For some time, the disguised actions of the former chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine (SPFU) Dmitry Sennichenko went unnoticed.
Because, calling and handing over bribe-takers to the anti-corruption authorities with one hand, with the other, according to the suspicion announced to him and his accomplices by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAP), he was monthly taking $200 thousand into his wallet from the work of government officials. enterprises "Odessa Port Plant" (OPZ) and "United Mining and Chemical company" (OGKhK).
This story amazes with its coherence and precision of actions of all its participants, reminiscent of a theatrical performance where the main character and director was Dmitry Sennichenko himself. The supporting characters changed with each new act, but the master's dramaturgy did not. To understand its main idea and get into Sennichenko’s back office, we got acquainted with previously published investigation materials, talked with sources in law enforcement agencies and people who know how the fraud scheme worked at the plant and in the company, and tried to recreate the history of the 10 billion scam hryvnia
Seriously wondering, how did it even become possible? Could a top official of Sennichenko’s level act independently, without consent from above? And how did it happen that, in fact, all those involved in the case left the country in advance?
Act one. Dmitry Sennichenko's acquaintance with his two close accomplices
End of September 2020. In Kyiv, on Pylyp Orlika Street, in the premises of the Mustard restaurant, where the walls are painted a calm beige color and there are pots of flowers on the window sills, two men meet. They have known each other since their student days. One of them is the current head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Dmitry Sennichenko. The other is his comrade Sergei Bayrak. The latter was invited to a meeting to get advice on work.
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Dmitry Sennichenko was appointed head of the State Property Fund a year before. Before this position, he worked in international projects, at Ukrposhta and was a member of the supervisory board of Prozorro. When Sennichenko assumed the duties of chairman, there were just over 60 enterprises in the management of the State Property Fund. At the beginning of 2020, after several months of work by the new manager, their number increased sixfold. Among these enterprises were the Odessa Port Plant and the United Mining and Chemical Company. Both objects are completely owned by the state.
The history of the Odessa port plant, which is located in the city of Yuzhny, Odessa region, is like a linear equation that is easy to solve, but each new government, bringing with it new directors and new “supervisors,” cannot cope with it.
The company is unprofitable and had different amounts of debt in different years. In 2016, the HMO stopped and subsequently resumed its work under a tolling scheme. The tolling scheme is a form of interaction between the plant and private companies that supply the plant with gas and receive fertilizers in return: ammonia and urea. The plant receives money from the processing of gas into fertilizers. And the company can essentially sell ammonia and urea further.
And that day, in the Mustard restaurant, Dmitry Sennichenko, as the investigation says, told Sergei Bayrak about a plan according to which OPP would enter into contracts for the processing of ammonia and urea with private companies on terms that would be unfavorable to the plant. Namely: the cost of processing gas into fertilizers would be significantly lower than necessary. Thus, a private company would save money and then make a large profit by selling ammonia and urea on the market.
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Bayrak agreed to the conditions proposed by the then head of the State Property Fund and began to look for people who would help them implement this plan. This is how Dmitry Sennichenko met Andrei Gmyrin - a man who, according to the films published by NABU, knew a lot, did a lot, and also received a lot. The section of Andrei Gmyrin’s biography that is significant for the case of the State Property Fund begins with his friendship with Igor Bilous, when the latter headed the State Fiscal Service.
So, in this case, the defendants carried substantial government portfolios. When Bilous headed the State Property Fund (from 2015 to 2017), Gmyrin was his assistant. This fact in the biography and 2017 are important for Andrei Gmyrin; we will return to this below. Bayrak met with Gmyrin and told him about Sennichenko’s idea. Gmyrin allegedly agreed, and the next month the three of them met and began planning their transactions at the Odessa port plant.
Act two. Everyone takes their positions and prevents Kolomoisky from winning the competition
To implement the scheme, Sennichenko and his accomplices, according to detectives of the anti-corruption bureau, needed a close and managed company that could accept the offer of cooperation and would not ask unnecessary questions. Andrey Gmyrin found such a company. It was the company Agro Gas Trading (AGT), which was founded by Alexander Gorbunenko and Vladimir Kolotilo. Remember when we remembered 2017? So, it was this year that AGT began its activities with an authorized capital of 1000 UAH. As they say, they knew and laid out straws.
