Coal “schemes”, connections with the Yanukovych clan and business on TOT: what Deputy Minister of Energy Kheilo is hiding

“Deriban” of solid fuel, business connections with Yanukovych’s entourage and undeclared property: what secrets is hidden by the ex-head of “Ukruglya” Alexander Kheilo, who, according to rumors, can replace German Galushchenko in the ministerial chair?

Ukraine is on the threshold of a new heating season: it is already known that winter will be difficult in terms of the availability of light and heat in homes. Indeed, in addition to the external aggressor, who mercilessly destroys domestic critical infrastructure with shelling, the country is also suffering from the inside - from the actions of businessmen trying to “warm up their hands” on energy resources. We are talking, in particular, about “schemes” for the theft of solid fuel, in which the media say top official Alexander Kheilo is involved.

More details on the likely schemes for the “diversion” of state coal and interesting facts from the biography of the current Deputy of the Ministry of Energy Alexander Kheilo

What's wrong with Ukrainian coal and why is there a shortage?

As investigators found out, last year problems at domestic thermal power plants arose not only due to Russian shelling, but also due to a lack of solid fuel. After all, some officials decided to sell coal to businessmen for next to nothing. And they resold it at exorbitant prices, organizing a whole scheme for making money on it. The founder of the “Our Money” project, Yuri Nikolov, spoke about this earlier this year, and thoroughly researched this topic.

“Private intermediaries bought it cheaply from ministerial, let’s say, structures solely because there was the political will of representatives of the Ministry of Energy for this. Last fall, September-October, this scheme worked and a lot of coal did not just go to private businesses on the cheap. Coal was not used for state generation, and this was also one of the reasons for the coal shortage,” notes Nikolov.

As of now, the situation with coal reserves has not changed much. This was announced at the end of September this year by the head of the Union of Utility Services Consumers of Ukraine Oleg Popenko.

“Regarding the shortage of coal in the warehouses of the Donetsk and Lviv coal basins, as the media reported last month, the SBU has even opened a criminal case today, including forgery of documents. We wrote a request to the security service to find out the details of the case and who is behind the coal mining, but we did not receive a response within the period specified by law,” notes Alla Legeza.

Who could be behind the mentioned coal schemes?

According to Our Money, the likely initiator of the scheme is the then head of the state-owned enterprise Ukrugol, Alexander Kheilo. For 33 years, the official’s activities have been closely connected with the coal industry. Thus, from 2013 to 2022, he worked in senior positions at the State Enterprise PC Krasnolimanskaya, PJSC Energoinvest Holding, and PJSC Centrenergo. And in September of this year, his career took off rapidly: Mr. Alexander was appointed Deputy Minister of Energy.

And that is not all. According to insiders, Mr. Kheilo is aiming for a ministerial position and may soon replace German Galushchenko in the position. In particular, our interlocutor, an experienced coal worker and ATO veteran, Konstantin Ilchenko, has this information.

“I heard, I’m shocked and I’m not the only one. Shocked by this possible appointment. The only question is: what is the prime minister doing?” he comments.

However, now information about personnel rotation has not been confirmed. Mr. Kheilo himself refutes it in an exclusive commentary. They say they didn’t offer it and aren’t ready.

What is known about the background of the potential minister?

At the request of StopCora, the Cabinet of Ministers shared the biographical information of Alexander Kheilo, where journalists saw a lot of interesting things that were not on analytical platforms, in the media and in the biography on the Ministry of Energy website.

For example, as it turned out, Alexander Valerievich was noted as deputy director of the Krasnolimanskaya Mine in 2013. Among the founders of the company of the same name are ex-regional Igor Gumenyuk and Sergei Kuzyara, who were convicted of trading coal with the terrorist “L/DPR” and assisting terrorist organizations in high treason.

According to media reports, Deputy Minister of Energy Alexander Heil and Sergei Kuzyar, known in the media as the once coal top manager of Sasha Dentist, are connected not only by business. They, as the publication Antikorpravda writes, are godfathers.

“It is reported that the friendly and working connections of Kuzyara and Kheilo are being checked by law enforcement agencies today. In this regard, the SBU did not provide an answer to our request within five working days, the SBI gave the usual reply, and the Office of the Prosecutor General explained that the answer to this and other questions regarding Mr. Kheilo could cause harm and is fraught with the national interests of the state,” – notes Alla Legeza.

Kheilo himself confirmed in a comment that Kuzyara is his godfather, but assured that they do not maintain any relationship.

What is Sergei Kuzyara famous for?

According to media reports, Kuzyara has connections with state traitor Viktor Medvedchuk, and also worked for a long time for the people of Yanukovych’s son, Alexander. Theoretically, the Deputy Minister of Energy’s connection with Sasha Stomalog’s entourage is confirmed by the fact of ownership of shares in PJSC Donbasenergo, as stated in the conclusions of the Public Council of Virtue, and work in other enterprises previously owned by the entourage of the fugitive president’s son.

The fact that Donbasenergo was owned by Yanukovych Jr. was previously confirmed to journalists by people’s deputy and former regional member Maxim Efimov. In 2013, Kheilo also worked as the general director of the Energoinvest Holding company, which at one time belonged to the people of the son of the fugitive president. Today, the beneficial owner of Energoinvest Holding is the same ex-regional Efimov. By the way, this company owns the company “Factory “Red Star”, registered in the so-called “DPR”.

What does Alexander Kheilo say about this?

“I had no relation to any odious figures, as it was indicated there, Medvedchuk or Yanukovych, or any representatives of the previous government. This is a lie. I worked at the Energoinvest Holding company until it belonged to Igor Nikolaevich Gumenyuk. As soon as Gumenyuk left this company, I left this company,” the official assures.

