Russian roots from the beginning – among the first owners is a Russian company with a Muscovite founder, which specializes in the trade of goods for ophthalmology.
Later, the owners of this company changed several times, but through the management there was and remains a connection with the associate of ex-president Yanukovych – Azarov.
Currently, “I-Tech Ukraine” is registered to two Ukrainians, registered in Kyiv and the region. But the head of the company, Vladyslav Nyzovsky, remained unchanged.
In the media, Vladyslav Nyzovsky is mentioned as “Azarov Jr.’s manager” – Oleksiy Azarov. Another connection with the entourage of the former prime minister can be traced through the public organization “Holosiiv Federation of Wakeboarding and Water Skiing”. It is also headed by Nyzovsky, and one of the founders is Hleb Leshkov, who held senior positions in companies from the construction group “Rozvitok” of Azarov’s son.
When Mykola Azarov fled to Moscow after the Revolution of Dignity, it was Leshkov in 2014 that he wrote out a power of attorney, trying to sell his house in Kyiv.
Hleb Leshkov also had a direct relationship with the company “Zvyazoktechservice”, which built an electrical substation for “Ukrenergo” and to which the state enterprise was in debt from the beginning. At the time of construction, the owner of “Zvyazoktechservice” was the company “De Sanctis-Invest” – it was headed by the previously mentioned Hleb Leshkov, the manager of the Azarov family.
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