CLANS of UKRAINE
In our paper, we have identified quasi-stable networks of the most influential Ukrainian oligarch groups with U.S., British and transnational actors. Following the secession from the Soviet Union, patterns of the Ukrainian democratic system have been characterized by the influential power of oligarchs in political processes, media, extracting and manufacturing industries, and finance. This fact translates into the long-lasting cooperation between Western elites and Ukraine’s nouveau riche intending to make their interests part of such interaction.
Throughout the modern history of Ukraine, carrying the most weight have been the clans of Ukrainian oligarchs, such as Rinat Akhmetov, Victor Pinchuk, Dmytro Firtash and PrivatBank represented by Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholiubov, each acting for rival City bankers or originally U.S. transnational elite groups. With external factors and litigations taking a toll, triggered by U.S. agents of influence , there are tectonic shifts in power relations and the division of influence between Ukrainian clans which, in the inertial scenario, threaten to destroy Ukrainian national elites.
Victor Pinchuk is at the core of Ukraine’s ruling American center-left interest group associated with the Clintons, Pritzkers, Dragon Capital, George Soros’ philanthropic network, arms lobby and The BlackRock Foundation. Funded by JP Morgan Bank, BlackRock Financial Market Advisory (BlackRock FMA) became the country’s main pledge-holders through the mediation of The Ukraine Development Fund (UDF) established by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. In the event of default, creditors will receive key industrial assets and lands. The nationalization of oligarch-owned assets is along the lines of collateral expansion amid exponential growth in the national debt. Penny Pritzker will build a top-down colonial operation by reforming the Ukrainian government, including “deoligarchization.”
Locked in confrontation with Pinchuk, the PrivatBank clan run by Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholiubov is integrated into the power system of the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox Jewish Hasidic movement and systemically linked to GOPers and the Lauders. Privat was behind a probe into the corruption scandal around Burisma Holdings, responsible for discrediting the Bidens and the Atlantic Council. As outspoken opponents to Soros, oligarchs faced numerous lawsuits. Additionally the majority of their assets were seized. They have pushed Zelenskyy since the start of his campaign but lost political control along with their financial influence.
The structure of Dmytro Firtash’s connections reveals the influence of non-formalized elite groups of the British aristocracy tightly linked to the City and their subordinate British intelligence services who are very close to the Conservative Party. The British sought to gain shadow political influence in the resource-based and energy sectors. Although hailed from professional intel officers, the role of the Asquith family is not fully in line with that of agents of British influence. They, however, are strategic intermediaries for British elite groups throughout the country. With British influence within the country at its peak, Dmytro Firtash and Rinat Akhmetov teamed up to place Viktor Yanukovych in power. The growing British influence in Ukraine went downhill along with the Maidan in 2014. Austrian right-wing political groups associated with Raiffeisen are now covering up for Firtash whose assets have largely been nationalized in his U.S. extradition case. The lawsuits were filed in the State of Illinois, a zone influenced by the Chicago-based Pritzker family and home to Boeing eyeing the oligarch’s titanium deposits.
Rinat Akhmetov’s position in elite connections does not appear to be well defined. With the outbreak of war with Russia and as a result losing most of his assets, the oligarch made a U-turn to support the U.S. left-wing radicals. Previously close to the City as well as to Scottish and Dutch elites, he now seeks greater public rapprochement with those U.S. transnational democrats behind Pinchuk who showed aggressive interest in his assets, DTEK and Metinvest. The oligarch’s assets are run from the Netherlands, a zone influenced by the Danish aristocracy, the Wallenbergs (among the major BlackRock shareholders) and Sachses. ING Bank, Akhmetov’s long-standing partner and creditor, is part of the banking cartel InterAlpha Group established by Jacob Rothschild, a member of the renowned family’s British branch. It appears that a contact within the political institutions of BlackRock’s influence led to a consensus, as all attempts to have Akhmetov’s assets nationalized were put on hold.
The above facts indicate, albeit with a non-negligible assumption given the transnational nature of globalist foundations, that we are seeing a struggle in Ukraine between the U.S. neoconservative and British influence (which is more powerful in Brussels) with the consolidated United States clearly gaining the upper hand. Oligarchs who refuse or fail to navigate as dictated by the U.S. neoconservative groups are eliminated by means of unsavory information and lawsuits, lose capitals and have restrictions of rights based on legal grounds. If events continue unfolding, the influence of Ukrainian oligarchs as self-sufficient participants in the political process will soon be over. Success in the fight for influence will be directly proportional to the extent of financial support that Ukraine maintains and the influential strength of each minion group. At this time, the project of U.S. influence in the region is getting stronger.
Born on 21 September 1966, Donetsk, Ukrainian SSR.
Top-1 Forbes Ukraine with a capital of $ 5.7 billion.1
Known for his long-standing ties to criminal groups. Despite considerable asset losses since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, his position as the country’s top oligarch remains unchanged.
Family:
His spouse, Liliya Akhmetova (nee Smyrnova; born in 1965), was a chairperson of the auditing commission at JSC SCM until reorganization of Akhmetov’s assets in 2017. In the meantime, Nyakiya Akhmetova (most Likely, his mother) lost her position as chairperson of the supervisory board at her son’s company.
His son, Damir Akhmetov (born in 1988), graduated from Bayes Business School (formerly known as Sir John Cass Business School), an elite London institution. In 2015, he married Diana Kostic, daughter of the Serbian “sugar king” Miodrag Kostic, CEO of agricultural holding company MK Group. They studied together at Le Rosey boarding school in Switzerland.
Son Almir Akhmetov (born in 1997)
Assets:
Rinat Akhmetov is still Ukraine’s richest businessman. His fortune is estimated at $6.9 billion. He runs his business empire from the Netherlands.
These assets are amassed in System Capital Management (SCM) holding company, the most important of them being Metinvest (Ukraine’s largest iron ore and steel producer) and DTEK (dominating the national heat power industry and deemed an important renewable energy producer). SCM companies employ about 300,000 people.
SCM’s main investment company is Cyprus-based SCM Holdings Limited. It has consolidated investments in the steel and mining industries (Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands)); energy (DTEK B.V. (Netherlands)), minerals, banking, and finance (FUIB); mass media; telecommunications (Ukrtelecom); retail (TSUM Kyiv), agriculture (HarvEast), transportation and logistics (Lemtrans and Portinvest).
Despite huge losses due to the war in Ukraine, DTEK holds a monopoly on the Ukrainian heat power industry. Among subsidiaries also located in the Netherlands are: DTEK ENERGY B.V. (coal extraction and processing, heat generation, mining equipment production), DTEK RENEWABLES B.V. (wind and solar power generation), DTEK OIL&GAS HOLDING B.V. (gas production), DTEK GRIDS B.V. (electric power distribution and power grid operation), D.TRADING B.V. (coal, electricity, gas and petroleum products sales), D.SOLUTIONS B.V. (power supply, photovoltaic power systems, power services and energy audit).
In the 2000s and 2010s, Akhmetov employed U.S. national Paul Manafort as his chief political scientist and campaign aide, whose fees totaled $12.7 million for 5 years from 2007 to 2021, according to secret ledgers of the Party of Regions. These figures were later revealed by Ukrainian politician and journalist Serhiy Leshchenko. In 2016, Manafort closed down his office in Ukraine and joined Trump’s election campaign.
Manafort was convicted by a U.S. court for being an unregistered agent of the Ukrainian government and President Viktor Yanukovych, his Party of Regions and later Opposition Bloc. A report drafted by Paul Manafort and Trump’s former aide Rick Gates along with Skadden Arps lobbying firm was intended to justify the imprisonment of Tymoshenko. This led to the retroactive registration of Skadden with FARA, and compensation of $4.6 million for the refusal to register with the Department of Justice as well as the indictment of former Obama White House counselor Greg Craig.4
There is currently a connection between Akhmetov and high-ranking U.S. neoconservatives. GOP lobbyist Douglas Goodyear of DCI Group (IO, 05.05.21) signed a subcontractor agreement with SCM Consulting, while the latter, SCM Consulting, signed with Glassman.5
The papers that DCI Group submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice show large-scale action by Glassman Enterprises to disseminate information about Russia looting Ukrainian grain, steel, and minerals.
James Kenneth Glassman served as Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs in 2008-2009. In the U.S. political sphere, he is particularly close to the Bush family, as he is the founder of their family think tank in Washington. The George W. Bush Institute is focused on developing solutions in the best interests of the Democratic Party and provided support for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.6
Glassman gained extensive influence in the U.S. media by traveling a long way from journalist and publisher to economic policy maker. He is considered a father of “journalistic lobbying” characterized by drops of promoted stories in the information space – “independent” op-eds confirming the necessary position in favor of lobbyists. As Chairperson of Glassman Enterprises, LLC, a Washington-based PR firm, he is particularly active in health and energy lobbying.
In May 2022, SCM Consulting contracted Qorvis, a Washington-based PR firm, to promote Akhmetov’s philanthropy.
According to the agreement, “Qorvis will specifically engage in earned media efforts, including but not limited to pitching to media, client-identified spokespeople, press releases, photos and video provided by client.” The important nature of such a collaboration is further evidenced by the fact that the company’s CEO and Executive VP, Matt Jay Lauer, leads Qorvis’ five-person team for SCM7:
The FARA report highlights the maintenance of public relations and public policy strategy regarding SCM-related matters, preparation of press releases, newsletters, and analytical materials. Qorvis’ mission through Nicola Hewitt was to host interviews and engage media to participate in SCM events and projects in an attempt to influence American audiences and officials, and to that end, the firm has connections with major media outlets in the U.S. and Europe, such as Washington Post, Washington Life, Politico, and others.
For SCM, Qorvis arranged an interview with Yuriy Ryzhenkov about Mariupol events for the Akhmetov Foundation and Museum (ABC News/GMA, USA Today, CNN). In addition, the firm set up interviews with USA Today, LA Times (Laura King), and Business Insider (Sam Tabahriti) about Ukraine’s recovery and Rinat Akhmetov.
They also worked with representatives of political think tanks. Qorvis engaged Hudson Institute (Ann Marie Hauser) and Brookings Institution who were offered to meet the DTEK and Metinvest top management for “third-party outreach.”
Qorvis Communications acting on behalf of Akhmetov brokered cooperation with American strategic think tanks, such as CEIP, CSIS, Atlantic Council, Los Angeles World Affairs Council and Town Hall, World Affairs Council of Greater Houston, World Affairs Council of Atlanta, Council on Foreign Relations, Foreign Policy Research Institute, Aspen Institute, Baker Institute, and RAND Corporation in connection with a request for an event.
Akhmetov took the initiative in communicating with SigmaBleyzer/Daar through Qorvis to schedule a personal meeting with leadership, company interaction, acquaintance and exchange of information about possible cooperation. This looks pretty spectacular, as SigmaBleyzer is a long-standing member of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council along with Akhmetov’s SCM and belong to the same financial industry group.
The Bleyzer family are Ukrainian-American immigrants from Kharkiv Oblast (which makes them close to the Akhmetov clan). DAAR, a U.S.-registered globalist non-profit charity focused on Ukraine, has been working for over twenty years.11 Ustenko, Head of the Bleyzer Foundation, took part in various projects of the World Bank, OECD, governments of CIS member countries and leading universities, including Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
In 2019, the Bleyzers faced a wave of lawsuits launched by UkrGasVydobuvannya to seize their assets. Michael Bleyzer poses as a Ukrainian corruption fighter and advocates functional capitalism which is “a reliable defense against Russia.” He has been linked to pro-Trump Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, who appointed Bleyzer to serve on the committee overseeing Texas Emerging Technology Fund. Bleyzer was first on the list of candidates to be offered a seat on the management board of Naftogaz of Ukraine. UGV, a Naftogaz company, was named plaintiff in the lawsuit against Ukrainian Energy LLC (Texas, USA) incorporated to tap into the Ukrainian oil and gas sector.
In 2018, Aspect Holdings, LLC and Sigma Bleyzer Investment Group, LLC established the International Fund for Ukrainian Energy (IFUEL) to invest in Ukraine’s energy sector (the first fund approved over $100 million).
Also, Akhmetov communicated with Worldbridge Group and the Royal Government of Cambodia regarding invitations to the DTEK event at WEF.
Qorvis is owned by Publicis Groupe, a company of French origin and transnational in terms of geographical presence. Top management of Publicis Groupe reveals the influence of those within the asset management circles of Edmond de Rothschild12 such as Michel Cicurel and Gerard Worms, scions of SAS owned by the Wallenberg family. The company is open for cooperation with any American client regardless of political affiliation. In turn, Publicis Groupe is owned by Leo Burnett and London-headquartered Saatachi&Saatachi associated with British conservatives and linked to attacks on laborists.13
Qorvis has an extensive record of using questionable methods to deal with tainted reputation. Qorvis is perfect for reshaping the oligarch’s image in the eyes of Western audiences in order to avoid possible blows to reputation of forces willingly cooperating and providing support. The company is known for solving fairly complex opinion management problems, particularly formed by the propaganda of dictatorships ranging from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Qorvis has been repeatedly accused of manipulating Wikipedia data, as the team of sockpuppets sought to whitewash the pages of its clients by taking down embarrassing information.
Qorvis has an extensive record of using questionable methods to deal with tainted reputation. Qorvis is perfect for reshaping the oligarch’s image in the eyes of Western audiences in order to avoid possible blows to reputation of forces willingly cooperating and providing support. The company is known for solving fairly complex opinion management problems, particularly formed by the propaganda of dictatorships ranging from Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Qorvis has been repeatedly accused of manipulating Wikipedia data, as the team of sockpuppets sought to whitewash the pages of its clients by taking down embarrassing information.14
Mendoza-Wilson is a key figure for Akhmetov’s long-standing, strong lobbying ties. He is a British national of Irish descent, Chairperson of the United Nations Global Compact in Ukraine, Director of International and Investor Relations at System Capital Management. He oversees philanthropic initiatives of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation; spoke about the expansion of aid to Donetsk Oblast as an element of influence on the region. He is in charge of organizing contacts with foreign institutions on behalf of Rinat Akhmetov.
