From cooperative with Russians in Kozyn to legendary "Itera": who is organizer of mine scam Khoroshayev?
Censor.NET continues to study the case of the "Lviv Arsenal" and its defendants. Currently, the publication is focusing on Oleksiy Khoroshayev, a representative of the Slovak company Sevotech, who left for Prague just before Russia’s full-scale invasion. And in Ukraine, he did business with very difficult Russians - from a cooperative in Kozyn to the legendary gas supplier "Itera".
Organiser of the crime
On Monday, the High Anti-Corruption Court rejected the prosecutor's motion and did not impose a preventive measure on Oleksandr Liev, the former head of the Department of Military Technical Policy, Development of Arms and Military Equipment of the Ministry of Defence, who is suspected of embezzling almost UAH 1.5 billion in ammunition purchases for the Armed Forces.
As you know, Ukraine has not received a single piece of ammunition in a year.
How Ukraine lost 100,000 mines: what does female leadership and a granddaughter in the administration have to do with it, read in the Censor.NET investigation
Most of the court session concerned the strange conflict of why the HACC was considering the case of the National Police.
"You were investigating a crime, saw an official of the Ministry of Defence and decided to detain him. Then, after the detention, you found out that the case was under the jurisdiction of another body - the NABU. And then you had to transfer it. When do you plan to transfer it? You have not yet drawn up a resolution on the transfer of jurisdiction," the judge said.
This claim is well founded. Moreover, the members of the Anti-Corruption Council have been asking NABU to conduct an audit and open the relevant proceedings for more than six months. Now NABU will inherit it.
The National Police was enough to seize the funds after the first batch was not delivered. But then the case should have been transferred to the jurisdiction.
The most interesting thing the prosecutor said in court was that he named the organisers of the crime. It turned out to be a representative of Sevotech, Oleksiy Khoroshayev. He is also a former employee of the state-owned special importer "Progress", who was abroad at the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
The prosecution suspects that Oleksiy Khoroshayev, a representative of Sevotech's supervisory board, decided to take possession of funds intended for the purchase of ammunition. For this purpose, Khoroshayev, while abroad, created a criminal organised group, in which he involved Liev.
The prosecution believes that Khoroshayev and Liev acted as leaders of the organised group, gave instructions on how to obtain the funds and planned the further distribution of funds.
This is another reason to talk about this group in more detail.
Czech friends of Hmyryn and Moscow
Several Ukrainians were members of the supervisory board of "Sevotech", which failed to fulfil a contract with the Ministry of Defence for the supply of 17 bulletproof vests and helmets, and then failed to fulfil a contract for the supply of 100,000 mortar rounds as an intermediary.
In particular, the supervisory board of Sevotech still includes Oleksandr Khoroshayev, the former deputy CEO of "Progress".
At the same time, another Ukrainian, Vladyslav Klishchar, joined Sevotech's supervisory board for a year.
This is a person who is part of the entourage of Andriy Hmyryn, a Yanukovych-era fiscal officer who was a member of President Zelenskyy's office in 2021.
Hmyryn is a defendant in the NABU case of embezzlement of public funds from Odesa Port and the United Mining and Chemical Company. The case also involves Klishchar's companies EPI Group s.r.o. and Belanto, to which UMCC sold ilmenite at a low price, which was then shipped to Russia or occupied Crimea at market prices.
However, Hmyryn managed to flee abroad before the announcement of suspicions, and Klishchar was not charged.
In a commentary to Hromadske, Klishchar assured that he had never had anything to do with the Ministry of Defence's money. However, his arrival at Sevotech and his departure strangely coincide with the signing of a contract with "Lviv Arsenal" and the start of massive media coverage in 2023.
Klishchar has been living in the Czech Republic for a long time. He has several companies there, each more interesting than the last. Among them is a certain LEO INTERNATIONAL GRUPP, where Belanto's attorney Oleksandr Bezzubets and Oleksandr Belyaev are partners.
This is the same Oleksandr Belyaev, who is the brother-in-law of former SSU chief Ivan Bakanov and a former business partner of Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself.
Belyaev and Klishchar have another joint company - ILS INVESTMENT GROUP - with a third partner, Oleksandr Melnychuk. Almost nothing is known about this person in open sources, except that he was involved in the Lisovyk and Evis-stav companies. They have a large number of participants from all over Ukraine, which is surprising, as well as one Belarusian.
After previous investigations into Klishchar's team, Censor.NET received a photo of the business card of the mysterious Oleksandr Melnychuk.
As it turned out, this is the business card of the same Czech company owned by Katerina Haring, EDRCh. This company was established in 2021. Later, a charitable foundation was set up for it. On its website, the company proclaims its slogan to create independent arms supply chains for Ukraine.
But according to her social media accounts, Haring herself is engaged in something else entirely: exhibitions and women's leadership. In addition, Katerina does joint business with Russians. She studied in Moscow and has worked with the Russian Women's Union on several occasions.
But let's get back to the personality of Oleksiy Yurievich Khoroshayev.
So far, the author has been interested only in Khoroshayev's foreign activities.
The only thing officially known about him so far is that before the full-scale war, Oleksiy Khoroshayev worked as the deputy director general of "Progress", a state-owned arms exporting company that is part of Ukroboronprom.
