“Naftogaz” in a whirlpool: Chernysheva, mysterious advice and unclear “schemes”

Bakai, Bakulin, Boyko, Ivchenko, Kobolev - a stormy blooming garden of corruption, which is noteworthy for NJSC Naftagaz of Ukraine. All of these figures who led the company found themselves under investigation on charges of embezzlement or brought to criminal charges. Since October 2022, Alexey Chernyshev, the former Minister of Community Development, has headed Naftogaz, and it seems that the curse of corruption may reach him.

Before joining the Ministry of Communities, Chernyshev managed to work as the head of the Kyiv City State Administration, and before that he gained most of his work experience in the private sector. He was mainly involved in development and investments. He has virtually a crystal biography and was almost never criticized for his transition to the Cabinet of Ministers.

But as you know, politics and access to public money greatly changes people. Obviously, the temptation did not escape Alexei Chernyshev.

In January 2023, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine detained Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories Vasily Lozinsky for a bribe. According to investigators, he took $400,000 to resolve the issue of purchasing generators.

Former freelance NABU agent Yevgeny Shevchenko, in the comments under the message about Lozinsky’s detention, wrote that “in this case it was a kickback for the purchase of generators to the regions.”

Already in the summer, Lozinsky was released under a barrier of 2.5 million hryvnia. He was ordered not to leave Lviv without permission, not to communicate with a certain circle of people, to hand over his passport and to wear an electronic bracelet. These responsibilities expire on December 17, 2023.

Formally, Vasily Lozinsky was detained during the period when Alexey Chernyshev had already transferred to work from the Ministry to Naftogaz. However, of course, the bribe-taking deputy also worked under him.

Interestingly, Chernyshev took an employee of the Ministry of Community Development, Maxim Babenko, with him to Naftogaz. He took the position of director of the department of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine for working with problem debts. This same Babenko is also a defendant in the case of Chernyshev’s former deputy in the Ministry, Vasily Lozinsky.

According to the publication “Word and Deed,” Babenko “took care of the selection of shell companies that were involved in the scheme of stealing budget funds from the reserve fund.” “So, in particular, when considering a request to apply a preventive measure to the ex-Deputy Minister of Community Development Lozinsky, the prosecutor in this case, Alexander Omelchenko, emphasized: “... we see from the NCDS (covert investigative investigative actions - ed.) that Babenko selected documents, including collecting characterization materials for companies, business entities, and enterprises with which transactions will be concluded in the future,” the publication writes.

Alexey Chernyshev himself is a witness in the case of bribes at generators. That is why Lozinsky is prohibited from communicating with both the head of Naftogaz and Babenko, who moved to NAC along with the ex-minister.

If you think that the miracles are over here, then in fact this is just the beginning. Around February of this year, just at the time of Lozinsky’s arrest, chaotic information began to appear in the press and Telegram channels about another character who is now working with Alexei Chernyshev. We are talking about a certain Alexander Sergeev. It is known about him that from 2010 to 2014 he worked at Ukrtransgaz, and then in the business structures of the henchman of the occupiers and former OPZZhshnik Yuriy Boyko. Now Sergei is employed as an adviser to the head of Naftogaz, which Chernyshev confirmed in an interview.

There is very little accurate information about Sergeev. For example, from the system for searching for plagiarism in scientific works, it was possible to find out that Sergeev Alexander Petrovich in 2014 actually worked as the director of the department of capital construction, repairs and logistics of PJSC Ukrtransgaz and wrote a dissertation entitled “Theoretical and methodological ensuring the efficiency of using potential gas transportation enterprises."

According to Alexey Chernyshev, as his advisor, Sergeev “is focused on production issues and issues related to increasing gas production.” And then Chernyshev made a reservation that the adviser can only advise the chairman of the board and that “he does not have any practical roles or powers at the enterprises.” This is a lie, and it was refuted by Chernyshev himself in the paragraph below in the same interview.

A few months after Chernyshev arrived at Naftogaz, a letter signed by the chief executive officer of NAC Mauritius Kalugin was made public. In it, he asked the heads of subordinate companies, by January 9, 2023, to provide information on all contracts under which payments should be made in January and February. The reason was given as an instruction from the Advisor to the Chairman of the Board, that is, Alexander Sergeev.

How can Sergeev, on the one hand, advise only Chernyshev and is not involved in production processes, and on the other hand, give instructions to block all transactions at the same time? Something doesn't add up.

Subsequently, a message appeared in the fairly popular Russian-language telegram channel “Ukraine Now” that the Boyko-Bakulin schemes were returning to Naftogaz with a stop to all payments. “The scheme is very simple, payments are issued only for a kickback in the amount of 10% to 40%. The corresponding signals were received by all counterparties of NAC and its subsidiaries, the employee of NAC Sergeev responsible for “resolving the issue”, registered as Chernyshov’s assistant,” wrote the Telegram channel, adding a copy of the letter without a signature, which describes that Sergeev carried out similar schemes while still working at Ukrtransgaz.

Soon the publication “KP in Ukraine” wrote that Sergeev’s daughter was disgraced by the fact that she worked as Deputy Minister of Social Policy for only six weeks. Indeed, in June last year Anna Sergeeva was appointed to the Ministry of Social Affairs. She was presented as a blogger-influencer who is “actively engaged in social activities in the following areas: socialization of children with physical and mental disabilities; support for lonely old people and orphans.” Already in July, Anna Sergeeva was fired, but during this short period she managed to earn almost 100,000 UAH from the civil service.

It was not possible to find evidence that Anna Sergeeva is the daughter of an adviser to the head of Naftogaz. Her Instagram page is actively filled with projects for charity, assistance to the military, and even grants for training. The rector of KNU named after her congratulates her on her birthday. Shevchenko Viktor Bugrov, and the signature in the profile header indicates that she is not at all ashamed of the fact that she held the position of Deputy Minister of Social Policy for only six weeks. So that there is a “tick”, as they say.

Since the beginning of the year, rumors about Alexander Sergeev advising the head of NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine have gradually begun to fade away. Until they were picked up again by the publication Censor.net. In a very complex material about Naftogaz’s income, changes in the company’s personnel policy under Chernyshev and some Russian passports, one can unexpectedly find mention of an incomprehensible adviser. “They say on the market that in Chernyshev’s reception there is a man named Alexander Sergeev, he is called Chernyshev’s assistant and you can agree with him on almost any issue. For example, you can agree to pay the UGO (Ukrgazvydobuvannya - ed.) the amount of debt to private creditors for 30-50% of the amount that needs to be returned in cash for resolving the issue,” says the publication’s interlocutor.

In what market and who is speaking is not at all clear. But in this context it is not very important, because the point is not so much about Sergei as about Chernyshev. It turns out that he left the Ministry of Community Development at the height of the war, a few months before his deputy got burned for a large bribe. And at the same time, Chernyshev also hired one of the defendants in the case for a new job. At the same job in the super-giant Naftogaz of Ukraine, after the arrival of a new team, active rumors appear about schemes and a strange adviser who supposedly only advises, but in fact “resolves the issue.”

With such a twisted plot, no matter how it happened that Alexey Chernyshev ended up on the list of corrupt officials and embezzlers, which was mentioned in the first sentence of this material. And judging by the development of events, everything is heading towards this.