He served as Regional Director at MMD, an Eastern European public affairs and communications consultancy previously deeply integrated into the extraction industry, including the Russian oil and gas sector, with offices in New York, Washington and Brussels, where he worked until 2005.
He also worked as Regional Director at Weber Shandwick PR, covering the Middle East and North Africa, on government-related projects. Based in Dubai, the company was included in public diplomacy initiatives of the U.S. Department of State.
Mendoza-Wilson is linked to key dialog venues for lobbying European and U.S. arms suppliers, energy companies, agriculture, and the international non-profit sector in Ukraine. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the EU-Ukraine Business Council with close ties to James Wilson, MMD Founder, from the time of his work at the consultancy. He also serves as Director of the British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and is a counselor to the President of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.15
EU-Ukraine Business Council. Akhmetov-owned SCM is a member of a group representing interests of the international financial sector and companies providing services in offshore jurisdictions in the Ukrainian market. The group includes both representatives of the World Bank, such as European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), and sponsors of the International Finance Corporation, Visa and Mastercard, and boutique companies acting as mediators in shady deals and holding the oligarchs’ money.
The following indicates Akhmetov’s links to the British group of influence similar to the one that supervised and patronized Firtash. In addition to Jock Mendoza-Wilson, the Board of Directors of the British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce includes Petr Baron, a British banker of Russian descent, a business angel and entrepreneur, who served as Director of VAB Bank previously owned by Oleh Bakhmatiuk. There was a high-profile embezzlement scandal, as Oleksandr Pisaruk, Chairperson of the Management Board of Raiffeisen Bank Aval, linked to Dmytro Firtash was suspected of misappropriation of UAH 1.2 billion in the case of VAB Bank.16
PHOTO FROM MENDOZA-WILSON’S FACEBOOK ACCOUNT, FROM LEFT TO RIGHT: CORY EGO, RICHARD BRADY, ANTHONY NICHOL, JOCK FARQUHAR MENDOZA-WILSON, RAYMOND DAVID MC ROBBIE, IGOR TKACZENKO
Among Mendoza-Wilson’s close associates are representatives of the European lobbying establishment with an accentuated British influence:
For example, Mendoza-Wilson’s close friend, Richard Brady (born in 1951), has strong ties with the City of London. He is reportedly expanding the circle of influence of the latter by means of Legal English classes, recruiting potential legal lobbyists for the City’s financial groups all over the world. Richard Brady’s biography had an abrupt turnabout when he decided to establish the British Legal Centre in order to teach Legal English and Law to foreign lawyers. This came following fast-tracked professional conversion from a City banker (formerly a prosecutor) into an English teacher. Initially, Richard’s educational activities were travel-related and centered in Eastern Europe, before expanding into MENA countries, similarly a high-priority region of influence for British financial circles. The organization also has offices in Brazil, Pakistan, UAE, Dublin, and Barbados.17
Mendoza-Wilson vigorously advocates Akhmetov’s interests by means of the EU-Ukraine Business Council in partnership with James Wilson. Wilson is a British communications expert with more than 25 years of experience in international business in Europe and Asia and in governmental relations. He is part of the Brussels-based pool of politicians, journalists and lobbyists and offers governments and businesses expert PR and strategic communications services.18 Over the past year, he has been active in fostering dialog around the extension of the grain deal and energy lobbying.
Wilson helped Gary Cartwright and Colin Stevens in promoted stories using resources of EU Reporter, EU Political Report, and EU Today. One of Cartwright’s partners was the Brussels Energy Club established by his personal friend Marat Teterev in which defended the leadership representing the corporate fossil fuel lobby.
Between 2015 and 2016, his political consultancy, MacMillan Public Affairs, along with a separate trading firm (which he founded), signed two contracts for an overall amount of €143,000 with Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear energy company Energoatom. These contracts were made to host public events and provide “strategic policy consultations,” according to the energy agency. He published one of the articles under a separate title as Director of the EU-Ukraine Business Council, a Ukrainian industry lobby group that was awarded one of Energoatom’s contracts.
Akhmetov-owned DTEK colluded with Energoatom (SE NNEGC Energoatom). Companies “sold air” in Ukraine’s spot electricity market. Energoatom intentionally set an inflated price for electricity in the day-ahead market. As a result, a part of its resources was not sold and went to the balancing market where such electricity was purchased by DTEK, an energy company owned by Rinat Akhmetov, at one kopiyka per megawatt hour. This was offered to consumers at around UAH 3,000 per megawatt hour. Consequently, Energoatom lost about a billion hryvnias which DTEK earned. Among the side effects of this scheme were high electricity prices even in a situation of surpluses.19
Wilson has been at the helm of FIPRA International since 2017 with a focus on country operations in Ukraine and was appointed partner of the agency along with Marcus Stober (representing Sweden’s interests and affiliated with the German Marshall Fund of the United States) and Ivan Poltavets directly linked to Akhmetov.20
He is Director and Founder of the EU-Ukraine Business Council established in 2006, in Belgium, to facilitate trade and investment between the EU and Ukraine. He has been General Director of Kyiv Brussels Network since 2015. International Foundation for Better Governance, a non-profit organization established by Wilson, promotes aid for Ukraine in cooperation with the Akhmetov Foundation.21
As a founder of EU Political Report, he is known for his practice of blurring the lines between journalism and paid advocacy. Not long ago, he hosted grain deal lobbying events with a focus on the fertilizer problem in an attempt to alert EU authorities (European Commission, European Parliament), governments of EU member states, global media, and international organizations to the problems of production and export of Ukrainian agricultural products amid Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in order to improve the current status quo of the Ukrainian agricultural industry.
FIPRA (Finsbury International Policy & Regulatory Advisers) is an extensive European network of public relations advisers specializing in policy and regulatory consulting and advice. According to FIPRA, they are the only consulting firm with Brussels public relations advisers in all EU and CIS member countries and China.
Founded by James Wilson, the Ukrainian FIPRA office is represented by Sweden- incorporated Stober, Poltavets & Associates AB (SP&A). According to official data, the office is headed by Karl Johan Marcus Stober and a former Ukrainian employee of Akhmetov’s think tank Ivan Poltavets.22 As part of their activities in partnership with FIPRA, he managed numerous public relations projects serving multinational corporations. He monitored, analyzed and advised on economic policy at the Bureau for Economic and Social Technologies established by System Capital Management.23 In 2023, Poltavets was appointed Senior Strategy Manager of Regulatory Affairs at Canada-based TELUS Communications.24
Akhmetov has been creating his own think tank, though, little is known to the general public regarding its activities. Judging by the data available, however, it becomes clear that the SCM Bureau for Economic and Social Technologies (BEST) was established to build stable connections in Brussels for the promotion of European integration and liberalization of trade with Ukraine25. Former BEST employees are currently representatives of the largest lobbying networks. These networks have a tangible influence on the course of trade cooperation26 and the development of the EU-Ukraine comprehensive support policy27. For example, SP&A partner Ihor Poltavtsev is a former BEST adviser. Svitlana Taran (a former BEST researcher) and Amanda Paul (Senior Eurasia Adviser for Stober, Poltavets & Associates, Turkey and Ukraine Expert) are expert team members at the European Policy Center (EPC) providing information research for decision-making in the European Parliament. EPC is financed by the King Baudoin Foundation which, in turn, is under the financial patronage of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.
According to Marcus Stober28, Managing Partner at SP&A facilitating Sweden-Switzerland- Ukraine cooperation, Ukrainian companies should be more active in Brussels for efficient lobbying. Stober is also the head of Switzerland-based division of Alpine Global Counsel and Non-Executive Director of Belgium’s OpenForum Europe. Stober was previously a Brussels lobbyist and for more than a decade has managed international outreach programs. His areas of expertise include open source and cybersecurity, digital supply chains and public policy in international digital governance.
SP&A Senior Eurasia Adviser Amanda Paul also works as a Senior Policy Analyst in the “Europe in the World Program” at the European Policy Center (EPC).29 EPC is one of the largest think tanks and lobbying organizations in Europe. It is operated by high-ranking representatives of EU institutions, whose members are top managers of multinational corporations and banking elites who finance EPC through the King Baudouin Foundation30. Amanda Paul has well-established expertise on matters related to Turkey, Ukraine, security and conflict resolution in the Black Sea region, Russian foreign policy in former Soviet regions, and EU enlargement. At the EPC, Amanda leads the Ukraine’s European Future and Global Turkiye projects, Security and Conflict Resolution in the South Caucasus. She also serves as Senior Associate Research Fellow at the International Center for Policy Studies in Kyiv.
Connections of the parent company in FIPRA’s Belgium location indicate a dominant British influence and are of some interest from the viewpoint of financial flows of the lobbying conglomerate. The Fipra International parent company has several related entities:
Trident Trust is an offshore registrar offering asset management services around the world. According to Panama Papers, the trust was a long-standing intermediary for Akhmetov.
The record shows Akhmetov as a “well-known client” for international registrars and often commissions their services, for example, taking out a loan from an international bank to buy a luxurious jet. Another case, in a letter to Trident Trust, as of 29 October 2014, Akhmetov’s representatives insisted that two new offshore companies, Inglen Investments Limited and Pluscom Holdings Limited, should be registered as soon as possible. They refused to provide any further information, “as the parent companies and beneficiary owner are all well-known to the agent.” The providers accepted the order with no further questions asked. Lawyers, filing incorporation papers, stated “jet ownership” as the object of new companies, the investigation says. Two months later, on 16 December 2014, one of these shell companies obtained a loan from Credit Suisse to purchase a Falcon 7X executive jet with the tail number P4-SCM. The market value of this jet easily surpasses $50 million.33 Journalists also revealed that Trident Trust had been cooperating with Akhmetov up until 2018 at least.34
In 2022, an investigation led by Investico, based on annual reports, Leaked papers and interviews with former FBI agents, revealed that Akhmetov had a Long-standing relationship with the Dutch banking sector, especially ING Group, cemented by large-scale financial schemes. By using the Dutch financial sector, he borrowed whopping amounts and conducted sensitive offshore transactions unchecked.
On 21 May 2001, Akhmetov established his first Dutch company, Metinvest B. V. 16 incorporated by the law firm and notary public Houthoff Buruma to consolidate his steel and mining businesses. A few years later, he registered DTEK with the Chamber of Commerce and Industry which became the 17th energy division of his rapidly expanding empire. Additionally, he worked with Dutch banks, ABN Amro and ING, which granted him multibillion-dollar loans, as well as with the Amsterdam branch of Deutsche Bank.
Foreign banks, Barclays in particular, began distancing themselves from Akhmetov around 2015 after he was repeatedly linked to money laundering and corruption schemes. These reports and circumstances, however, did not require the oligarch to leave the Netherlands. According to the FinCEN files, ING also received numerous payments. In May 2014, Akhmetov, over a course of five days, transferred $145.5 million from a personal BVI company to ING Bank. Despite these suspicious transfers, ING Bank did not question Akhmetov regarding the origin of funds.
Fully aware of the high risks, ING Bank granted Metinvest steel and mining company 1.5 billion dollars in 2018, only three years after Barclays blocked the company’s bank accounts. In the same year, ING, Deutsche Bank Amsterdam, and a few other banks provided Metinvest with a loan for over $2.2 billion for restructuring its outstanding debt. Until recently, at least five Dutch pension scheme providers, including retail, POSTNL, and KLM, had outstanding loans extended to Akhmetov’s companies.
Though not at all surprising, ING had a reputation for participating in corrupt money laundering schemes in Eastern Europe. Reports exist of a high-profile money laundering case involving the questionable earnings of Russian oligarchs, amounting to hundreds of millions of euros, being siphoned off through the bank’s Russian subsidiary as part of the laundromat organized by Troika Dialog.35
Commercial companies owned by Akhmetov and his business partner Vadym Novynskyi are registered in the Netherlands. In 2019, ITPS, a trust office which managed several companies, obtained the so-called “aanwijzing” from De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) over failed customer audits and, according to one of the owners, has since been dissolved. Since last year, Akhmetov’s Dutch companies have been run by several former trust office employees meaning that these companies are effectively out of any DNB control.36
The leadership of the Atlantic Council includes an extensive list of former U.S. military commanders and government officials. The Atlantic Council is an analytical center funded by NATO, the defense industry and Gulf monarchies.
One of Akhmetov’s major assets, System Capital Management, makes an annual donation to the center in an amount ranging from $500,000 to $999,000.37 Anders Aslund, an influential member of the Atlantic Council, changed his stance from fierce criticism of Akhmetov to active cooperation due to the influence of Jock Mendoza-Wilson. The financial support of the Council and countering Russia contributed to the development of a joint strategic line with Akhmetov’s official representatives well received within its close circle of associates.
The controversial role of the Atlantic Council in relation to interests in the region and the corrupt nature of its actions is insightful for understanding the style and philosophy of working with Ukrainian oligarch clans. From 2017 to 2019, the organization was engaged to whitewash Burisma’s tarnished reputation for the benefit of the U.S. Democratic Party after a bribery probe into the firm and owner, Mykola Zlochevskyi. During these few years, Burisma offered the Atlantic Council an annual $100,000. As part of their partnership, the Atlantic Council and Burisma held several events in Washington, New York, and Kyiv. Zlochevskyi, a Burisma owner, served in the Yanukovych administration and left Ukraine following the revolution, and thus, losing any effective control of the company.
Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings in May 2014 despite his lack of experience in the Ukrainian gas industry and was in charge of international orders. He also participated in the merger of Burisma with a U.S. consulting firm systemically linked to the Clinton Administration, Blue Star Strategies, established by two board members of the Atlantic Council. Joe Biden was a chief liaison between the Obama Administration and Ukraine. Burisma invited several high-ranking Europeans and Americans to join its board, including Aleksander Kwasniewski, former Polish President, and Cofer Black, former CIA top staffer. 38
A Florida-based consultancy, now dissolved, potentially served as Akhmetov’s principal intermediary in financing Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL), who won in Florida, hence, returning her party to the 222-seat majority it previously held following the November 2020 elections.
In 2021, the main source of the representative’s income was SCM Consulting Group LLC. Her income in consulting fees from SCM was listed as $5,745,793. This was “the reported amount of consulting fees and profit sharing fees received for work at Trinity Health Care Services Inc.,” as stated in papers. Links between SCM Consulting Group and Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick’s financial network59
On March 12, SCM Consulting Group LLC filed as a business and health consulting firm and Cherfilus-McCormick was listed as a registered agent, according to state corporation records.40
Representative Cherfilus-McCormick takes a very active stance in support of Ukraine, Advocating for the Ukraine Democracy Defense Lend-Lease Act, which reduces bureaucratic hurdles and expedites the delivery of military aid.41 Along with Congressman Ted W. Lieu, she presented the “Russia is a State Sponsor of Terrorism Act,” bipartisan legislation officially designating Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Based on the sanctions initially adopted by the Congress, the bill further isolates Russia and toughens economic repercussions for Putin’s regime.42
Vadym Novynskyi was seen as a major figure in the alliance with Rinat Akhmetov. Novynskyi-owned Smart Holding Group held a 24% interest in Metinvest mining company. Though previously having Russian citizenship, he made the decision to swap it for a Ukrainian passport. He was a member of the Ukrainian Parliament as a member of the Party of Regions. In the Last convocation of the Verkhovna Rada, he was elected as an Opposition Bloc candidate. Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.4 billion.43
In February 2022, Novynskyi and Akhmetov visited Mariupol to only briefly return to Kyiv. A few hours before Russia’s invasion, however, he fled the country. He is currently believed to be residing in Estonia. He was placed on the sanctions lists and all his accounts with Ukrainian banks are blocked. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) arrested “hidden assets” of the former deputy Vadym Novynskyi worth UAH 10.5 billion which included 230 real estate properties allegedly owned through offshore companies. Among them a luxurious hotel in downtown Kyiv, Port Ochakiv, facilities of the agricultural holding company and shopping malls in several regions of Ukraine.
Smart Energy’s oil and gas division includes Ukrgazvydobutok gas producing company (Kharkiv Oblast) and UK-based Enwell Energy having listed assets in Poltava (a representative office of Regal Petroleum Corporation Limited and Arkona Gaz-Energia LLC) and Kharkiv Oblasts (Prom-Energo Produkt).
In January 2023, Smart Holding released a statement that as part of the company’s restructuring efforts Novynskyi decided to sell his shares in the company by assigning his interest to a trust. He signed respective agreements with Smart Trust and Step Trust in November 2022 which then were registered by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission. Novynskyi does not have any beneficial interest in the Group, nor does he exercise any control over the Group’s activities or processes.44
In 2011, Akhmetov and Novynskyi created an agricultural holding company from agricultural assets of Mariupol-based Illich Steel and Iron Works. In 2018, the company acquired AgroHolding MS, specialized in crop farming in Kyiv and Zhytomyr Oblasts.
HarvEast Holding is owned by Rinat Akhmetov’s SCM and Vadym Novynskyi’s Smart Holding. The holding company lost almost all land due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Ordained as a deacon of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), Novynskyi has repeatedly criticized the Ukrainian authorities over their attitude towards the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.
Rinat Akhmetov looks like a consensus figure closer to the British-Dutch group. Strategic communications are currently shifted towards the more influential pro-American transnational elite. Akhmetov has effectively lost all domestic allied support. A heterogeneous confederation of the Donetsk-based clans around Akhmetov at feud with each other, yet united in the face of a threat, became a thing of the past as a result of Russia’s occupation of territories. These clans no longer act in any sort of coordinated fashion. Oligarch consigliere Novynskyi retired after having transferred his interest in Metinvest to a blind trust.
Akhmetov’s attempt to establish a liaison with the Bleyzers close to Trump who repelled a production site attack on their Naftogaz subsidiary could be considered a step to consolidate efforts to fend off a rising wave of privatizations and asset grabs. Similarly, it could be seen as a form of intermediary for a dialog with British stakeholders.
Financial circles of the U.S. Democratic Party, with strategic institutions with which Akhmetov is building bridges, seek to nationalize the oligarch’s assets that survived after Russia’s occupation of the Donbas region. Akhmetov continues to carry on a dialog with European partners, Brussels, through his personal “minister of foreign affairs,” Jock Mendoza-Wilson who has links to FIPRA, one of the largest British-born lobbying and intelligence networks in Europe. Multidimensional contacts maintained by the abovementioned intermediary highlight his status, not as a mere partner for Akhmetov, but in an overseer’s role acting on behalf of the City of London seeking to influence energy and mining industries in the country as is the case with Raymond Asquith. Through FIPRA and James Wilson’s media and intelligence circles, Akhmetov has access to dialog with Brussels. Previously, Akhmetov had active contacts with European think tanks through the aforementioned FIPRA to promote a free trade zone in the EU in the best interest of his business. Mendoza-Wilson is also part of the leadership of large lobbying entities, such as, the British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce, EU-Ukraine Business Council, U.S.-Ukraine Business Council.
Firtash’s and Akhmetov’s connections in the City meet thanks to an existing chain: Mendoza- Wilson – British Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce – Petr Baron – VAB Bank – Raiffeisen. Previously, Akhmetov had impressive leverage in the Ukrainian government, while Firtash dominated the Yanukovych-Lyovochkin presidential administration and was one of the main sponsors for the Party of Regions, also linking him to Poroshenko.
The Russian aggression is defining lines of communications with international organizations, strategic centers and political lobbyists and is obviously aligned with the public line of the arms lobby. Actions taken by Akhmetov and representatives of the Democratic Party are all about coordinating efforts, financing of joint initiatives and their advocacy against the Russian aggression in public space. They are, however, far from being designated as a fully functional alliance. Besides, Akhmetov actively sponsors the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He also promotes the condemnation of Russia’s war crime and terrorism and placement on the FATF list, including with the help of congressmen. It is most likely that Akhmetov’s most active emissary promoting similar initiatives in the Congress is Representative Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick (D-FL) whose electoral campaign was generously sponsored by SCM Consulting. Influential Americans advocate confiscation of currently frozen Russian assets and the oligarch uses these sentiments as a great opportunity to regain influence.
The goal of rapprochement has been achieved, since Akhmetov is in no immediate jeopardy of facing “deoligarchization,” as an administrative tool to contain figures deemed to be a threat to the establishment of the U.S. control over Ukrainian assets. Despite generally positive strategic relations with the U.S. elite of real power in Ukraine, Akhmetov’s large assets can only mean that escalation against the BlackRock stakeholders is delayed for the time being. Akhmetov remains at the top of the Forbes Ukraine rankings and ambitiously demonstrates the desire to regain dominance of his political will in Kyiv despite unfathomable losses. The oligarch’s political influence is currently at its lowest in the last years of the decade, as he has no media or lawmakers.
Firtash’s empire consists of chemical, banking and media assets. He is considered to be one of the oligarchs closest to Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2021, Ukraine sanctioned him for alleged titanium shipments to Russian defense companies and his personal assets and bank accounts were frozen.
Oleh Arestarkhov, Head of Communications at Group DF, claimed that hearings regarding contested charges in enforcement of sanctions and
Ukrainian security services failed to provide any evidence on the decision.
Firtash previously controlled RosUkrEnergo, a joint venture formed in partnership with Raiffeisen Investment and Russia’s Gazprom, overseeing supplies of Russian gas to Europe across Ukraine, and Centragas which held the exclusive right to sell Turkmenian gas in Ukraine. Initially, RosUkrEnergo was established by Firtash, Rothschild, British entrepreneur Robert Shetler-Jones and Jewish businessman, linked to criminal activity, Semen Mohylevych. According to WikiLeaks files, Firtash told the U.S. ambassador that he had employed services offered by Semen Mohylevych to protect his business from competitors.
The most prominent group among Dmytro Firtash’s connections is British conservative elites seeking to slow down Brexit and retain control over the EU and Chinese financial operations. It is these forces behind Jeremy Hunt who replaced Boris Johnson as the UK Foreign Secretary. Formally, MI6 (SIS) reports to him. This group is closely linked to the Asquith family known for its many-sided partner relations with the oligarch. The Asquith family used Firtash to create an extensive network of influence in Ukraine. The role of transnational enforcer in one of the largest privately-owned oil and gas companies, operating in the postSoviet space, allowed Asquith to ensure control over Ukrainian assets and political processes by using Firtash’s resources and influence.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) eventually ousted the oligarch. Numerous lawsuits against Firtash followed the struggle for influence of the U.S. and UK globalist elites for control over gas, telecommunications and mining industries in Ukraine.
The U.S. defense industry (whose interests in Ukraine are promoted by Pinchuk) adopted a strategy to seize critical resources in Ukraine by opening criminal cases. The U.S. titanium imports have soared to 90% which is a vulnerability in supply chains. Titanium is used in modern airplanes and helicopters, tanks, submarines and ships, missiles and other munitions. Ukraine’s colossal titanium reserves are estimated at 184 million tons, worth over $300 billion, and making up 20% of the world’s supply. Mezhyrichenskyi Mining and Beneficiation Plant, a Firtash’s Group DF company, is the owner of the Selyshchanskyi titanium deposits with an area of 1,857 hectares located in Zhytomyr Oblast.
On 12 March 2014, Firtash was arrested in Austria on a U.S. warrant issued by the State of Illinois, which could be considered a step taken by the Chicago alliance of Barack Obama and John Kerry45. Prior to the arrest, discussions took place regarding titanium supplies to Boeing headquartered in Illinois. Firtash was charged with bribery for an overall amount of $18.5 million, as he sought permissions for titanium ore extraction in India for the further sale of finished products to the U.S.
The Austrian court resumed hearings on the case of Ukrainian businessman Firtash, having blocked his extradition to the U.S. His defense is led by former Austrian Minister of Justice Dieter Bohmdorfer representing the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPO). The interests of the oligarch were also represented by Lanny J. Davis & Associates. In 2021, Dmytro Firtash was appointed Adviser to the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Belarus to International Organizations in Vienna. As a result, he demands extradition to the U.S. be suspended due to his diplomatic immunity. Firtash was also an intermediary acting on behalf of Gazprom and the Kremlin in arranging the gas transit across Ukraine.46
Over 70% of gas distributions in Ukraine is locked in at Dmytro Firtash owned Regional Gas Company. Every month, operators of gas distribution networks (Zakarpatgaz, Lvivgaz, Vinnytsiagaz, Dnipropetrovskgaz and Khmelnytskgaz) withdrew 120 to 150 million cubic meters of gas without pay which siphoned off about $550 million of liquidity from the GTS operator.
SBU conducted mass searches in 14 gas distribution companies of the businessman’s Regional Gas Company whose board includes former British spy Raymond Asquith. SBU did not make any official announcements but mass media mentioned searches claiming that law enforcers were investigating a scheme of illegal withdrawal of funds paid for consumed gas. The company issued a statement that searches “were carried out on preposterous charges of allegedly stealing public funds,” “RGC considers searches followed by blatant human rights violations to be coercion of employees of critical infrastructure enterprises. We believe that the criminal case which became the reason for the searches was opened only to put pressure on the enterprises which NJSC Naftogaz of Ukraine, represented by NJSC Chornomornaftogaz, is trying to grab.” As a result, Gas Distribution Networks of Ukraine, a Naftogaz Group company, took over Firtash-owned distribution networks in several Ukrainian regions.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office also investigated Firtash’s involvement in the infamous privatization of the monopolistic ISP Ukrtelecom carried out without competitive bidding and accompanied by financial fraud.
There were reports that the Tory party received nearly £200,000 from Firtash-linked associates and the Harlow Conservative Party received £40,000 from Shetler-Jones who had been the CEO of Firtash’s holding company Group DF. He had given in his own name and via a company called Scythian.47
The Asquith family opened all doors leading Firtash to the British elite, making sure he was welcome in the British elite circles. Raymond Benedict Bartholomew Michael Asquith, Lord Oxford, is an ally of Dmytro Firtash, peer of the realm, former spy, and post-Soviet elite expert. Asquith headed the MI6 resident agency in Moscow. He rose to prominence in the secret services in 1985 when he exfiltrated KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky from the Soviet Union hidden in a car trunk. Asquith is the 3rd Earl of Oxford and Asquith and a member of the House of Lords. He is the great-grandson of former WWI British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith.
