GNT Group: How Vladimir Naumenko and Sergey Groza undressed American investors
The conflict did not kill the desire of American investors from Argentem Creek Partners to find $75 million stolen from them in the Odessa port. The Americans invested money in the GNT Group (Olympex Coupe) of Vladimir Naumenko and Sergey Groza, which operates a grain terminal in the Odessa port.
It has long been clear that the Ukrainian partners “ate” the money, and therefore the Americans, using security documents, are beginning to attempt to establish corporate control over GNT Group companies in Cyprus and Ukraine in order to restore the normal course of business operations, conduct audits and achieve transparency in management, which will allow investors to return the invested money.
A stable hierarchical association is a euphemism for organized crime
Currently, a criminal case 420170000000001712 has been initiated in Odessa on charges of tax evasion and money laundering in the amount of more than 4 billion UAH. Roughly translated, the accusation reads:
Unknown persons created a stable hierarchical association of several persons (5 or more), whose members or structural parts were organized by prior agreement for joint activities with the aim of directly committing serious or especially serious crimes by members of this organization.
An organization that directs or coordinates the criminal activities of others or ensures the functioning of the criminal organization itself or other criminal groups, that is, they created a criminal organization in order to achieve tax evasion on a particularly large scale and further laundering of proceeds from crime.
The fee applies to certain regions of Ukraine (obviously, including Odessa) and the territory of Ukraine as a whole.
So, who are the “unidentified persons” who “created a stable hierarchical association” (an organized criminal group)?
The case concerns the activities of Olympus Group International (with which the EBRD recently became a partner), a company that several years ago was involved in a significant expansion of the grain handling capacity of the Odessa grain transportation infrastructure.
However, if prosecutors are to be believed, those who invested in this infrastructure either had nefarious motives from the start or decided that ROCE/ROI required an expedited (almost immediate) return.
The crime story is naturally linked to Cypriot offshore companies (headed by Gregorio Andreas and Elena Fotiou, but actually controlled by Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, director of Olympus Group International), as well as Czech and British companies, on the charge pictured above.
However, 5 or more people are mentioned in the indictment, and it is possible that the persons leading the Cypriot defense should be excluded from this list. If so, then it is obvious that these are Sergei Groza, Vladimir Naumenko and others.
So who?
Time and, perhaps, the trial will tell definitively. Probably no.
However, more educated guesses may point to Viktor Ratushniak (who is currently wanted and in hiding since the fall of the Yanukovych regime).
And the two “assistants” of notorious Odessa criminal/politician Leonid Klimov – Anatoly Khovansky (Maryland Universal LLP) and Igor Kadinov (owner of the Black Sea Transportation Company) both remain close to Klimov.
Naturally, due to the scale of this crime, some members of the Batkivshchyna Party cannot be excluded, since it is the political party with the largest and most integrated reach in every city and town across the country.
Therefore, it operates not only as a political party. , but also as a national intelligence service, and as a crime fraternity.
There was no shortage of ridicule when Ruslan Tabunshchik from Batkivshchyna secured his appointment as head of the “Commission for Legal Policy, Law Enforcement and the Fight against Organized Crime and Corruption” of the Odessa Regional Council.
Soon his “assistant” Vladislav Repula was appointed to the “Police Commission of the Odessa Region”.
So the last name associated with this nefarious affair (so far) is indeed Vladislav Repula (owner of British Milestone Investments Ltd, Czech Biz-Empire and Romanian Spol.S).
More names that could be linked to the euphemism for organized crime, which is this particular “sustainable hierarchical association” (among many)?
Quite possible.