Further, the activity gains momentum and attracts more and more people into its networks. Andrei Gmyrin finds Nikolai Sinitsa, and Dmitry Sennichenko makes him the head of the Odessa port plant. Subsequently, Yuri Lipka joins them, whom Sennichenko appoints as an adviser to the State Property Fund. Then a small quarrel occurs, and Sinitsa, who was appointed in December, is fired from his position, and Sennichenko appoints a new head of the plant - Nikolai Parsentyev.
And while Gmyrin was looking for people, Sergei Bayrak’s task was to transmit instructions from Sennichenko to Gmyrin, and take money from Gmyrin and transfer it to Sennichenko. This is what the investigation says. Not too hard work. For their work, Bayrak and Gmyrin received 25% of the transactions, Sennichenko took 50% for himself. But that is not all. Although the controllable dolls were found, the members of the supervisory board and the board of the HMO still had to be replaced. And the organizers of the scheme succeeded! Five orders from both Sennichenko himself and his advisers and deputies changed the plant’s supervisory board.
In July 2019, Dmitry Sennichenko realized that the contract between the Odessa Port Plant and the Agro Gas Trading company, which supplied gas for processing under a tolling scheme, would soon expire. At that time, tariffs for processing natural gas into ammonia were $36 per ton, and into urea - $47. So it is necessary to prepare for a new competition, and it is desirable that those who are needed win it. But even before the start of this competition, in December 2019, the contract between the HMO and AGT was extended until April 2020. The members of the supervisory board agreed to this. That's why they were chosen there.
The competition for a new “giver” began in February 2020. Eight companies submitted their applications, among which the most famous are: Trading House Sokar Ukraine, Yug Gas, the already familiar Agro Gas Trading and the Extractive Company Ukrneftebureniye. And the owner of the latter, Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky, won the competition because he provided the best offer: $39.5 per ton of ammonia and $77 per ton of urea. While AGT offered 40 and 67.5 dollars, respectively. But Igor Valerievich’s victory did not suit Dmitry Vladimirovich.
On March 6, Nikolay Sinitsa, who was then still acting director of the OPP, sent a letter to the supervisory board, indicating the following: the Ukrnaftoburenie company needs to provide documents on the economic model of work, which confirms profits and guarantees the plant uninterrupted production. In turn, Ukrnaftoburenie writes in a response letter that the company offered the most favorable price and will not provide any plans on the economic model of work, because this is a commercial secret. In the tapes published by NABU, this episode is mentioned as follows: “Grandfather fulfilled his conditions.” That is, the accomplices managed to come to an agreement with Kolomoisky.
Further, Sinitsa entered into an agreement with AGT, according to which the cost of ammonia was $39 per ton, and urea - $51, which was even less than the prices offered by this company at the competition - $40 and $67.5. Then this agreement was extended, and the price for processing fertilizers grew, but never reached the level that was proposed by the Ukrnaftoburenie company.
According to the conclusion of the State Audit Service of Ukraine, from May 2020 to October 2021, after the concluded agreements, the Odessa Port Plant caused damage to the state in the amount of UAH 308,322,727. This conclusion was confirmed by the Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Expertise.
Act three. How appetites grow
When Andrey Gmyrin helped Sergei Bayrak and Dmitry Sennichenko look for the right people for the Odessa port plant, he was looking for them not only for the OPP. In addition to him, according to the investigation, they were looking for people in Centerenergo, and Turboatom, and Nikolaevoblenergo, and Kharkovoblenergo, and Ukrspirt, and the Elektrotyazhmash plant.
The list goes on. And also to the United Mining and Chemical Company, the sole shareholder of which is the state represented by the State Property Fund. The Irshansky Mining and Processing Plant branch in the Zhitomir region and the Volnogorsk Mining and Metallurgical Plant branch in the Dnepropetrovsk region are assigned to the UMCC.
At the beginning of March 2020, Gmyrin invited Pavel Prisyazhnyuk to work, who was supposed to supervise the work of the OGKhK. In turn, Prisyazhnyuk recommended Artur Somov to Gmyrina and Sennichenko, whom the then head of the State Property Fund appointed as a member of the board of the UMCC.
It was Somov’s resume that was handed over to the acting. Chairman of the Board of the United Mining and Chemical Company Peter Davis to appoint him deputy director. To that same acting The chairman of the board, who was not aware of the schemes and transactions, was told that it was necessary to sell the products of the UMCC to a Czech company. To which Davis replied that this was impossible because the Czech company had not passed the appropriate checks. Without hesitation, the accomplices fired Peter Davis.