Following his diplomatic service, Asquith worked for Firtash-owned JKX Oil & Gas as Director of the largest British investor in Ukraine48 from 10 November 1997 until his resignation on 28 January 2016. The company also had a large interest owned by Ihor Kolomoyskyi. According to some sources, Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko is Asquith’s protege.49
In addition to his partnership with Firtash, Asquith pursued his own interests in the region, developing financial and biotech companies, such as Zander Corporation, Dessna, Asset Management50. Asquith founded and headed The Ukrainian Catholic Foundation.51 He is also a member of the Council on Geostrategy. Curiously, the Council on Geostrategy is a member of the Development, Concepts and Doctrine Center’s “Global Strategic Partnership” run by RAND Europe. This consortium provides academic and analytical support to the UK Ministry of Defense. The Council on Geostrategy attended the Trilateral Commission’s Warsaw Dialog.52
In 2005, Firtash invested $1 million in Asquith-run green company to get a 25% stake in the business. The next year, Shetler-Jones combined his Ukrainian business with the Firtash- owned company and became Deputy Chairperson of the Supervisory Council at Group DF. The picture of British connections would be incomplete without the fact that Prince Philip, the husband of then British Queen Elizabeth, honorary chancellor of Cambridge University, appointed Firtash as one of the university’s honorary patrons.53
The assets of the oligarch have become a landmark target for globalist elites, by all accounts linked to the Asquith family both historically and currently. Raymond’s brother, Dominic Asquith, was a co-founder of Macro Advisory Partners, a firm with close ties to the intelligence circle in the Bilderberg Club – Jake Sullivan, John Sawers, and William Burns. The board of Macro Advisory Partners included Kofi Annan, who through his wife is linked to the Swedish Wallenberg family, and are also permanent members of the financial bloc of the Bilderberg Meeting.54
Prior to his peerage as Lord Oxford, he ran a lobbying firm, Asquith & Granovsky (later Asquith & Granovski) Associates, for several years.
Isabel Asquith, Raymond’s daughter, has been a member of the Raedars board ever since. Its connections stem from cooperation with the Oak Foundation and Soros’ Open Society Foundation through Financial Investigations For Non-Profit Design (FIND) set up as a spinoff of Raedars.55
The mission of the British Ukrainian Society established by Anthony Fisher and Dmytro Firtash is to strengthen relations between politicians of the two countries and to represent Ukrainian business and culture in the UK. The society does not carry out any public activities, although it is quite active as a legal entity. It is logical to assume that the British Ukrainian Society is only a cover for MI6 agents of influence in the region – Robert Shetler-Jones, Lord Oxford and Lord Risby. Simply explained, BUS was set up in February 2007 as a privately- owned entity with two directors – Robert Shetler-Jones and Richard Spring. The latter was created a life peer as Lord and Baron Risby of Haverhill in the County of Suffolk. Since March 2015, he has also been mentioned as the founder of the Ukraine Modernization Agency.
Robert Shetler-Jones is one of the closest associates of Dmytro Firtash and deemed to be his financial consigliere. He was CEO of Group DF, a Firtash-owned parent company, from its inception in 2007 to August 2012 and he still runs the group through the intermediary company, GENTECH Holding GmbH. Currently, he is a Member of the Group Supervisory Council chaired by Firtash. BUS shares the same office building in Knightsbridge with Scythian Limited, a company run by Shetler-Jones (he is listed as its CEO in BUS constituent documents) and specializing in acquisition of Eastern European assets. One of Shetler- Jones’s top priorities is to build business relationships with Ukrainian contractors in the best interest of the City and British intelligence agencies.
According to the UK Electoral Commission, Scythian Limited financed conservative electoral campaigns. Among its contacts were such Conservative MPs, as Richard John Grenville Spring, Baron Risby, John Whittingdale and Robert Halfon.
Anthony Fisher is a strategic communications expert and CEO of several nonprofit organizations, such as BUS, Founding Director of the EU-Ukraine Business Council, Head of Bonita Trust, former CEO of Granovski Associates. Fisher is deeply integrated into intelligence proxy structures.
On 15 February 2008, Anthony Fisher, Alex Walsh and Jack Wakefield established a charity on behalf of Firtash, DF Foundation. Jack Wakefield, brother-in-law of56 Dominic Mckenzie Cummings, is a political strategist who served as Chief Adviser to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Fisher is a founder of Global Strategy Limited providing institutional and private clients with strategic and communications advice. He is also Director of Scythian Limited, a consultancy focused on structuring corporate acquisitions in former Soviet Union countries. He advised several governments, was posted to the Government of Gibraltar as its first Director for Development of the Financial Center and served as an advisor to the Maltese Government.
Elizabeth Smith, Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill, is a patron of the arts and a member of the BUS Advisory Council. In 1995, she was created a life peer as Baroness Smith of Gilmorehill. As an Advisory Council Member of the Russo-British Chamber of Commerce, she has a special interest in Russia and CIS member countries. She embarked upon a career at the Great Britain – USSR Association, which was later renamed the British East-West Center (BEWC),57 maintaining dialog and contacts with countries of the then Soviet Union and funded mainly by the British Foreign Office. Working in close rapport with Sir Fitzroy Maclean, President of the GB-USSR Association, she realized the importance of defying stereotypes by bringing people together while sharing mutual experiences.59
The baroness directed several major festivals of British culture and is currently President of the Scottish Opera and Trustee of the Mariinsky Theater Trust58. In addition, she also serves on the boards of several organizations with interests in Ukraine and other countries of the former Soviet Union. She is a member of the management board of the Center for European Reform. Baroness Smith heads the John Smith Fellowship Trust funding young professionals from Ukraine and other countries to come to the UK to study the democracy and good governance. The program is sponsored by the British Foreign Office.
Terry Sandell is a founder of the British Council in the Soviet Union. Between 2005 and 2008, he opened and served as Director of the British Council Ukraine. Mr. Sandell was a trustee of several arts and cultural organizations and actively cooperated with the Council of Europe and the European Union, working on cultural policy, as well as on projects of cultural and capacity development in Ukraine and other former Soviet countries.
Ihor Mitiukov served as Managing Director of Morgan Stanley Ukraine when he joined BUS. Today, he is the Senior Adviser. He also holds a position on Ukrposhta’s Supervisory Council60. His political and diplomatic career included posts of the Minister of Finance and Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine. From 2002 to 2005, he was the Ukrainian Ambassador in the United Kingdom. From 1995 to 1997, Mr. Mitiukov served as Ukraine’s Special Representative to the European Union in Brussels, with Vice Prime Ministerial status. From 1997 to 2001, he served as Minister of Finance of Ukraine. While in office, he ensured that Ukraine entered international capital markets in 1997.61 Until 2018, he was a permanent member of the Yalta European Strategy sponsored by the Pinchuk Foundation.62
John Whittingdale was Minister of State for Media under Boris Johnson responsible for protecting Great Britain from misinformation and Secretary of State for Culture under David
Cameron. Previously, he served as Chair of the influential Culture, Media and Sport Committee of the House of Commons. In May 2023, he assumed office of the Minister of State for Media, Tourism and Creative Industries. Sir Whittingdale along with six other ministers voted against Brexit during the referendum. He is Head of the United Kingdom Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and was appointed by OSCE PA President Margareta Cederfelt Special Rapporteur mandated to report on war crimes perpetrated in Ukraine.63 He is a member of the Conservative Friends of Ukraine group.64
Richard Spring, Lord Risby, served as Merrill Lynch VP before he was elected to parliament. He is also former Vice Chairperson of the Conservative Party and Shadow Minister for the Treasury. Currently, he is Prime Ministerial Trade Envoy to Algeria and Lebanon and BUS Chair. He is President of the Association for Decentralized Energy and Deputy Chairperson of the Small Business Bureau. From 2015 to 2018, he was a member of the EU External Relations Committee in the House of Lords. From 2020 to 2022, he was a member of the International Agreements Committee. Risby is Co-Chairperson of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Ukraine.65 In his capacity as the then Chairperson of the British Ukrainian Society, he co-chaired the Scenarios for the Ukraine program of the World Economic Forum in Davos organized by Pinchuk.66
Austria was the headquarters of Centragas Holding GmbH, a company officially holding a 50 percent interest in RosUkrEnergo. Here, the oligarch established close contacts with Raiffeisen, local elites, politicians and bankers.
Dieter Bohmdorfer, Austrian Minister of Justice from 2000 to 2004, is a personal attorney for the oligarch and the team of lawyers under his leadership received a court ruling not to grant the U.S. extradition request against Firtash. Like former Minister of Justice Dieter Bohmdorfer, Daniel Kapp, an oligarch PR manager, has close ties to the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) via its leader Josef Proll who runs Leipnik-Lundenburger, an investment company owned by Raiffeisen Holding. Previously, Raiffeisen covered Firtash when he was still hiding his involvement in RosUkrEnergo.67
Michael Spindelegger was Proll’s former colleague from the Austrian Government and former Chairperson of the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) and also served as Vice Chancellor of Austria and Minister of Finance. He was engaged in whitewashing the tarnished reputation of the Ukrainian oligarch as Chairperson of the Ukraine Modernization Agency at Palais Ferstel68 in order to invest $300 billion in the Ukrainian economy and attract prominent politicians to join the initiative. The potential list included EU Commissioners Gunter Verheugen, Stefan Fule and Peter Mandelson, former German Minister of Finance and Chancellor Candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) Peer Steinbruck and former French Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Bernard Kouchner. The campaign was a failure as no one was willing to offer support.69
Raiffeisen’s interests in Ukraine continue to expand. Raiffeisen Bank International took its digital banking business out of the European jurisdiction by moving from Austria to Ukraine.70
Until recently, Dmytro Firtash has been a top player in Ukrainian gas, chemical and titanium industries. BUS, a powerful geostrategic group mainly composed of elite representatives from the North of England advocating Brexit and funded by the oligarch, created opportunities for implementation of the Global England concept temporarily strengthening its presence in Eastern Europe.
Firtash was a key element in the intelligence network of influence set up by Lord Raymond Asquith of MI6 whose assistance made it possible for the oligarch to obtain the British patronage as an adviser and local agent of interest. The allies in the City of London stayed away from the “dirty schemes” in exchange for an opportunity to make use of Firtash’s mediation in their dealings with Gazprom for the purposes of resources and political expansion in Ukraine.
Prior to the ousting of Viktor Yanukovych, a minion of Dmytro Firtash and Rinat Akhmetov, in 2014, the British energy-linked interests enjoyed extraordinary power and influence in Ukraine, especially by one shady company, RosUkrEnergo. Firtash controlled about two thirds of the gas supply market in Ukraine through regional gas companies. He gained fame as an oligarch who earned capital at the expense of Russian gas and was a key mediator of UK-Ukraine-Russia interests.
Under U.S. pressure, Firtash lost his positions in the oil and gas sector – Naftogaz expropriated his gas distribution business. The interest of U.S. elites towards the oligarch’s assets is further stressed by the fact that the seizure request and the lawsuit filed to seize Firtash’s titanium deposits came from Chicago, as Chicago-based elite groups have ties to Penny Pritzker, a BlackRock representative in Ukraine.
Representatives of the Firtash clan served as Head of the Presidential Administration, Minister of Energy and Vice Prime Minister for European Integration of the country. The projection of British influence is gradually weakening giving way to U.S. hegemony. The efficiency of British support and the protection of their groups of influence in the region could have been largely affected by changes in the attitudes of British intelligence agencies over Brexit prompting a more global vision of cooperation and disposition to compromise at the elite level due to growing consolidation of the largest BlackRock and Vanguard assets.
Born on 14 December 1960, Jew.
Victor Pinchuk’s fortune is estimated at $2.1.71 He began his business empire in Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro) with a pipeline company, Interpipe Group. Later, he moved into the banking industry (Kredyt Dnipro) and launched a diversified business in the media sector.
Pinchuk’s main foreign partners are George Soros and his International Renaissance Foundation.
Pinchuk has a sizable influence on business in the country by manipulating the system for personal gain and on the gas market acting through his partners. Victor Pinchuk-owned Interpipe Inc. colluded with the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine to introduce extra duties of 52% for Vorex pipes. Naftogaz already awarded significant contracts to U.S. firms for oil and gas equipment. One of these companies, Pennsylvania-based Vorex, has been supplying Naftogaz with drill pipe and casings since 2017 and is the largest overseas supplier of pipe and equipment to Ukraine.72 The oligarch’s financial rise is attributed to his marriage to Leonid Kuchma’s daughter.
Pinchuk funded the 2012 report on imprisonment of the former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. It was over this, which the former White House Counsel Greg Craig and Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom ended up in the crosshairs of Special Counsel for the U.S. Department of Justice Robert Mueller.73
From 1998 to 2006, Pinchuk was a member of the parliament. In his 2005 book, “Virtual Politics: Faking Democracy in the Post-Soviet World,” Andrew Wilson of the University of London claims that in 2002, Pinchuk created a fake political party seeking to attract young people. Pinchuk’s TV stations aggressively promoted the party using it as a tool to steal opposition votes.
Pinchuk’s conflict with the Privat Group run by the duumvirate of Kolomoyskyi and Boholiubov was marked by accusations stating they paid $100 million to a foundation established by Kuchma for election campaigning and by their claims that Pinchuk eventually stole the money. Pinchuk refuted these statements, having accused the duo of seeking to exclude him from a deal to buy an iron ore mining company, KZhRK, one of the largest enterprises in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
On 4 March 2015, Ihor Kolomoyskyi, another Ukrainian oligarch, attending the hearings of the Special Control Commission on Privatization of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine accused Victor Pinchuk of accepting a bribe of $5 million per month for running Ukrnafta, a company in which state-owned Naftogaz of Ukraine had a 50 + 1% interest. According to Kolomoyskyi, the money was transferred to offshore companies, “whose ultimate owners have been identified” as Victor Pinchuk and Leonid Kuchma.74
He is linked to Rinat Akhmetov through the establishment of the Investment Metallurgical Union, an industrial and financial consortium which acquired the Kryvorizhstal steel plant for $800 million. After the Orange Revolution, however, the Kyiv Commercial Court declared the sale of the plant illegal. In 2005, Kryvorizhstal was re-privatized and resold to UK-based Arcelor Mittal for 4.8 billion.