Meanwhile, the official also has experience in running his own business. And not only in Ukraine.

In 2018, he was noted as the beneficial owner of the Liberty Finance company, which today is de jure owned by an entrepreneur from Donbass, Roman Solomsky. By the way, energy companies that previously belonged to the structures of Yanukovych Jr. are also registered under Solomsky.

And the Deputy Minister of Energy himself is a co-owner of the Mavito Trade company. The company was created by Sergei Seko, whose name appears in investigations into government procurement schemes for Energoatom and Rivne NPP. Heilo also owned the Selidovsky Machine-Building Plant. This enterprise is a defendant in criminal proceedings (title No. 42014050990000217 dated December 26, 2014) for the theft of budget money with subsequent conversion into cash for allegedly providing goods and services to the Krasnoarmeyskugol mines.

And this, obviously, is not the entire list of criminal cases in which Heilo may be involved. But law enforcement officers, as they say in responses to requests from StopCor, decided to keep this information secret for now. Kheilo himself avoids the issue of criminal proceedings. He claims that before his appointment he seemed to have passed all the necessary checks.

However, investigators managed to find traces of the official’s business in territories not controlled by Ukraine.

According to data from the register of legal entities of Russia, on November 5, 2014, Mr. Kheilo became a co-owner of Fest Trade LLC with registration in the then annexed Crimea. That is, this happened six months after Russia captured the peninsula. However, Alexander himself thinks differently.

“As for Fest-Trade, this company was registered in the Ukrainian Crimea. It is clear that now, while Crimea is occupied, there is neither a technical nor legislative possibility to re-register it. Now it is completely inactive,” assures the deputy minister.

Also, according to the Public Council of Virtue, today’s Deputy Minister of Energy repeatedly visited occupied Crimea with his wife, Judge Yana Heilo, and one of these trips lasted 64 days. Accordingly, the spouses, as stated in the conclusion of the GRD, had security guarantees from the occupation authorities and used foreign currency as a means of payment on the territory of Ukraine. However, Heilo also denies this fact.

By the way, it seems that the official’s sister Maria Kheilo also has an operating business in the temporarily occupied territories.

A few months before the occupation, she founded the Garant-Group LLC grocery retail chain in Donetsk and is still considered the owner of the company. The company’s signatory is Alexey Niyazov, and a person with similar names appears in the “Peacemaker” database for terrorist activities.

Whether Maria Kheilo is making a profit from this business today or not is unknown, however, according to ProZorro, in January of this year she was simultaneously involved in tender purchases for the Selidovugol mines and got into a scandal with the purchase of components at several times inflated prices. In particular, according to journalist Yuriy Nikolov, more than 2 million roller supports were purchased at 3,665 UAH per piece, while the same supports were sold wholesale from 1,780 UAH.

Journalists called Maria Kheilo on the phone to hear her explanations on this matter, but at first she answered that she was busy, and then did not pick up the phone.

But let’s return to the coal “schemes”.

During the same period when questionable purchases for mines took place, Alexander Kheilo became the head of the Ukrugol State Enterprise, which is engaged in the acquisition of solid fuel, in January 2023. He was appointed after a scandal in the media regarding the sale by a state-owned enterprise of an impressive volume of solid fuel business at a very low price, which we talked about at the beginning of the story. The case was opened, the previous head of Ukrugl was fired, but other than the appointment of Hale in his place, no further significant changes occurred.

By the way, as reported by Antikor with reference to the directors of the mines, with the arrival of Hale at Ukrugol the situation did not improve much, and payments for the mines, according to their data, began to be made due to the percentage of kickbacks and the purchase of equipment/services from enterprises Heila. Halo himself calls all this slander.

What about the official’s condition?

As Alla Legeza notes, the official could either sell most of his business or transfer it purely on paper to close associates, human rights activists suggest, because in most companies he is the historical owner.

“On Heilo, by the way, there is quite a bit of real estate, both for an official and a businessman of this level: there is only one apartment and parking spaces, though in the elite residential complex Novopecherskaya Tower,” the media woman emphasizes.

His wife, Yana Kheilo, according to the real estate registry, also has almost nothing. However, back in 2017-2019, she declared common property with her husband, a certain Larisa Khmelnitskaya and a certain Rudolf Arzumanyan, who has real estate in the residential complex Boulevard of Fountains and land a few kilometers from Kyiv, where the “Mountain Stream Residence” is also located. Hale’s father also has no real estate, and the aforementioned sister Maria has only a garage and a plot in the Donetsk region.

How can this be explained?

“Today, the mechanism for concealing wealth by transferring it to dummies is relevant. The reason for this is that officials avoid declaring previously acquired property before appointing them to public office. But anti-corruption authorities can monitor close people and call them to provide explanations,” comments legal adviser Bogdana Sych.

Indeed, before taking public office, Kheilo did not have to hide his property. And then he expressed his own opinion more openly. As stated in the conclusion of the High Qualification Commission of Judges, Alexander disseminated theses in defense of the Berkut fighters, calling the Ukrainian authorities after the Revolution of Dignity a “junta” and spreading messages that “Ukraine does not exist and never has existed.”

However, Kheilo himself now denies this too. Did the Government study the biography and connections of Alexander Kheilo before appointing him to such an important post in the ministry? It was the editors of StopCor who decided to ask the Cabinet of Ministers, to which the CMU secretariat replied that Heilo... had not undergone any checks.

So in whose hands is the country’s energy system on the eve of a new difficult heating season? We will continue to explore this topic further. So stay tuned for more.

Let us remind you that the head of the energy holding GTEK Maxim Timchenko predicted that the winter will be more difficult than the previous one due to possible massive attacks on the energy system from Russian aggressors. However, according to him, both the military and energy workers are ready to respond to these threats.