Bankruptcy case: to whom will Halychyna Oil Refinery Complex pay billions in debts: state or Kolomoiskyi’s "offshore"?
How companies from Privat’s sphere of influence are trying to prevent the state from receiving their legitimate funds.
Halychyna Oil Refinery Complex (Drohobych Oil Refinery) in Lviv region was once one of Ukraine's largest oil refineries. But thanks to the "wise" management of its private owners, the company has long since stopped refining oil and is about to go bankrupt.
Bankruptcy proceedings were initiated last December due to the plant's billions of dollars in debts that had been accumulating for decades. How could this happen if the Halychyna Oil Refinery Complex (ORC) has not been operating for many years? And who is trying to prevent the state from receiving its legitimate money from the debtor plant?
The Drohobych enterprise is part of the so-called Privat business group. Its informal leaders are Ihor Kolomoiskyi and Hennadii Boholiubov.
They and their business partners earned billions of hryvnias for many years by controlling the semi-state-owned Ukrnafta. But it also allowed them to form intricate schemes, accrue fictitious debts, and conduct fraudulent transactions worth billions of hryvnias.
Halychyna ORC, which, although not operating, had the appropriate profile, infrastructure, licenses to operate in the oil market, etc., was one of the centers of such transactions until recently.
In the past, the state was deprived of taxes and revenues from the sale of oil and oil products because of this. Today, old contracts with "offshore" dubious traders who appear as if from nowhere can negatively affect the financing of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, for which every hryvnia from the state budget is important.
The story began in December 2023, when the Economic Court of Lviv Region opened bankruptcy proceedings against Halychyna ORC, introducing a procedure for disposing of its property and a moratorium on satisfying creditors' claims. At that time, Ukrnafta's claims for UAH 828,165,429.95 were also recognized.
However, according to the current legislation, all creditors had 30 days to file their own monetary claims against the debtor, Drohobych Oil Refinery. And they did.
In January 2024, a number of applications from potential creditors with monetary claims against Halychyna ORC were received from many companies. But some of them are simply fantastic - the non-operating plant owes billions of hryvnias:
- LITTOP ENTERPRISES LIMITED
- BORDO MANAGEMENT LIMITED
- BRIDGEMONT VENTURES LIMITED
- RAVENSCROFT HOLDINGS LIMITED
- NORDWIND TRADE AS
- "REPRESENTATION OF MOMENTUM ENTERPRISES (EASTERN EUROPE) LIMITED"
- VERSALA LTD
- UNITED ENERGY LLC
- PAFIS LLC
- BRIGHTON LTD.
Who are the companies that entrusted their funds to the Drohobych Oil Refinery? Open sources say that they are related to Ihor Kolomoiskyi and his business partners, who failed to keep oil refining in Drohobych but managed to impose space-scale debts on the enterprise.
LITTOP ENTERPRISES LIMITED, BORDO MANAGEMENT LIMITED та BRIDGEMONT VENTURES LIMITED
These are the Cyprus "offshore" companies of Kolomoiskyi and Boholiubov, through which they owned approximately 42% of Ukrnafta PJSC shares.
On November 6, 2022, according to the decision of the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the shares of Ukrnafta owned by these companies were alienated in favor of the state.
The stated (but not yet recognized by the court) claims of these creditors under dubious assignment of claim agreements for Ukrnafta's dividends for 2011-2014 amount to almost UAH 3 billion! Namely:
- LITTOP ENTERPRISES LIMITED - UAH 972,988,440.19.
- BORDO MANAGEMENT LIMITED - UAH 921,919,558.45.
- BRIDGEMONT VENTURES LIMITED - UAH 972,988,438.19.
This is not the first "financial opaque scheme" involving these companies. They have previously sued Ukraine in the Stockholm Arbitration Court to recover USD 6 billion from the state.
These "offshore" companies are also unsuccessfully appealing the state's seizure of Ukrnafta shares. Perhaps they are trying to take revenge for the loss of control over Ukrnafta in the bankruptcy case of Halychyna ORC, aren`t they?
RAVENSCROFT HOLDINGS LIMITED
Kolomoiskyi's offshore company from the British Virgin Islands, which was a member of the board of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant.
A similarly dubious "scheme" was applied for by RAVENSCROFT HOLDINGS LIMITED, which was mentioned in journalistic investigations as a company that was under the scrutiny of Cyprus' financial monitoring back in September 2010.
The grounds for the alleged debt are the same - the assignment of claim agreements for Ukrnafta's dividends for the period 2011-2013, concluded by LUCRINO INVESTMENTS LIMITED (Cyprus) in 2017.
This company filed a claim with the court against the Halychyna ORC for UAH 291,821,430.35.
NORDWIND TRADE AS
A Swiss logistics company that transports oil products, coal, and ferroalloys. It is associated with Kolomoiskyi's business partner, Mykhailo Kiperman.
NORDWIND TRADE AS and Kiperman are involved in criminal proceedings regarding the withdrawal of almost UAH 600 million from the accounts of Ukrtatnafta (Kremenchuk Oil Refinery), as reported by Economichna Pravda.