Pinchuk also gained a reputation as a philanthropist by having made his namesake foundation a discussion venue for Soros-linked organizations, NATO, IMF, Aspen Institute, Atlantic Council, and other influential political institutions. The boards and advisory councils of these organizations include BlackRock representatives carrying out a step-by-step takeover of the country. The largest foundations, BlackRock and The Vanguard Group, are owned by one another on a circular ownership basis. These foundations bring together the world’s richest families – Rockefeller, Rothschild, du Pont, Mellon75, Wallenberg. Among BlackRock top managers are several retired CIA officers.76
On 8 May, Zelenskyy and Fink signed a development agreement to establish the so-called Ukraine Development Fund (UDF) with BlackRock Financial Market Advisory (BlackRock FMA) funded by JP Morgan Bank. Under the program for privatization of the most profitable and liquid private, public and municipal assets, Black Rock planned to invest about $100 billion in UDF, which is more than two-thirds of Ukraine’s annual GDP.
According to the deal’s terms, BlackRock will manage Ukrainian assets, including the funds provided as part of “foreign aid.” Thus, Ukrainian strategic enterprises, including “nationalized” ones, will most likely end up under transnational control. This scheme will also be used to manage Ukraine’s foreign debt which, according to the Ministry of Finance, is approaching $150 billion, or 100% of the national GDP. Officially, the agreement is intended to attract investments in energy, infrastructure and agriculture, but due to the weak subsidized economy destroyed by the war, it leads to the seizure of Ukraine’s major assets on account of debt repayment – from ferti le black soi l to power grids.
Joe Biden appointed Penny Pritzker (a representative of Europe’s top-10 richest families from the Chicago group77) as the United States Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery at UDF, known for a failed initiative to create a single free trade area in the Pacific Ocean. Ms. Pritzker will build a top-down colonial operation by reforming the Ukrainian government “in the sphere of transparency and accountability of the country’s recovery, including total control of law enforcement, judicial system in the fight against corruption, management of state-owned enterprises.”
It should be emphasized that the Chicago-based Pritzker billionaire family are historically Jewish immigrants from Kyiv. The Pritzkers generously funded Obama and Biden. However, Penny Pritzker is in opposition to the Clintons who were supported by her brother78 and allied with Pinchuk.
Pinchuk gained the trust of global philanthropists, and as an act of solidarity signed the Giving Pledge initiative backed by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett under which the ultra wealthy promise to give away at least half their assets by the time they die.
Family:
Victor’s parents worked in the science and steel-making industry. Among his ancestors are rabbis and melameds.
His spouse, Olena Pinchuk, is a daughter of the former Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma, and a founder of the ANTIAIDS Foundation. For nine years, she served as Deputy Marketing Director at the mobile communications provider, Kyivstar. In 2009, she took over the supervisory board of StarLightMedia operating STB, ICTV, Novyi, QTV, M1, M2, TV channels and some other media companies.
His daughter, Maria Viktorivna Pinchuk, went to Oxford. She is a shareholder of Dime Firm, a ferrous and non-ferrous metals trader co-owned by her grandfather, Mykhaylo Aronovych Pinchuk.
Assets:
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation is one of the largest sponsors of the aforementioned Atlantic Council with annual donations of $249,000 to $500,000.79
Amicus Europae is a foundation established by the former Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski. Its mission includes promotion of the European integration, neighborhood policy, Polish products, strengthening democratic principles and Ukrainian-Polish relations with a special focus on energy transition and energy security.
Executive Director of the Amicus Europae Foundation Ireneusz Bil worked at the National Security Bureau and the Office of the President of Poland as Director of the Office of International Cooperation and at the Office of the President for European Integration. In this capacity, he took part in negotiations about Poland’s NATO and EU membership. He is a member of the International Association of Energy Economics, a participant of numerous study programs and fellowships, including the U.S. Department of State, Bertelsmann Foundation, Zeit Foundation, Koerber Foundation – Munich Security Conference, a permanent YES panelist.
The foundation is forging relations with European national elites operating as part of the sustainable development model which is closest to the U.S. democratic elites. Competition with pro-Trump conservatives in the Ukrainian energy sector is characterized by the fact that the Ukrainian government reversed its decision No. 79-r as of 5 February 2020 to appoint Ireneusz Bil to the supervisory council of Naftogaz and instead added Robert Bensh as the U.S. representative.80 Thus, causing Rick Perry, U.S. Secretary of Energy under Trump, to gain control over Ukraine’s oil and gas industry and force Kyiv to launch an investigation into the son of former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
Best known to the public is GEM Managing Director for Europe Robert Bensh working in Ukraine since the 2000s. Furthermore, he is involved as a Pelicourt Managing Partner acting as a shareholder of one of the largest privately-owned Ukrainian gas producers, Cub Energy, and an interest holder of Donbasenergo.
In partnership with FMS, FJJ, Karl-Renner-Institut, Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Ukraine, and Kalevi Sorsa Foundation, FEPS, Amicus Europae has launched the project, “Progressive Paths to Rebuild Ukraine.”
Amicus Europae joined the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and Burisma known for its corruption scandal with the Biden family81 to establish The International Forum on Energy Security for the Future: New Sources, Responsibility, Sustainability (ESF) in 2016. The initiative is intended to promote alternative sources of energy in Europe and worldwide.
Among its founders are Mykola Zlochevskyi and Aleksander Kwasniewski. Vadym Pozharskyi of Burisma is the Head of the Organizing Committee of the Forum.
Victor Pinchuk sits on the International Advisory Council of the Brookings Institution. The Brookings Institution is one of the most influential analytical centers in the United States.
In 1948, the institution played a key role in developing the administrative plan for the European Recovery Program (the Marshall Plan) which distributed aid to the war-stricken economies in Europe.
The Brookings Institution conducts influential research on a wide range of public policy topics from domestic issues in the United States to foreign relations.
The organization is chiefly funded by families and foundations associated with the Rockefellers.82
Victor Pinchuk is a board member of the Peterson Institute for International Economics. The institute is associated with IMF.
In 2006, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, at the suggestion of the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, launched its Eastern European and Ukrainian program to raise awareness among international political, social and business elites of the economic challenges facing Ukraine.
At the time, Pinchuk owned Kredyt Dnipro Bank and placed on its board Dominique Strauss- Kahn, former head of the International Monetary Fund, Swedish economist of the Atlantic Council Anders Aslund (mentioned earlier over contacts with Akhmetov), and Jean-Pierre Saltiel, president of Rothschild Conseil International. The bank also appointed Alex Munteanu, Managing Director of Europe Virgin Fund, a regional $57-million private equity fund sponsored by Soros-linked Kyiv-based Dragon Capital.83
The bank may well have been used for money laundering and questionable operations, as many initially interested buyers refused to make the purchase on the pretext of its poor condition.
Giovanni Salvetti84 is a Managing Director at Rothschild & Cie in Central and Eastern Europe and currently serves as a member of the Supervisory Board of Kredyt Dnipro Bank. He also managed Petro Poroshenko-owned Roshen as part of the blind trust when the latter was elected president.
Giovanni Salvetti has been representing the interests of one of Europe’s oldest banking houses, Rothschild & Cie, in Ukraine for 12 years. He took part in the sale of Pravex Bank for $750 million, debt restructuring of Kredytprombank and Nadra Bank and carried out over 20 M&A transactions. Salvetti is a financial adviser to the Bondholders Committee of Mria agricultural holding company.
David Petraeus, a partner of the investment fund, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts (KKR), board member of the Bilderberg Club, former Commander of United States Central Command who oversaw U.S. and NATO military efforts in Afghanistan and former Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, has repeatedly addressed the Yalta European Strategy (YES) meetings on military assistance to Ukraine since 2011.85 Sir Roger Carr, Senior Adviser at KKR, was also the CEO of BAE Systems until March 2023. The company is the main beneficiary of the war in Ukraine – in 2022, its stock soared +41%, while sales rose 9.7% with MBDA subsidiary revving up missile production funded by the EU.86 The KKR foundation has grown 25% over the past year and 196.2% over the past five. These facts, together with close interaction with Hogan Lovells and the Clinton family, show that VPF’s efforts are aimed at promoting public debate in the interests of the defense lobby in Brussels.
The Victor Pinchuk Foundation has been hosting roundtables on Ukraine’s national security since 2017. In 2022, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the Yalta European Strategy (YES) and the Victor Pinchuk Foundation hosted the Fifth Munich Ukrainian Lunch, titled “Europe’s Security is Decided in Ukraine.” The aim of the Munich Ukrainian Lunch is to promote support for Ukraine as a necessary factor of Europe’s global security and international order. The meeting participants justified the need for expanded arms supply support and David Petraeus outlined the key needs of the Ukrainian military to be met by the U.S. and EU assistance in line with Biden’s principle of “as much as it takes.”87
In 2016, James Hart, another Pinchuk adviser, established Hillmont Partners which would serve as the pillar for informal contacts between London-based stakeholders and Kyiv. Hart was an adviser to the former Prime Minister of Ukraine and former First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine – Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine. He advised the Ukrainian government on reform, trade and investment matters. Hart also attended YES and was an active sponsor of Pinchuk’s Ukrainian platform in Davos.
Andriy Lysiuk, Head of Hillmont Partners in Ukraine, worked in senior positions in the SBU Main Department for Combating Corruption and Organized Crime in Kyiv, and was a member of the Servant of the People party, but eventually withdrew from a mandate. Among the clients of Hillmont Partners was Kvartal 95 Studio founded by Volodymyr Zelenskyy.88 Denys Monastyrskyi who fought the influence of his predecessor, Arsen Avakov, was a former adviser to Hillmont Partners.
James Hart was appointed adviser to Quintel Intelligence (QI) when the company received a new shareholder, an anonymous BVI foundation, Capital Compliance.89 QI was founded by a former British SAS officer, John Holmes, specializing in litigation support.90 Nicholas Connon, a former British military intelligence officer, is a Director and CEO of Quintel Intelligence. In addition to Hart, among Qi’s advisers is a retired UK Court of Appeal judge, Anthony Hooper, and James Ramsden, KC, a cybersecurity expert who was involved in disputes with Russian and Ukrainian oil and gas companies as Founder of Astraea Group and the lead Queen’s Counsel for Chambers UK and Chambers Global in commercial disputes and civil fraud.91
Not so long ago, QI had Matrix Chambers among its members92, a company overseeing British interests on the Ethics Council, a body that approved nominations of judges to the Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine.
Pinchuk has been cooperating with Soros’s organizations since 2006.
Just one year prior to the presidential campaign, which Zelenskyy won, and the parliamentary elections, Pinchuk and the Soros-linked Dragon Capital launched the New Leaders public media project94. Dragon Capital also founded and brought into the parliament the Vakarchuk- led Holos (“Voice”) party95 composed of graduates from Soros organizations. Their presence in the parliamentary mono-majority of Zelenskyy’s party severely undermined the monopoly of influence on Zelenskyy, which was enjoyed by the Privat Group who placed him into power.96
The Soros and Victor Pinchuk foundations are partners in financing numerous NGOs and projects in Ukraine and abroad. Soros also attended Yalta European Strategy (YES) meetings held by Pinchuk. YES conferences and meetings were attended by current and former presidents, prime ministers, power brokers, bankers, corporate executives, and celebrities.
Chrystia Freeland, a trustee of the Aspen Institute in Kyiv, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of Canada, is a key OSF figure. Chrystia Freeland joined the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and his partner George Soros to promote Ukraine’s own strategic interests. In 1992, she established the Ukrainian Legal Foundation (ULF) at the behest of Ukrainian and Western lawyers to facilitate the state building process in Ukraine which immediately received Soros funding. She is linked to IMF schemes designed to indirectly/covertly obtain billions of dollars from non-EU states.97
One of the major projects funded by Soros and Pinchuk is the Ukrainian Crisis Media Center, a venue for cooperation of Ukrainian public relations corporation and journalists, which is headquartered at the Ukraine Hotel in Kyiv. Allegedly, it was established to counter the propaganda attack of Putin’s Russian media cartel. Most “independent news” we get from Ukraine is produced and marked by the propaganda brand approved by Pinchuk and Soros. This includes the approval or cover-up of the fact that the “new” government in Kyiv is just another rotation of the former staff with established corrupt patterns of interaction.98
Interestingly, Ukrainska Pravda, a news outlet owned by Tomas Fiala and controlled by George Soros,99 published the results of a poll in which President Zelenskyy was named as the main corrupt official.100 This fact heralds the intentions of the Democratic Party to nominate another candidate in the coming elections.
Alex Soros, a son of George Soros, reached a deal with Zelenskyy’s team to develop the Ukrainian economy and confiscate frozen Russian assets.101 On the day of his visit to Ukraine, the United States House Committee on Foreign Affairs backed the bill to transfer Russian assets to Kyiv.
Soros-linked organizations created the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU). This is a group which worked to help Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and silenced the Biden- Burisma scandal after prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk, who opened the case, was dismissed. Later, Head of NABU Artem Sytnyk was involved in several corruption cases that were closed102, while his First Deputy Hizo Uhlava, acting through his assistant Polina Chyzh, provided information to the U.S. Embassy upon request.103
The Pinchuk Foundation was a large donor to Clinton-run non-profit organizations. Pinchuk is close to Doug E. Schoen, a representative of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a longtime Clinton associate and political consultant whom, according to the New York Times, Victor Pinchuk hired as an adviser in 2000 for a monthly fee of $40,000. Pinchuk leads the Clintons’ trusted circle in the region as a sponsor of Bill and Hillary Clinton. Not only did he generously support the Clinton Global Initiative, but he also donated more than $13 million to the Bill, Hillary & Chelsea Clinton Foundation.
Pinchuk sits on the CFR Global Board of Advisors (GBA) which can be considered a nonpartisan consensus group of American banking elites who are at the managerial core of the Federal Reserve System.
