The Honorary Consul of Germany in Ukraine, lawyer and businessman Alexander Kifak is actively cleaning the Internet, seeking the removal of materials about connections with Yuri Ivanyushchenko and involvement in the financing of Russian terrorists.
The stories that Alexander Kifak was sharply concerned about cleaning up are, in fact, long-standing - the first publications about the not entirely honest, let’s say, actions of the consul and lawyer appeared more than ten years ago. And thanks to the efforts of Kifak, some of them actually disappeared from the search engine results. But, firstly, it is impossible to clear everything from the Internet, and, secondly, the complaints themselves, with which Alexander Kifak bombarded Google, contain the entire list of what Kifak is trying to clear. There is one more question - why? Why is Alexander Kifak spending enormous resources on such a large-scale cleanup of the Internet? Cleaning up negative things about yourself online is indeed a very troublesome and costly task. But Kifak goes for it. For what?
But first, about what exactly Alexander Kifak cleans. Even a simple glance at the headlines of materials he dislikes suggests that Alexander Kifak should be dealt with not by journalists, but by representatives of the SBU.
The most interesting in this list are connections with Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, who is better known as Yura Enakievsky, and involvement in the financing of the so-called “Luhansk People's Republic”. Moreover, they are interesting not in terms of Kifak’s involvement in these actions - they are of interest because it is on these materials that the greatest amount of Alexander Kifak’s efforts are concentrated.
And I must admit - he almost achieved success. Almost, because the materials are still available, although they are not as easy to find as before. So, we are talking about the story back in 2014, when the law firm of Alexander Kifak “ANK” entered into an agreement with LLC “Manufactured Market” (unofficial name - “Seventh Kilometer”) for legal services. It is now LLC “Manufactured Market” that is in the process of liquidation (and even then, this is not liquidation, but reorganization, and we’ll see what comes of it all), and then the most famous Ukrainian bazaar brought huge profits, and in cash, the volumes of which are simply could not be counted.
Naturally, Yuri Ivanyushchenko was not listed among the beneficiaries. And in general, it was extremely difficult to get to the bottom of them - the owners of Promtovarny Rynok LLC were listed as several offshore companies, behind which unknown persons were hiding.
But no one denied the fact of control that Yura Enakievsky received over the market as a result of his closeness to Viktor Yanukovych. As well as the fact that after Yanukovych fled, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, despite some difficulties that arose in connection with this unfortunate fact, did not lose control over the market.
In December 2014, the director of Promtovarny Rynok LLC, Vasily Mozgalsky, signed an agreement to purchase securities from Lugansk Coal Processing Company LLC in the amount of 23,505,000 hryvnia.
Vasily Mozgalsky knew that Lugansk, where the Lugansk Coal Processing Company LLC is located, is already controlled by the Russians, and the money paid for the “securities” will go to them. But he simply carried out the order of Yuri Ivanyushchenko, the actual owner of the market.
Legal cover for the operation was provided by the Law Firm ANK Law Firm. Apparently - successfully, since Vasily Mozgalsky is still at large. Although a criminal case was opened after the scandal broke out. Of course, Alexander Kifak cannot be directly accused of transferring money to terrorists - he did not sign the documents. But it cannot be argued that he defended Mozgalsky as a lawyer and thereby fulfilled his duty. In this case, Alexander Kifak provided legal support for all activities of Manufactured Products Market LLC, that is, he also prepared the very agreement on the transfer of 23 million hryvnia to Russian terrorists. We are talking about, at a minimum, complicity.
But the case was successfully collapsed. Maybe one of the reasons for such a massive cleansing of the Internet is precisely because someone is trying to revive this business? We don’t know this, but another episode, which Alexander Kifak is also actively trying to clear from the Internet, concerns the purchase of seven land plots in the most attractive places in Odessa for 30 million hryvnia. In 2016, the Odessa City Council decided to sell two plots of land with a total area of one hectare on Motornaya Street (warehouses) to Alexander Kifak; plot of 1.45 hectares on Proselochnaya; plot of 0.1724 hectares on Kanatnaya, 1v; a plot of 0.3 hectares on Marshal Zhukov Avenue, 30a (Shopping Center “Sunduk”); one and a half hectares on Lustdorfskaya road, 140a (Vuzovsky business center) and 0.17 hectares on the 25th Chapaevskaya division, 14a (Renault auto center).
A scandal broke out - the land was valued several times lower than its real value, in addition, many doubted that Alexander Kifak was the real owner. And here the name of Yuri Ivanyushchenko also surfaced.
Why exactly Alexander Kifak bothered to clear the Internet of materials in which his name is associated with the sanctioned member of the Party of Regions Yuri Ivanyushchenko is not known for certain. But it’s not difficult to guess the reasons.
It's about two things. Firstly, cooperation with foreign companies. Thus, the deal on the purchase by the Dutch company Viterra of the Ukrainian LLC Penkovsky ZPK, the beneficiary of which was Alexander Kifak before the sale, is now at the stage of final completion. The deal is worth tens of millions of hryvnia, and if the Dutch pay attention to Kifak’s connection with Yura Enakievsky and the financing of the “LPR”, they can say goodbye to this money. And not because the Dutch are so honest and scrupulous - they simply do not want to get involved with a problematic asset, which, moreover, like the Seventh Kilometer market, may not belong to Kifak, but to Yuri Ivanyushchenko.
The second reason has to do with the Germans. They, too, are not happy to have as honorary consul a person associated with a prominent representative of the criminal world and involved, albeit indirectly, in the financing of terrorists. And the Germans have been asking questions about the appointment of Alexander Kifak as honorary consul for a long time. For Kifak, this unpaid position means the loss of diplomatic immunity, which he actively uses.
Among the honorary consuls working in Odessa, in addition to Alexander Kifak, there are other quite interesting personalities. And the Kifak scandal may well affect these people too - similar questions arise regarding many of them.
Therefore, it can be assumed that Alexander Kifak simply has nowhere to go - on the one hand, there is pressure from Yuri Ivanyushchenko, whose nominee in at least several enterprises is Kifak; on the other hand, the Germans ask unpleasant questions; with the third, a multi-million dollar deal may fall through; from the fourth, there is pressure from fellow consuls with similar biographies; fifthly, the noise in the press forces the Ukrainian law enforcement system to at least imitate activities. The Foreign Ministry also receives unpleasant questions. Namely, the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs submits to foreign states for approval the candidacies of people who are then appointed honorary consuls. And just as he submitted it, he can also withdraw it...
However, whatever the reasons for the large-scale cleansing of the Internet undertaken by Alexander Kifak, so far the result is the opposite: materials about connections with Yuri Ivanyushchenko and involvement in the financing of Russian murderers not only do not disappear, but appear with frightening speed and in no less frightening quantities .