It was NORDWIND TRADE AS that was involved in concluding contracts and withdrawing funds from Ukrtatnafta, for which Kiperman was served with a notice of suspicion by the SSU in June 2023.
NORDWIND TRADE AS claims UAH 1,276,498,448.48 against Halychyna ORC.
But these contracts are very similar to those between the Swiss and Ukrtatnafta. They were concluded in 2022 after the start of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. It is likely that Halychyna ORC, like Ukrtatnafta, was used to withdraw funds.
"REPRESENTATION OF MOMENTUM ENTERPRISES (EASTERN EUROPE) LIMITED"
Poltava branch of Kolomoiskyi's offshore company MOMENTUM ENTERPRISES (EASTERN EUROPE) LIMITED (Cyprus).
The representative office asks the court to recognize monetary claims against Halychyna Oil Refinery Complex for UAH 1,344,234,547.62 under the contracts for the sale of gas condensate, which Halychyna ORC allegedly purchased from it.
According to Ekonomichna Pravda, the company is involved in scandals involving gas supplies to energy trader United Energy and NPC Ukrenergo.
In addition, the representative office was mentioned in investigations into the sale of coal and gas to state-owned Centrenergo for more than UAH 4 billion.
Therefore, the court must establish whether the gas condensate sale and purchase agreements with the Halychyna ORC were real.
VERSALA LTD
Another Cypriot company from Kolomoisky's sphere of influence.
It asks the court to recognize monetary claims for UAH 697,493,646.94 based on a contract from 2017. The company allegedly supplied bitumen produced by Naftan OJSC (Vitebsk, Republic of Belarus) to the Halychyna ORC. And Halychyna ORC allegedly failed to pay for this product.
VERSALA LTD appears in publications together with companies that were associated with Ukrtatnafta before it was transferred to state control.
UNITED ENERGY LLC (Kyiv)
One of the most well-known companies associated with Kolomoiskyi. This energy trader is involved in numerous criminal proceedings regarding illegal schemes to withdraw public funds both before and during Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU), in 2020, Centrenergo entered into agreements to sell electricity to United Energy LLC. Formally, it won the auction, but the details make all the difference.
The winning company had to pay a fine for not taking the contracted electricity. To avoid this, additional agreements with Centrenergo were retroactively signed. The main agreements excluded the provision on the permissible deviation limits of 5% of the contractual volume of electricity withdrawal.
This allowed the energy trader to select any amount of electricity without penalties. As a result of these actions, the state-owned company did not receive UAH 176.8 million.
Also, according to NABU, in March 2022, United Energy purchased electricity from NPC Ukrenergo for more than UAH 716 million.
NPC Ukrenergo did not receive any money for the electricity supplied, although it was sold to real market participants. And the funds received "were transferred to the accounts of a foreign company controlled by the organizer of the scheme, who is also a business partner of a participant in the NABU and SAPO case on withdrawal of funds from PrivatBank."
As part of the bankruptcy case of the Halychyna ORC, United Energy has so far claimed only UAH 1,165,351.23. However, it is not known what other illegal transactions link these companies.
PAFIS LLC and BRIGHTON LTD.
These are Ukrainian companies that are associated with Kolomoisky and joint loan obligations to COMMERCIAL BANK PRIVATBANK JSC.
"PAFIS asks the court to recognize its monetary claims against Halychyna ORC in the amount of UAH 249,691,623.26 under the surety agreements with COMMERCIAL BANK PRIVATBANK JSC dated 2009. The company claims that it has fulfilled its obligations to PrivatBank instead of the Halychyna ORC. Therefore, it demands to repay the debt.
"BRIGHTON LTD" was involved in court cases in 2017 to invalidate additional agreements to loan agreements concluded with PrivatBank before its nationalization.
Thus, companies involved in the withdrawal of funds from Ukraine's largest bank through related party lending also make claims against the Halychyna ORC.
The total amount of creditors' claims related to Ihor Kolomoiskyi and his partners already exceeds UAH 7 billion. This indicates that the shareholders of Halychyna ORC are trying to take control of the bankruptcy procedure through "controlled creditors". But the basis for this is dubious agreements and contracts.
It seems that the owners of the Drohobych Oil Refinery have "mobilized" controlled companies to prevent payments to other creditors. They are trying to "dilute" their claims against the background of the total debt mass that has been formed over decades.
Only the court should decide whether to recognize or reject these claims. But it is worth mentioning the results of the economic activities of the "private owners" both directly at the Halychyna ORC and at other large assets. Such as PrivatBank or Ukrnafta, which, after coming under state control, began to generate billions of dollars in profits, pay taxes and dividends to the state budget. The state, in turn, uses this money to finance the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other expenses to fight the Russian aggressor.
So, what is better? To transfer hundreds of millions more to "offshore" under dubious contracts? Or to finance the purchase of thousands of drones, the development of modern weapons and high-quality ammunition for Ukraine's defenders?