Founded in the U.S. in 2005, CEPA seeks to strengthen the transatlantic alliance. Among CEPA’s donors are corporations, foundations, organizations and governments, including the Victor Pinchuk Foundation, U.S. Department of State, Pentagon, Government of Estonia, Poses Family Foundation, Hirsch Family Foundation, Microsoft Corporation, National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and several defense contractors from NATO member countries, including FireEye, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Bell Helicopters, and BAE Systems.104
Hogan Lovells supports the Soros projects. For example, the S.T.O.P. website105 which advocates privacy is funded by the Soros-owned Open Society Foundation and actively cooperates with Hogan Lovells, who is also listed among sponsors of the said NGO.106
According to the FARA filings, former U.S. senator Norm Coleman, Senior Counsel with the law firm Hogan Lovells, is a lobbyist for the Pinchuk Foundation. Coleman is relatively indifferent to intra-clan relations of Ukrainian oligarchs and also known for working on a full-time basis for Akhmetov’s Metinvest. In addition to Coleman, Metinvest also engaged lobbyists, such as Charles Garrison, Nicholas Laneville, steel market expert Craig A Lewis107, Senior Counsel at CSIS Kelly Ann Shaw108 and Jared R Wessel, Assistant General Counsel at the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
Coleman’s work for Pinchuk included a successful attempt to force President Joe Biden to abolish steel duties in Ukraine after the war began. The project has already been given the green light by his former colleague, U.S. Senator of Minnesota, Amy Klobuchar and U.S.
Senator Chris Coons. The initiative was further backed by Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)109
Coleman, who has extensive experience as a foreign interest lobbyist via his longstanding role as an agent for Saudi Arabia, is already busy at work for Ukraine. Previously, Coleman also participated in raising and spending over $260 million in funds supporting Republican congressional candidates in the 2022 midterm elections.110
Coleman also cooperates with Urenco, a supplier of uranium for nuclear power plants. Urenco has uranium enrichment plants in Germany, Netherlands, UK, and U.S.
Ukrainian nuclear company Energoatom and Urenco Group reached an agreement on longterm enriched uranium supplies for Ukrainian nuclear power plants starting in 2026 to replace Russian supplies.111 The company paid Hogan Lovells about $600,000 for services in 2023.
Hogan Lovells pursues the interests of its major clients and in cooperation with Pinchuk worked pro bono with members of Congress to help host an exhibition of the Pinchuk Foundation dedicated to the Russian aggression. This work included the organization of contact with Sen. (D-Minn.) Amy Klobuchar and an exchange of e-mails with chiefs of staff of GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and Thom Tillis. Coleman asked for the event to be hosted at the Capitol “to give members of Congress a better understanding of the horrific loss of life and the tragic agony that the people of Ukraine have experienced over the course of the last year as a direct result of Russian war crimes” and to “do as much as possible to ensure continued, strong, bipartisan support for the truly heroic efforts that this administration and Congress have made to provide essential military and economic assistance to Ukraine.” This October, the Victor Pinchuk Foundation opened the Russian War Crimes exhibition at The Dodd Center for Human Rights at the University of Connecticut (USA).112 Pinchuk addressed the Summit at The Dodd Center and spoke about strengthening air defense with F16 fighter jets (manufactured by Lockheed Martin).
With pro bono work for the Pinchuk Foundation, this benefited the company’s major clients interested in the conflict in Ukraine. Looking Glass Cyber Solutions113 and HawkEye 360114 are also Norm Coleman’s clients with extensive contracts with the U.S. Department of Defense.
Looking Glass, which paid Hogan Lovells $200,000 in 2022, holds a five-year contract with the Department of Defense “to provide tailored cyber threat intelligence data and enhance the mission effectiveness of US military cyber threat analysts and operators.” The company website describes the role of such threats in Russia’s military strategy.
HawkEye 360, which also paid $200,000 to Hogan Lovells in 2022, similarly is a defense department contractor specializing in detection and geolocation of radio signals. Their detection network conducted analysis in Ukraine and their website boasts the identification of GPS interference in Ukraine, appearing to be part of Moscow’s “integration of electronic warfare tactics into Russian military operation, meant to further degrade Ukraine’s ability for self-defense.”115
Coleman and Hogan Lovells working on the Saudi account engage in what he calls “specific advocacy assignments with regard to US Government officials, Members of Congress and their staffs, representatives of media organizations and/or other individuals involved in legislative, regulatory, public policy or public affairs matters, and/or in other activities of interest to the foreign principal.”116. The aforementioned Privat case describes the work of Hogan Lovells in terms of conflict of interest in relation to Ukrainian clients and confirms the company’s role as a channel for attracting attention and informing third parties among the U.S. policy makers.
In December 2016, interestingly, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko gave the nod to seize PrivatBank from Ihor Kolomoyskyi under the pretext of nationalization and with the help of Hogan Lovells117. The company’s audit revealed coordinated, large-scale fraud at PrivatBank over a ten year period and found a “shady bank” formed from a network of offshore companies. The Kroll audit took place as part of Ukraine’s commitments to the IMF.118
Tracking Kolomoyskyi’s assets, Hogan Lovells hired the British private intelligence agency Diligence, founded by former MI5 officer Nick Day and his friends from the CIA119.
The Aspen Institute (USA) funded by the Pinchuk Foundation has been developing ideas and values of communities and civil society organizations since 2006. Partners have been holding seminars for the Aspen-Ukraine Alumni Association in Ukraine since 2008.
It is important to emphasize that the Aspen Institute is initially associated with the U.S. military and strategic vector. In terms of clans, Aspen is linked to the Pratt family who, in turn, have ties to Standard Oil and the Rockefellers. The Institute was established with the support of a Cold War strategist Paul Henry Nitze (his brother-in-law Walter Paepcke founded the Aspen Institute and Aspen Skiing Company). Mr. Nitze is a former Wall Street banker with Dillon, Read and Co. He was married to Phyllis Pratt120. He is said to be part of the influence group of German arms companies in the U.S. defense industry in Colorado. Conclusions made by his intelligence think tank, Team B, regarding weapons capabilities and aggressive nuclear war strategies were exaggerated.121 Paul Nitze acted on behalf of the Baruchs, an influential American-German family at the core of the U.S. economy reorientation, to serve the defense industry beginning in the 1930s and the U.S. arms development.
Today, Aspen is publicly associated with the Clintons and defending Hunter Biden’s reputation in the Burisma corruption scandal. In the 2020 report of the Center for International Policy, the Aspen Institute ranked fifth on the list of U.S. think tanks receiving foreign funding. Among its major donors is Craig Newmark, Craigslist Founder and a private sponsor of Democratic candidates, as well as the parents of Amazon Founder, Jeff Bezos, Jacklyn and Miguel Bezos.122
In 2021, the Aspen Institute established the Commission on Information Disorder to counter “malicious” actors “sowing distrust and discord in the civil society” by spreading false information.123 The Commission was slammed for its left-wing political bias, censoring news critical of the Democratic Party and left-wing interests. Currently, AI technologies are developed by the Aspen Institute at the so-called censorship and industrial complex working in tandem with various tech giants and government agencies to attack free speech online, especially during election periods.
In Ukraine, the Aspen Institute has partnered with leaders promoting the social capitalism model, Luminate (Omidyar Network) and Impact Hub, the Klitschko Foundation and OSCE.124
The real power in Ukraine has effectively been taken over by transnational banking groups. And with the U.S. represented by BlackRock Foundation dominating the landscape, the public policies of which are maintained by the Clinton and Biden families. The oligarch Victor Pinchuk is a local managing intermediary of this group of influence in Ukraine. For many years, he has been developing a narrow circle of high-level contacts with anticorruption organizations, intelligence agencies, strategic global centers, and the non-profit shadow policy sector. These organizations make up the core for lobbying the U.S. defense industry and shaping strategic policies on the Western support for Ukraine.
Victor Pinchuk’s role is to serve the interests of large center-left political institutions associated with BlackRock. Zelenskyy’s team came up with an administrative “deoligarchization” tool at the behest of the White House to deter figures who pose a threat to the U.S. control of Ukrainian assets. This causes the hijacking of the political landscape, but will not affect Pinchuk who has connections and status to provide immunity. The anticorruption political agenda is a stable strategic narrative advocated by the globalist elite, used as a way to get rid of opponents. If we take a broadside approach to such a phenomenon, it is more than just fighting criminal schemes and nationalizing assets. The anti-corruption system is well monetized.
This benefit is further demonstrated by the actions of Kangaroo Group, the largest network lobbying firm. In addition to members of the European Parliament, this organization brings together and maintains informal contacts with more than 50 corporate participants from different sectors that make up BlackRock’s portfolio, including Goldman Sachs, BP, Volkswagen and such defense contractors, as EADS, Thales, Saab, Boeing125. The organizations provide the informal dialog with the Ukrainian establishment, that is necessary to promote its own interests in the region.126
The President of Kangaroo Group is German politician Michael Gahler, a member of the European Parliament since 1999, the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, and the European People’s Party. He has considerable influence on the political landscape.
In July, Michael Gahler addressed parliamentary hearings and was backed on his report, Establishing the Ukraine Facility127, according to which the Facility should provide €50 billion in EU financial aid to Ukraine based on current prices for the period from 2024 to 2027. The funds are intended to facilitate Ukraine’s future membership in the European Union. The paper places great emphasis on monitoring and anti-corruption functions which require Europe to provide greater assistance and more resources, without which reconstruction and direct funding of Ukrainian institutions would be vulnerable to embezzlement.
Based on the paper, these funds will benefit defense contractors, legal lobbyists, private intelligence organizations, developers of special software for investigations, cybersecurity and data collection, non-profit organizations, and civic groups associated with BlackRock and its satellites, represented by Soros-linked institutions and experts. Victor Pinchuk offers a discussion platform, funding for relevant NGOs and the agenda for Ukraine’s military funding. At the core of the lobbying is Hogan Lovells, the Aspen Institute, the Atlantic Council and David Petraeus whose ties are closely bound with the arms lobby and permanent members of the Bilderberg Club.
On 8 May, Zelenskyy and Fink signed a development agreement to establish the so-called Ukraine Development Fund (UDF) with BlackRock Financial Market Advisory (BlackRock FMA) funded by JP Morgan Bank. Under the program for privatization of the most profitable and liquid private, public and municipal assets, Black Rock planned to invest about $100 billion in UDF, which is more than two-thirds of Ukraine’s annual GDP.
BlackRock and The Vanguard Group are owned by one another on a circular ownership basis. These foundations bring together the world’s richest families – Rockefeller, Rothschild, du Pont, Mellon128, Wallenberg. Among BlackRock top managers are several retired CIA officers.129
According to the terms of the deal, BlackRock will manage Ukrainian assets, including the funds provided as part of “foreign aid.” Thus, Ukrainian strategic enterprises, including “nationalized” ones, will most likely end up under transnational control. This scheme will also be used to manage Ukraine’s foreign debt which, according to the Ministry of Finance, is approaching $150 billion, or 100% of the national GDP. Officially, the agreement is intended to attract investments in energy, infrastructure and agriculture, but due to the weak subsidized economy destroyed by the war, it leads to the seizure of Ukraine’s major assets on account of debt repayment – from ferti le black soi l to power grids.
BlackRock’s satellites have already gained control over Naftogaz, having Europe’s second largest gas reserves through the mediation of Lazard Investment (the Lazards are a family of bankers known for their competition with the Rothschilds in France) and Lazard Freres & Co., a SAS representative (owned by the Wallenberg family), who restructured Eurobonds. The foundation has launched large-scale seizures and buyups of Ukraine’s ample agricultural lands at discounted prices in connection with companies’ debts to the IMF. This is a major creditor of companies going bankrupt.
Joe Biden appointed Penny Pritzker (a representative of Europe’s top-10 richest families from the Chicago group130) as the United States Special Representative for Ukraine’s Economic Recovery at UDF, known for a failed initiative to create a single free trade area in the Pacific Ocean. Ms. Pritzker will build a top-down colonial operation by reforming the Ukrainian government “in the sphere of transparency and accountability of the country’s recovery, including total control of law enforcement, judicial system in the fight against corruption, and management of state-owned enterprises.”
It should be emphasized that the Chicago-based Pritzker billionaire family are historically Jewish immigrants from Kyiv. The Pritzkers generously funded Obama and Biden. Penny Pritzker’s brother supported the Clintons131 who are allied with Pinchuk.
Nationality: Israel, Cyprus. In 2022, he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.
In 2022, Kolomoyskyi’s fortune ranked him eleventh on the Forbes list. After the nationalization of oil assets last year, Ihor Kolomoyskyi lost $1 billion. He is now neither a billionaire nor on the list, as he was stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship. From 2014 to 2015, he was Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. He is also a defendant in several criminal cases in the United States and Ukraine.
Nationality: UK, Israel, Cyprus, Ukraine (he renounced his citizenship in 2017 but it was reinstated in 2021).
Starting 1999, Boholiubov has been President of the Dnipropetrovsk Jewish Community and traditionally accompanied Israeli top-level officials visiting Ukraine. He also regularly donated large amounts to synagogues in Israel.
In 2022, Boholiubov’s fortune ranked ninth on the Forbes top-20 list of the richest Ukrainians. Boholiubov is Chairman and Founder of the Jewish charity, Simha Foundation. He provides assistance to Jews all over the world and has donated more than $80 million to Chabad. On behalf of his foundation, Boholiubov funded the excavation near the Temple Mount conducted by the Anglo-Israel Archaeological Society132.
Privat is an informal umbrella name for Ukraine’s largest financial and industrial group. Its principal owners are two oligarchs: Hennadiy Boholiubov, who keeps a low profile, and Ihor Kolomoyskyi, who is politically and media active. Boholiubov deals with the banking side of the business, while Kolomoyskyi – the steel companies. The Privat Group, directly or indirectly, includes over 100 enterprises in Ukraine and worldwide.