After this, Dmitry Sennichenko asks the Cabinet of Ministers to appoint an acting Head of the United Mining and Chemical Company Artur Somov. The government agrees on the candidacy, and Somov during 2020-2021 signs four contracts with the Czech company BELANTO trade sro (which, according to the investigation, was led by accomplices) for the sale of ilmenite concentrate at reduced prices. And as a result of these actions, the state received less than 118,337,425 UAH. Subsequently, the investigation will find out that the Czech company resold the concentrate to Russia and the occupied Crimea. Actually, this concentrate is used in the production of Russian missiles.
On November 24, 2023, NABU and SAP renewed their suspicion against the former chairman of the State Property Fund of Ukraine Dmitry Sennichenko. Anti-corruption authorities claim that, together with the criminal organization that he created, Sennichenko laundered more than 10 billion UAH, which he received illegally. And this is a new episode of his case. It concerns the sale of 137,004.383 tons of ammonia and 1,143,989.573 tons of urea in the amount of 10,603,163,837.19 UAH.
Behind the Scenes
Now only two participants in this story - Nikolay Sinitsa and Yuriy Lipka - have preventive measures in the form of bail and are in Ukraine. The remaining accomplices - Dmitry Sennichenko, Andrey Gmyrin, Pavel Prisyazhnyuk, Nikolai Parsentyev, Alexander Gorbunenko, Artur Somov and Vladimir Kolotilo - left. In April of this year, the investigation put all of them on the wanted list after suspicions were raised. How did they manage to leave Ukrainian territory? Why did they continue to live in Ukraine until 2022? Did the war influence their decision or were there other circumstances?
Last year, the publication “Our Money” published material where it noted that Andrei Gmyrin is a close person surrounded by the head of the office of the President of Ukraine Andrei Yermak. Journalists add that Gmyrin is the son-in-law of the owner of the Altis construction company, Alexander Glimbovsky. And when Altis was not allowed to build the Dnepr airfield, this, as the publication writes, “was carried out by the wards of the deputy head of the office of President Kirill Tymoshenko,” and then a scandal occurred, from which Tymoshenko himself got nuts.
By the way, the president’s office has already significantly stood up for one of its unofficial advisers, Yuri Golik, precisely in a story related to the Dnieper and a one and a half billion dollar tender for an acquaintance of the coach of the ex-governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region, with whom Golik is friends. But the scam being investigated by NABU and SAP in the State Property Fund has literally been multiplied by 10.
Perhaps Bankova should publicly voice her attitude towards her? Although, wait, the case of the “king of smuggling” Vadim Alperin has already been mentioned. And Alperin himself was called the “godfather of smuggling.” But the High Anti-Corruption Court (HACC) closed the case because the investigation period after the suspicion was reported had expired, so the court could not make a different decision. By the way, the Sennichenko case may face the same fate. However, the case of the “Lozovoy amendments” is a separate topic for analyzing how, what and who influences the results of the anticorrosion block.
If you listen carefully to the NABU tapes on the State Property Fund case, then where Gmyrin and Bayrak discuss former Prime Minister Alexei Goncharuk, the name of presidential assistant Sergei Shefir is mentioned. The point is that Andrei Gmyrin allegedly agreed with Shefir about the position of Dmitry Sennichenko in his chair.
What about extradition, you ask? After all, all our actors of our (and not only) plays can be returned to Ukraine? Of course not! This issue has been raised in the anticorruption bloc for a long time, but in the same committee of the Verkhovna Rada all progress is blocked. The state has never actively communicated with international partners regarding the extradition of top corrupt officials. But the war only played in their favor: now European courts cannot violate European conventions and hand over our defendants to a dangerous state that is under fire from Russian missiles. And even the suspicion of 10 billion UAH does not refute this fact.
However, how long can you ignore this? Because the list of those who left/fled (and before the full-scale invasion as well) is considerable. Moreover, it is regularly replenished by those who are released on bail. Perhaps it’s time to think about a pre-trial detention center not in Kyiv, but somewhere in western Ukraine?
A few days before the publication of the material, journalists sent a question to Dmitry Sennichenko’s lawyer for clarification and voicing his position, but at the time of publication they did not receive a response.
