Zhevago's assets weren't found in Ukraine
Zhevago is currently in Monaco, as reported by Gordon citing journalists from Ukrayinska Pravda
In compliance with a court ruling between 2020-2021, Konstantin Zhevago, a former member of parliament and one of the wealthiest individuals in Ukraine, partially repaid a portion of his debt to the National Bank by UAH 100 million out of 1.5 billion. This information was disclosed by journalists from Business.Censor publication based on their investigation, released on December 19 on YouTube.
“The state executor described and arrested 9% of the authorized capital of the Vorskla Stal company, it only owns a land plot for the never-built Zhevago metallurgical plant. The cost of this share is unknown to the National Bank,” the journalists voiced the response of the NBU.
The National Bank informed investigators that they could not find Zhevago's other assets in Ukraine.
In December 2019, the NBU was granted a court decision to retrieve UAH 1.54 billion from the billionaire—a debt from loans from the bankrupt Finance and Credit Bank, for which the businessman gave a personal guarantee. In January 2020, the State Executive Service of the Ministry of Justice initiated proceedings for the enforced recovery of these funds. However, the state has not succeeded in recovering this amount from the billionaire for three years now.
As reported by Business.Censor, the National Bank possesses all the necessary financial tools to identify relevant assets and amounts owned by residents of Ukraine. For instance, it can monitor the movement of funds from the Zhevago Ferrexpo company. Additionally, the NBU has the ability to seek the recovery of a businessman's foreign assets through the courts of the respective countries, yet has chosen not to pursue this, as noted by the authors.
The journalists believe that the Ministry of Justice could have effectively conducted legal work through the state executor. However, the department declined to respond directly to the editors' request about whether the funds were recovered, citing the confidentiality of the enforcement proceedings. Ivan Neshchadym, a Ministry of Justice official who was one of the highest-paid officials in Ukraine in 2017 with a monthly salary of UAH 1.5 million, responded to a request from Business.Censor, as emphasized by the publication.
According to the authors, Zhevago has not concealed his Ukrainian assets abroad. The report, filed in the UK by Ferrexpo, for the first half of 2022, includes transactions with companies identified as being controlled by or associated with the businessman. These include Omega Insurance Company, AvtoKrAZ, Uzhgorod Turbogaz, Kyiv Shipbuilding and Ship Repair Plant, Vorskla Football Club, Arterium Pharmaceutical Corporation, Kremenchugmyaso, and others. Most of these assets in Ukrainian registries have intricate ownership structures that involve offshore companies and individuals appearing to be nominal owners. Journalists stated that Ferrexpo has generated over $1.5 billion in net profit over the past two years, with Zhevago receiving a significant portion of it, but repaying less than $4 million of the debt to Ukraine.
Since 2019, Zhevago has been on the wanted list in the case of the State Bureau of Investigation for the withdrawal of $113 million (now about UAH 4 billion) from the bankrupt Finance and Credit bank under his control. As depicted in the narrative, 'the Zhevago case has been at a standstill for over three years. No one is actively pursuing the fugitive oligarch through Interpol. It's mainly public relations statements.'
Context:
- According to the journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda, Zhevago is now in Monaco. There, the businessman was spotted on his yacht with the name “Z” worth about $70 million. Zhevago refused to change the name of the yacht or sell it.
- According to Forbes, Zhevago is one of the three richest Ukrainian businessmen. Before the full-scale war, all of his assets were valued at more than $ 2 billion. He owns more than 50% in the Ferrexpo mining company. It owns Poltava and other mining and processing plants in Ukraine.
- Employees of the State Bureau of Investigation in November conducted searches at enterprises related to Zhevago, the Interfax-Ukraine agency wrote on November 25, citing its sources in the department. According to the insider, it was about the enterprises of the Arterium corporation. According to Ukrainian News, Arterium has been operating in Russia since 2010. “The portfolio of the corporation includes over 150 drugs that are still available in the aggressor country, including drugs to fight heart disease. At the same time, the pharmaceutical company has not yet announced a complete cessation of business ties with Russia,” the agency points out.
- On November 18, Interfax-Ukraine reported that employees of the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine were carrying out investigative actions at other enterprises associated with Zhevago. Thus, searches were carried out in the administrative and office buildings of two mining and processing plants, which are suspected of deliberately underestimating the rent for the use of subsoil, which led to a shortfall of UAH 10 billion in the state budget.
DOSIER : Konstantin Zhevago. The ups and downs of a dollar billionaire