Ihor Kolomoyskyi has made numerous scandalous connections and faced multiple charges. He is reportedly involved in contract killings and corporate intimidation in Ukraine. He also has a reputation as a dangerous man willing to resort to violence and is considered one of the first oligarchs to act as a warlord. In the past, Kolomoyskyi had been accused of contract killings and embezzlement.
Kolomoyskyi and his business partner Boholiubov are known regionally as “The Raiders,” and maintain a “quasi-military force,” or “army of thugs,” to “effect violent seizures of their opponents’ assets.” Kolomoyskyi and his partner Boholiubov used these forces, armed with various weapons, as a component of “strong-arm tactics” to advance their business interests and counter Russian influence in 2014.
Information about the FBI investigation into Kolomoyskyi is linked to possible financial crimes, including money laundering. This investigation was launched less than two weeks before the presidential elections in Ukraine. Kolomoyskyi was linked to a leading candidate in the election.
Just weeks before Zelenskyy’s accession to presidency, the FBI launched an investigation into Ihor Kolomoyskyi, suspecting him of money laundering. In this case, he is represented by the influential lobbying firm, Ashcroft Law Firm133, closely affiliated with the Republican Party and the Bush Jr. administration. Mike Sullivan, an attorney handling the case for Kolomoyskyi, is the former U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts and chiefly works for the GOPers.
Meanwhile, the oligarch stayed in Tel Aviv, as the influence of Chabad-linked Prime Minister, Netanyahu, gave Kolomoyskyi every reason to believe he would not be extradited to the U.S.
On behalf of Trump’s attorney, Rudy Giuliani, two Florida businessmen, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas134, flew to Israel to meet Ihor Kolomoyskyi to negotiate aid for Giuliani’s efforts to reopen the Burisma Holdings case. Their visit to Kolomoyskyi ended up in Giuliani meeting the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine and Chabad representative, Moshe Reuven Azman, in Paris135.
Later, Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas were arrested on charges of campaign finance violations, specifically donating $325,000 to a political action committee supporting Trump’s reelection. It is also important to emphasize that Fruman and Parnas have ties to the Friends of Anatevka and could play a role in donating funds for the benefit of the said organization. As part of the same scandal, it transpired that Fruman and Parnas were linked to efforts to replace the United States Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch136.
From 2017 to 2019, Ihor Kolomoyskyi financed Debbie Jessika Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign for the House of Representatives in Florida. In 2018 and 2020, he also financed the election campaign in the 26th Congressional District in Miami and donated about $10,000 through its employees and agents. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is a member of the Democratic Party and volunteered for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama.
Uriel Laber, who contributed $2,500 to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign, and Mordechai Korf are American businessmen with stakes in some of the Privat companies who played an important role in connections with Ihor Kolomoyskyi and his financial operations. Laber is also named in PrivatBank’s civil suit and is implicated in not only Kolomoyskyi’s fraud and money laundering scheme, but in racketeering and civil conspiracy as well. Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber are sponsors of various Jewish organizations and yeshivas. They are passionate philanthropists and support the Chabad movement. This religious group connection and charitable activities offer them a handful of dependable money laundering schemes using charities.
Chabad uses Privat’s financial resources to gain influence with both U.S. parties.
From 2017 to 2023, Soros-affiliated Hogan Lovells, one of the largest U.S. lobbying firms, represented Ukraine-based PrivatBank on behalf of Petro Poroshenko in his actions against the former owners, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholi ubov. They also advocated Victor Pinchuk’s philanthropy on behalf of the arms lobby connected with Soros’s interests in Ukraine.137
A long struggle for control over Ferrexpo and Poltava Mining between the Privat Group and another Ukrainian oligarch, Kostyantyn Zhevaho, had several stages, as a series of court hearings ended in favor of either one side or the other. Eventually, Zhevaho won the case in the court of last resort, upon which the Chairman of the Supreme Court, Kniaziev, was arrested on charges of bribery. Due to the seizure of all Zhevaho’s assets back in 2020, however, the ultimate beneficiary of the trial was the famous BlackRock Foundation, the second largest Ferrexpo shareholder, and Soros-linked Dragon Capital managing Ferrexpo.
The struggle for control of assets in Ukraine between the Chabad-associated Privat Group and Soros-linked organizations is the embodiment of a systemic confrontation reflected in other countries as part of the global trend:
The aforementioned situations show signs of a systemic confrontation between two global groups of influence, pursuing their political and economic goals amid the global crisis. The conflict between the Privat Group (Chabad) and groups who can loosely be labeled Soros- linked groups in Ukraine is a specific manifestation of this trend and plays into the logic of confrontation between global projects.
Let’s take a closer look at the richest history of conflicts among Ukrainian oligarchs revolving around Kolomoyskyi and his assets in order to understand the strength of opponents and alliances.
PrivatBank. In 1992, Boholiubov and Ihor Kolomoyskyi established one of the largest banks in Ukraine. From 2003 to 2016, the bank accounted for about 25% of the country’s banking sector and held deposits worth over $6 billion which amount to around 33% of the total deposits in Ukraine. As a result of a massive fraud and theft, PrivatBank was nationalized in December 2016.
2016: Large-scale investigations launched by the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) uncovered a scheme created by the bank owners to steal over $5 billion by issuing fraudulent loans. The National Bank of Ukraine declared PrivatBank insolvent. The Ukrainian Government backed the proposal to nationalize PrivatBank.
Weeks before nationalization, Boholiubov signed an agreement to sell Consolidated Minerals to China Tian Yuan Manganese Limited, a subsidiary of Ningxia Tianyuan Manganese Industry Co., Ltd. The nationalization of PrivatBank in 2017 was greeted by IMF, EBRD, UK and U.S. governments.
In April 2019, the Kyiv District Administrative Court satisfied Ihor Kolomoyskyi’s lawsuit on the grounds that the nationalization had been carried out in breach of the law. Interestingly, the ruling came days before the second round of presidential elections, when it was crystal clear that Zelenskyy had won. The National Bank of Ukraine announced plans to appeal the court ruling, considering it a threat to the national financial stability.
Erlan tried to prove collusion between PrivatBank and NBU. However, PrivatBank won the case in the Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court. PJSC Erlan is linked to former PrivatBank owners. The company tried to oblige the bank to repay debts to NBU. The Grand Chamber of the Supreme Court reaffirmed Kolomoyskyi’s defense points.
In 2019, former PrivatBank incorporators were sued in one of the U.S. courts over the largest ever alleged money laundering scheme of $470 billion, carried out between 2006 and 2016.140
2020: Legal action filed with the Kyiv Commercial Court demanding the return of a 33.25% stake held by Hennadiy Boholiubov prior to the nationalization of PrivatBank.
2021: Satisfaction of PrivatBank’s petition and rejection of the legal action filed by the former shareholder of the bank, Hennadiy Boholiubov, for the return of a 33.25% stake in the financial institution. In 2021, Forbes estimated his fortune at $1.7 billion.
Ferroalloys. The Privat Group took an active part in the Ukrainian steel industry operating through mining, beneficiation and ferroalloy plants. In 2007, the group gained control over a 99.25% stake in Sukha Balka Mining and Beneficiation Plant. After the acquisition of the world’s largest manganese ore producers, Consolidated Minerals (Consmin), with major assets in Australia and Ghana in 2008, the group controls approximately 30% of the global ferroalloy market. Privat-Intertrading dominates the Ukrainian manganese ore market.
In 2009, the duo gained indirect control over a 3% stake in Ferrexpo (Switzerland) and Poltava Mining acting through Fayver Properties (Belize). Later, Boholiubov and Kolomoyskyi bought a 10% stake and attempted to get seats on Ferrexpo’s supervisory board. They, however, walked into significant opposition from the company owner Kostyantyn Zhevaho. With these attempts thwarted, Boholiubov and Kolomoyskyi had to sell their Ferrexpo stock. Thus, their new role in the situation was to attempt to gain influence over Ferrexpo’s management and their involvement in company stock transactions.
In 2021, Trimcroft Services, Gilson Investments, Calefort Developments, and Emsworth Assets, companies with links to Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Hennadiy Boholiubov, won a lawsuit against Zhevaho in the Kyiv Commercial Court which ruled that a 40.19% stake in the mining company must be transferred to plaintiffs.
In early 2023, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv City seized the property of PJSC Ordzhonikidze Mining and Beneficiation Plant, PJSC Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant, PJSC Marhanets Mining and Beneficiation Plant in a case of the misappropriation of public funds by PrivatBank officials.
In September 2022, the Northern Commercial Court of Appeal annulled agreements for the purchase and sale of a 40.19% stake in Ferrexpo-owned Poltava Mining made 20 years before. In March 2023, the ruling of the commercial court of appeal was reversed. The aforementioned equity stake remained in Ferrexpo’s ownership. The final judgment of the Supreme Court finally foiled all attempts by Privat-linked offshore companies to seize the stake in Poltava Mining from Ferrexpo. The case was on everyone’s mind in business and mass media and was considered an attempt to raid a major industrial asset.
In May 2023, Chairman of the Supreme Court, Vsevolod Kniaziev, was arrested for a $3 million bribe from the oligarch, Kostyantyn Zhevaho, in the case of privatization of Poltava Mining.
A 50.3% stake in Ferrexpo plc. is owned by Luxembourg-based Fevamotinico Sarl incorporated by the Ukrainian oligarch Kostyantyn Zhevaho; the famous globalist foundation BlackRock, Inc. holds 6.0% of ordinary shares; Schroder Investment Management Limited has an interest of about 5.8% in the company. BlackRock is the company’s Largest shareholder second only to Zhevaho, who is currently under arrest in France over the case of JSC Finance and Credit Bank, where Zhevaho and top managers of the bank are accused of stealing $113 million. Zhevaho is under house arrest in France and the property of Zhevaho-affiliated companies was also seized. In October 2020, all seized assets were handed over to the Ukrainian asset recovery agency. Currently, Ferrexpo plc. is managed by Soros-linked Dragon Capital.141
Among the Cyprus-based offshore companies which started this case litigation 20 years ago are:
Trimcroft Services Limited, Emsworth Assets Limited, Gilson Investments Limited, Calefort Developments Limited.
Sofia Isidorou Siachinian is Director of the four aforementioned Cyprus-based companies and reportedly has ties to the Privat Group. In this case, we see that the Privat Group is feuding with George Soros affiliated companies in the steel industry and the facts around this conflict indicate that both opposing factions have and use influence on the Ukrainian government to advance their cause.
At Hogan Lovells, PrivatBank’s Lawsuits against Hennadiy Boholiubov and Ihor Kolomoyskyi were handled by Chris Hardman, Richard I. Lewis, Jenna Ralfe and Michael Davison, the latter of whom is Deputy Director of Hogan Lovells.
The same attorneys represent Victor Pinchuk,142 giving an extra context to the conflict between different financial and political interests, as Victor Pinchuk is a Ukrainian businessman and philanthropist, whose activities are linked to international foundations, including foundations linked to George Soros and hostile to Kolomoyskyi.
Like Kolomoyskyi, Pinchuk is regarded as a supporter of the Chabad religious movement. But unlike the Privat top figures, in business and politics, Pinchuk cooperates with another global sponsor competing with Chabad for influence.143
1+1. In 2009-2010, CME held several transactions to transfer the ownership of 1+1 TV channel to its minority shareholder, Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The overall value of these transactions exceeded $400 million. The sale was eventually closed in April 2010.
Today, 1+1 Studio is controlled by more than ten offshore companies incorporated in Cyprus, Belize, and BVI. As of 31 December 2017, Ihor Kolomoyskyi has been the ultimate beneficial owner, while Ihor Surkis the owner of a substantial stake.
The TV channel waged an information campaign against Poroshenko. This conflict was part of Kolomoyskyi’s struggle for power and property after 2014. The release of “Servant of the People” TV series heralded the launch of an information campaign to nominate Zelenskyy and fanned the flames of hostility between Kolomoyskyi and Poroshenko’s chief of staff, Borys Lozhkin.
In October 2023, Kolomoyskyi assigned his corporate rights for 1+1 Media to incumbent General Director of the company, Yaroslav Pakholchuk, for a period of five years.
Ukrnafta is the largest oil and gas producer in Ukraine, producing approximately 62% of the country’s oil and 6% of the country’s natural gas in 2019. Ukrnafta-owned gas processing plants are the leading liquefied gas producers in Ukraine.
Until 2015, the majority stake in the state-owned company Ukrnafta was held by the government, but the actual management was carried out by Ihor Kolomoyskyi’s companies. Zelenskyy was unhappy with the situation, so in March 2015, regulation changes brought down the quorum for shareholders’ meetings from 60% to 50% + 1 share which allowed the government to gain control over the company.
This situation triggered litigation and a conflict over control of Ukrnafta. This is when the British seizure mechanism powered on. The London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA) ruled that disputable provisions of the shareholders’ agreement regarding the management of Ukrnafta were unenforceable. The government tried to shuffle Ukrnafta management which only led to a violent confrontation over control of the company. The situation escalated into a public confrontation with the president. Later, the conflict was resolved at a meeting between Kolomoyskyi and Poroshenko in the presence, and with the active participation, of the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt. As a result, Kolomoyskyi was dismissed from his post as Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast.
In 2016, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine and Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office launched a probe into the appropriation of the property and funds of PJSC Ukrnafta for an overall amount of UAH 13.8 billion. In August 2021, charges were aligned, while the investigation came to an end in August 2023. As a result, law enforcers charged eight individuals, including the company’s former top management controlled by Kolomoyskyi. The law enforcement investigation revealed the violation of a government decree on full payment for oil supplies and that the funds spent were transferred abroad to the accounts of several offshore companies.
