How 2023 helped ex-bribe-taker Nikolai Zlochevsky to fully rehabilitate himself and continue business

With the release of the DubaiUnlock investigation about real estate in Dubai, which is also owned by Ukrainian former or current officials, the name of ex-Minister of Environment Nikolai Zlochevsky again made it into all the news. But in fact, even though it has not been on the pages of the press for a long time, business in Ukraine continues to operate, receive government tenders and develop Ukrainian subsoil.

In 2020, the minister during the time of the fugitive president, Nikolai Zlochevsky, was caught taking a bribe, a record for Ukraine, in the amount of $6 million. This money was assigned to the then head of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office, Nazar Kholodnitsky, for closing the embezzlement case that was being investigated against the ex-minister. In 2023, Zlochevsky reached an agreement with the investigation and this amount was allocated to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the former official paid another 500 million hryvnia for the “Army of Drones” and 150 million hryvnia to help the Armed Forces.

In general, criminal cases against Nikolai Zlochevsky have been opened and closed under strange circumstances since 2014. At first he was suspected of embezzlement due to the sale of the Kherson oil transshipment to the then-sanctioned young oligarch Sergei Kurchenko. Subsequently, he was accused of transferring special permits for the extraction of mineral resources to his own companies from the Burisma group, which were then strangely reclassified as tax evasion. However, as of today, Nikolai Zlochevsky seems to be completely clean before the law.

In 2019, Zlochevsky prudently transferred his main assets to his daughters Anna and Karina. Now they are the ones who manage the Burisma group and buy up extremely attractive real estate, including in the center of Kyiv.

Journalists analyzed the work of the Zlochevsky family companies for 2023 and came to the conclusion that neither criminal cases nor wanted notices prevented one of the most odious ministers of the Yanukovych era from making good money on state tenders and subsoil development.

In March 2023, changes to the Subsoil Code of Ukraine came into force, which, among other things, allowed the alienation of special permits for subsoil use. Thus, free circulation of rights to use plots has now been introduced. That is, one company receives a license at an auction, but it can transfer the right to develop it to another with the consent of the State Geonadr. And judging by the documents, the Zlochevsky family began to actively use this.

The specialized publication Nadra.info calculated that in August-October 2023 alone, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil approved changes to up to ten special permits for the use of subsoil under alienation agreements. By a strange coincidence, half of them are related to the companies of the Zlochevsky family.

Thus, Kubgaz-Borova LLC, the ultimate beneficiaries of which are Anna and Karina Zlochevsky, transferred the right to geological exploration with the development and production of gas, oil and condensate from the West Olgovskaya area in the Kharkov region to their other company - Systemoilengineering LLC.

The latter company also acquired the right to produce natural gas, condensate, oil, gas dissolved in oil, shale strata, central basin type gas and associated useful components of the Rzhavetskoye field in the Kharkov region from the Aldea Ukraine company. This company is also run by the Zlochevsky sisters, and as of January 2024 it ceased operations. That is, in these two cases there was a redistribution between companies from the same group.

Sistema Linzhenering LLC can be called one of the key companies of the Zlochevsky family. In particular, in February 2023, it was she who acquired the building of the former office of the bankrupt Arkada bank on Olginskaya Street in the government quarter of Kyiv. This agreement cost Zlochevsky 351 million hryvnia, with a starting price of 971 million hryvnia.

First of all, the Rodolite Foundation, also owned by the Zlochevskys, received permission to purchase the building from the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. The same foundation is the founder of Ukemochi LLC, through which Zlochevsky’s daughters purchased the building of the Arsenal plant in 2023, where the Kyiv Food market is located.

Taking into account the data on the redistribution of subsoil use rights, which took place in August-October 2023, three more companies, according to the orders of the State Geonadr, assigned their right to the development and subsequent production of gas and oil in favor of the Zlochevskys. We are talking about sites in Poltava, Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions. The following companies “refused” them: Geo Invest Group LLC, Gas Producing Group LLC and Oil and Gas Company LLC. These companies are formally not related to the Zlochevskys. But until June 2023, their founder was Cypriot Andreas Sophocleous.

A person with the same name in 2019-2020 was the director of Diloretio holdings LTD, the main offshore company of the Zlochevskys, whose founders include Karina Zlochevskaya and the former President of Poland Alexander Kwasniewski.

The above companies transferred their rights to develop the sites to Gazoilinvest LLC and O-Gaz LLC. The direct founders of these companies are the Zlochevsky sisters.

That is, in just a few months of last year, the ex-minister’s family carried out at least five manipulations with the transfer of rights to mineral extraction.

The Zlochevsky family business related to energy extended to Karina Zlochevskaya’s husband. At least in the media, businessman Andrei Kuchkov is called nothing less than the son-in-law of the former Minister of Energy.

He is the founder of the Ukrgas resource company, for which 2021-2023 were “golden” years in terms of won government tenders. If we talk about last year, then, for example, in January his company became the winner of a lot for the supply of electricity for the Boryspil airport in the amount of 21 million hryvnia. And already in February, the company of Zlochevsky’s son-in-law won a tender to supply natural gas worth 50.5 million hryvnia to Boryspil, which has been idle since the beginning of the war.

In December 2022, Ukrgas resource won electricity supplies for the Boryspil airport in the amount of 98 million hryvnia.

One of the largest tenders won for Ukrgas resource over the past year was the supply of electricity to the Odessa branch of the State Enterprise “Association of Ukrainian Seaports”. The lot amount is almost 110 million hryvnia. And here it should be recalled that Zlochevsky has long-standing interests in Odessa. In particular, it was his company Infox that in 2003 leased the Odessa Vodokanal for 50 years and is now the monopoly supplier of water for Odessa and the region until 2052.

In March 2023, the company of Zlochevsky’s son-in-law won a tender for the supply of electricity to the Patrol Police Department in the amount of 11 million hryvnia.

For slightly less than the amount, Ukr Gas Resource LLC was also supposed to supply electricity and gas, for example, to the Ministry of Health, the Koncha-Zaspa Holiday Home of the State Administration of Affairs, Odessa Customs and other government agencies. All these tenders took place in 2023, when Zlochevsky actually paid off criminal liability.

If we analyze the activity of companies in the orbit of Nikolai Zlochevsky, who for about 10 years was considered one of the largest bribe takers in the country, it looks like he has completely rehabilitated himself and is calmly doing business in Ukraine. Even if he had to transfer assets to his daughters, there is clearly no tendency towards impoverishment of the family.