Khoroshayev himself told Hromadske that he left Ukraine on 22 February 2022 on a business trip to Prague in his company car. When the invasion began, Khoroshayev stayed in the Czech Republic to organise the supply of weapons to Ukraine, allegedly with the permission of Ukrainian authorities, whom he refused to name.
Partner of Russians in co-operatives in Kozyn and Iter
However, the study of this person's business connections should provide a more comprehensive and unpleasant portrait of him.
The Slovak registers contain Khoroshayev's home address. Anna Khoroshayeva, his wife, is also mentioned in one of the organisations.
Thus, we can be sure that the author found the same Khoroshayev in the youcontrol system.
Among other things, Khoroshayev is the owner of Ostrovok LLC. Another co-owner is Russian citizen Valeriy Nilov. In Ukraine, Nilov is involved in the work of the Russian financial and investment groups "Sokrat" and "Alfa Capital".
Among the rather lame reports about his work, one can find a conflict over a 16% stake in Kievguma. (As you know, this company is currently involved in the SSU investigation into the sale of first aid kits to Russians.)
Interestingly, another founder of "Ostrovok" is Oleksandr Tabalov. He is the owner of the well-known dairy producer "Voloshkove Pole". However, Tabalov and his son are known to political journalists as the first carcass MPs in the Rada of the seventh convocation. They sided with the Party of Regions on the first day of the Rada's work.
Even then, local media reported on the friendship between the elder Tabalov and the odious Dmitriy Tabachnik. Later, journalist Maksym Opanasenko found Tabalov's and Tabachnyk's land plots in Kozyn next to each other.
And so, it turns out that Tabalov has a historical relationship with an inconspicuous company, which also includes Khoroshayev. And whose main forms of business are construction and "Installation of electrical wiring and fittings".
You might think it was just a coincidence. Russians, carcasses, the Party of Regions.
Khoroshayev and Nilov are co-founders of another business, the "Beregovyi-1" service cooperative. It is located in Kozyn, on Berehova Street.
In addition to these two individuals, Yuriy Kosogov is also listed among the owners. He is the brother of Andriy Kosogov, a member of the Board of Directors and First Deputy Chairman of the Management Board of Alfa-Bank.
In addition, Yuriy Kosogov is related to a number of lottery operators in Ukraine. Including M.S.L.
Another founder of the cooperative is Heorhiy Babych, whose company, "Bukovyna Oil and Gas Company" LLC, was sanctioned by the National Security and Defence Council in 2021.
It's an interesting cooperative, really.
Khoroshayev also owns the "Interlis" company, together with Oleksandr Zgurskyi. This is obviously the son of the late head of the Kyiv Executive Committee, Valentyn Zgurskyi, as another of his properties is FC Dynamo (Kyiv). Here we can also recall the bearded stories about the timber trade of SDPU(o) members.
In the context of his connection with Dynamo, Khoroshayev's next asset looks quite logical - he was even involved in the media business.
He is still the owner of "Rosa" TRC LLC.
The Broadcasting Council of Ukraine issued a broadcasting licence to "Rosa" TV and Radio Company on 3 October 2007.
As Detector Media wrote at the time, it was supposed to be the TV channel of the Kyiv Football Federation.
The founders of this channel were the NGO "Football Federation of Kyiv" (20%), as well as individuals Oleksiy Khoroshayev (41%) and Olena Boikova (39%).
According to Ivan Vovk, a member of the Supervisory Board of "Rosa" TV, it was supposed to be a "youth sports and entertainment channel".
In 2016, the channel's licence was cancelled.
In addition to "Interlis", Khoroshayev is also involved in "Interlis Invest", where his partner is Oleksandr Krysanchuk, co-owner of the "Astor" jewellery factory and "Ukrnaftomash" and "Kyiv-Nafta" companies.
In addition, Khoroshayev is involved in the Charitable Foundation for the Development of Ukraine, which is located at 2 Khreshchatyk Street and shares a telephone with the NGO "Council of Maidan Activists".
But probably the most interesting historical connection of Khoroshayev's is that he was the director of "Itera-Ukraine" for several months in 2009.
In case anyone has forgotten or was still in kindergarten, from 1996 to 2002, it was a key supplier of Russian gas to Ukraine.
In 2007, former "Ukrnafta" CEO Oleg Salmin said that negotiations between Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych and "Itera" CEO Ihor Makarov could result in the collapse of the "RosUkrEnergo" monopoly and Ukraine would get a new natural gas supplier. This new supplier was to be Itera again.
Already in 2009, Viktor Yushchenko's entourage hinted that Yulia Tymoshenko had negotiated with Dmytro Firtash's Rosukrenergo as an alternative to Itera. But the company never saw any new success. In 2008, the Russians re-registered it in a Cyprus offshore company. And so "Itera" exists to this day. But it is obvious that no outsider could enter the Russian gas company.
In an interview with Komentarii, Khoroshayev accused journalist Inna Popovych of Hromadske of seeking sensationalism to harm Ukraine and play into the hands of the Kremlin.
However, in the light of all the facts, there seems to be little doubt as to whose agent Khoroshayev himself and his friends from Czech companies are.
Tetyana Nikolayenko, Censor. NET