In November 2022, stakes in the largest companies of the Privat Group, including Ukrnafta and Ukrtatnafta, were transferred to the owners of state-owned companies which, for the time being, meant the loss of a significant part of the group’s assets due to martial law. Initially, Hennadiy Boholiubov and Ihor Kolomoyskyi were the owners of 60% of shares in these companies (with the rest of shares held by Naftogaz). Ukrtatnafta’s major asset was Kremenchuk Refinery which was damaged in Russian missile attacks in May. In 2015, the law enforcement investigation found that Ukrnafta shipped more than UAH 10.7 billion worth of raw materials to companies affiliated with Ihor Kolomoyskyi’s Privat Group before full payment was made. Currently, the investigation is complete; most of the funds have gone into offshore jurisdictions; NABU had the court annul 60 such agreements for almost UAH 3 billion.
DniproAzot. 2012: Acquisition of shares in DniproAzot, Ukraine’s sole liquid chlorine producer. Leveraging water treatment systems, Privat put pressure on water service companies and the government to gain preferences or other favorable terms for the plant. In early 2023, the Pecherskyi District Court of Kyiv City arrested PJSC DniproAzot as part of the case of appropriation of public funds by PrivatBank officials.
Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) was Ukraine’s largest airline prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Cyprus-based Ontobet Promotions Limited amassed 25.83% of UIA shares. In turn, Capital Investment Project owned by Ihor Kolomoyskyi increased its stake from 51.64% to 74.16%.
In 2014, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Aron Mayberg fought for control of the aviation industry with the aviation service provider Swissport in Switzerland after they acquired a partner enterprise in 2011. This conflict ended with a change in the shareholding structure and although, on paper, Swissport obtained a 70% stake, the company was still controlled by the oligarchs. Litigation is ongoing even though such a long time has passed. Kolomoyskyi even said that he would suspend all his business affairs until he leaves political office. This situation tarnished Ukraine’s investment reputation.144 Pavlo Ovcharenko, Ukrtatnafta CEO, is a shareholder of the company just as Mayberg and Kolomoyskyi.
In April 2023, Ihor Kolomoyskyi and Aron Mayberg retired from the list of founders of Ukraine International Airlines (UIA). As a result, Aron Mayberg was recalled from the UIA supervisory board by its shareholder, Capital Investment Project. Hanna Borysonnyk who earlier worked for Kolomoyskyi-linked companies was appointed the new UIA President. Aron Mayberg’s more than ten-year reign at UIA, beginning when the company was first privatized in 2011, came to an end. The Kyiv court declared UIA bankrupt upon request of the state-owned Ukreximbank.
Warren Steel Holdings is a U.S. based steel plant of Ihor Kolomoyskyi. The U.S. government accused him of creating a sophisticated scheme to launder money by acquiring real property and industrial assets in the Midwest. Warren Steel was one of these assets. According to the federal government, Kolomoyskyi and his companies invested borrowed funds into U.S. assets, including about $9 million, which was invested in Warren Steel. Later, Warren Steel used its plant as security to borrow mortgage loans of $110.7 million, a part of which was linked to Kolomoyskyi. However, after the plant temporarily reopened, it was shut down permanently in 2016 and the U.S. government confiscated several Kolomoyskyi-owned properties. Warren Steel left nearly $750,000 in property tax debt.145
This is the point where the Firtash-Asquith alliance collides with British interests in Kolomoyskyi’s assets. JKX Oil & Gas plc. is UK-based, listed on the London Stock Exchange while operating assets in Russia, Ukraine and six other countries. In 2011, VTB Capital plc., a VTB Bank company, increased its interest in JKX Oil & Gas to 6.4%, while Ihor Kolomoyskyi of the Privat Group became its largest shareholder with a 27.06% stake. In 2016, Ronald Asquith left the company under pressure from Kolomoyskyi and his partners.
JKX Oil & Gas is focused on projects in Ukraine and Russia producing most oil and gas outside state-owned companies. They have licenses for oil fields in Poltava Oblast and acquisition of Yuzhgazenergie with a license for the gas field in Koshekhablsky District in Southern Russia. Currently, the company’s board consists of Ukrainian managers from Ukrnafta.
In May 2019, PrivatBank filed a lawsuit against Ihor Kolomoyskyi, Hennadiy Boholiubov and three American agents for Kolomoyskyi, Mordechai Korf, Chaim Schochet and Uriel Laber. The lawsuit was also filed against twenty companies owned by Kolomoyskyi and Boholiubov, located in the United States. According to PrivatBank’s lawsuit, Uriel Laber directly or indirectly owned Georgian American Alloys, Inc. and its subsidiaries, such as CC Metals and Alloys, LLC, Felman Production, LLC, and Felman Trading, Inc. All these companies were also linked to Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Uriel Laber also has ties to Optima Acquisitions, Inc., Optima Specialty Steel, Inc. and Niagara LaSalle Corp. Robert Powell, also linked to Kolomoyskyi, acted as the General Counsel or Chief General Counsel for all of these businesses.
Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber acted as intermediaries for Ihor Kolomoyskyi by transferring around $4 billion of his tainted income to buy properties and companies in the United States. This information is based on three civil lawsuits filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.146
Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber are accused of laundering billions for the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi, as they generously shelled out more than $11 million to nearly 70 yeshivas and religious charities in New York. Some of these organizations include: Colel Chabad (Chabad Lubavitch) receiving $466,647 and The Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) receiving nearly $1 million.
These organizations include many charitable institutions, such as yeshivas and religious educational media in Brooklyn and across the state.147
Until 2015, Korf and Laber held 7% of shares in PrivatBank’s foreign branch148 and co-owned PrivatBank’s subsidiary in Latvia.
Uriel Laber is also seated on the supervisory board of Ukrnafta, a Ukrainian oil and gas company, in which the Privat Group (Kolomoyskyi and Boholiubov) holds a substantial stake.
Korf is a member of one of the most renowned families from the Chabad movement. His parents, Abraham and Rivka, arrived in Miami from Brooklyn in the early 1960s as emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Menachem Mendel Schneerson.149 Laber has served as a director for Jewish Educational Media, a non-profit organization that promotes the works and ideas of Grand Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the founder of the movement. They have donated large amounts to this organization as well as the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS and one more charity, Colel Chabad.
From 2009 to 2010, Central European Media Enterprises sold 1+1 TV channel to its minority shareholder Kolomoyskyi.
Central European Media Enterprises was established by the billionaire Ronald Lauder, one of the owners of the Estee Lauder Companies incorporated in Bermuda. He is a member of the famous Lauder family. His mother, Estee Lauder, is the founder of the U.S.-based cosmetics company.
In 1984, Ronald became Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO policy at the United States Department of Defense and served as the United States Ambassador to Austria.
Lauder is the President of the World Jewish Congress, a member of the U.S. Republican Party, a representative of the Israeli lobby, a vocal supporter of the Likud party, with longstanding ties to Benjamin Netanyahu and close ties to Chabad. In Austria, the Jewish educational institution, Lauder Chabad Campus owned by the Chabad movement, bears his family’s last name. Lauder is its permanent sponsor.
Lauder’s son-in-law, Kevin Warsh, was an FRS board member from 2006 to 2011. He was the youngest FRS board member, nominated by Bush Jr. , a former steering committee member of the Bilderberg Group. He is also a former executive director of Morgan Stanley and worked in New York to sort out details with Goldman.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell is an American politician and a member of the Democratic Party who served as a U.S. representative for Florida’s 26th congressional district from 2019 to 2021. In 2023, she announced she would be running in the 2024 United States Senate election in Florida against incumbent Republican Rick Scott. She volunteered for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama and ran unsuccessfully for the Florida Senate in 2016.
Debbie Mucarsel-Powell received about $10,000 for her election campaign from the employees and agents of the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi.
The known facts and contributions to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign from the employees and agents working for Ihor Kolomoyskyi include: In September, 2017, Robert Powell contributed $2,700 to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s campaign, listing his employer as Georgian American Alloys, Inc.
The aforementioned Robert Powell is Debbie Mucarsel-Powell’s spouse, and, according to the information provided, had ties to companies affiliated with the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Robert Powell acted as the General Counsel or Chief General Counsel for the businesses associated with Kolomoyskyi and financial shenanigans.
Ihor Kolomoyskyi appeared to be one of the unsinkable figures among the Ukrainian business and political elites – he was a representative of the informal post-Soviet Dnipropetrovsk clan in the Ukrainian establishment, also including former President Leonid Kuchma and former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. The Privat Group is backed by the influential global Jewish orthodox movement, Chabad, whose members acted as intermediaries in laundering Kolomoyskyi’s money.
The PrivatBank Group is at war with the Soros-Pinchuk alliance. Until recently, Kolomoyskyi and Boholiubov have been among the most influential players in the finance, oil industry and ferroalloy market, and waves of lawsuits are rapidly stripping them of key assets. The group faced consolidated forces of Soros-linked anti-corruption individuals and organizations with the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine at the heart of this alliance. The Privat Group had many corruption schemes. They financed and protected Zelenskyy.
Kolomoyskyi’s media empire, 1+1 media, established by the Chabad member and U.S. conservative Ronald Lauder and his Central European Media Enterprises, became a powerful tool of influence in the campaign of the now incumbent president. The Lauder family are Chabad members and sponsors. Also, Kolomoyskyi was tied to Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who volunteered for the presidential campaigns of John Kerry and Barack Obama, and her husband Robert Powell.
In March 2021, the U.S. sanctioned Kolomoyskyi and his associates. Zelenskyy openly supported Washington’s decision despite Kolomoyskyi’s help in the election campaign.
Stripping citizenship and lack of strategic alliances or protection of the British and U.S. structures, having influence in Ukraine, means seizing assets effectively blocks the Privat Group’s comeback to big politics in any of the alternative political scenarios in the foreseeable future.
Max Lytvyn (Maksym Lytvyn) is a Ukrainian programmer and billionaire, a co-founder of Grammarly.
In addition to his work in the tech industry, Max Lytvyn is also passionate about social and environmental issues. He has been a supporter of several charitable organizations and non-profits, including the Ukrainian Catholic Education Foundation and the Nature Conservancy.
He was among the bidders to buy Chelsea FC.
In 2001, he received a bachelor’s degree from the Kyiv International University. It was during this time that Shevchenko met his future co-founder Max Lytvyn.
In addition to Grammarly, he also serves on the board of FarmTogether, a tech investment platform for farming lands, where he is a seed investor.
Lytvyn and Shevchenko met during their studies at the International Christian University (ICU).
A minority shareholder (1%), Dmytro Lider oversees Grammarly’s social initiatives in Ukraine.
Grammarly’s funding of philanthropic initiatives includes:
Grammarly is the most expensive company with Ukrainian roots. By the end of 2022, the overall capital of Grammarly founders exceeded Rinat Akhmetov’s fortune.
Grammarly, a startup whose software pinpoints problems arising when people write in its web application and other programs.
In 2011, Bradley Hoover, the company’s current CEO, joined Grammarly. Hoover helped the founders turn the program into a company that guided everything they did going forward. According to him, the company has been profitable practically “since its inception.” Grammarly also has offices in Vancouver, New York, and Germany. In 2022, Grammarly moved most of its staff from Kyiv to Berlin.
Grammarly raised funding from General Catalyst Partners, IVP and private investors. The company value is estimated at $13 billion after raising new funding of $200 million from Baillie Gifford, General Catalyst, foundations and accounts managed by BlackRock, Founders Circle Capital, and other investors.
Curiously, Grammarly CEO Brad Hoover is a former investor of the venture company General Catalyst Partners. There he worked with fast-growing consumer internet, SaaS and mobile communications companies as a management board member and an adviser. General
Catalyst is also a strategic investor of defense projects, such as Helsing AI for different military-grade equipment – tanks, submarines, warplanes in cooperation with Saab, a Sweden-based aircraft and defense company owned by the Wallenberg family.153
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Grammarly founders have become active participants in charity events in support of the Ukrainian government’s humanitarian and military mission. They have also called for rallies against the Russian aggression.
Among Ukrainian organizations and foundations to which Grammarly sent donations are the government foundation established by Zelenskyy, Unaten24, with which Grammarly has the closest ties. As noted above, it is Unaten24 that gained funds from proceeds received from Russia since 2014.
Also, Grammarly’s representatives attended charity events hosted by the foundation which also raised funds for the Ukrainian government.
The foundation has established an extensive international network of ambassadors consisting of public figures, celebrities and businessmen lobbying the interests of the Ukrainian government abroad.
The most active Unaten24 ambassador is Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson who is closely tied to Pierre Omidyar, the founder of Omidyar Network, a philanthropic network at the core of the capitalism “reset.154” The Ukrainian branch of the Aspen Institute is funded by Luminate Omidyar.
Branson’s circle of acquaintances includes founders of the world’s largest busin ess empires and lobbyists. Among them is George Soros whom Branson, as he says, considers a friend. Branson supported the Euromaidan.155
Branson also condemned the Hungarian government after they attempted to close the Central European University established by Soros in Hungary in 1991156.
Grammarly founders whose wealth is comparable to Rinat Akhmetov’s capital are not directly involved in the Ukrainian political strife, nor are they oligarchs in the conventional sense. However, connections with globalist investment organizations, such as BlackRock and General Catalyst, recognition by Goldman, indirect ties to Omidyar Network, generous funding of Ukraine’s defense, including nationalist groups, may indicate possible protection and potential for political advancement into the field cleansed by anti-corruption activists.
The New Strategic Concept (NSC) is an independent, non-partisan, and non-commercial expert initiative, functioning as a network-centric think tank.
The mission of the NSC is to craft an alternative perspective.
The aim of the NSC is to assist our partners in perceiving events from a different viewpoint.
We endeavor to introduce an alternative understanding into the discourse, providing our own assessment of the emerging threats and opportunities associated with these events. The methodologies employed by our experts grant us a substantial informational advantage, allowing us to view a single event from multiple persp
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