Vlad Yakubovskyi, the grey cardinal of Trade Commodity, is robbing the Ministry of Defence again

The Ministry of Defence paid 7% VAT to its fuel suppliers, although at the beginning of the invasion the government established a zero rate on fuel for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Nashi Hroshi reports .

According to information from the publication received from the State Audit Service, in 2022 the private supplier, through the “roll-up” mechanism, immediately withdrew from circulation the funds intended to pay the tax back to the state. The Security Service of Ukraine has so far been unsuccessfully trying to find this supplier, who managed not only to manufacture, but also to sell fuel to the state in the first year of the war at a fat and by no means market markup - at a price of 56-62 thousand hryvnia per ton. This corresponds to a price of 57-63 hryvnia per liter. Such figures were not available at any gas station in the country at that time. The most expensive types of diesel cost a maximum of 55 hryvnia per liter.

How Yuriy Yenakievskyi’s “chick” went to success

We will help the Security Service. This supplier is Vladyslav Yakubovskyi. During the Yanukovych era, he was the deputy head of the State Committee of Ukraine for the State Material Reserve and the head of the State Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine. A man who did not hesitate to steal from orphans, embezzling billions that Ukraine received under the Kyoto Protocol and which were supposed to be used, but were not, to equip boarding schools, orphanages, schools, etc.

And then, after the collapse of the Yanukovych regime, Vladyk surfaced in the Hranovskyi-Adamovskyi clan, which, under the roof of the grey-haired Hetman, skilfully cut the budgets of the Ministry of Defence and Ukrzaliznytsia with the help of companies from the legendary Trade Commodity group. This group became famous for destroying all of these - army, language, and faith - under the slogan "army, language, and faith". By buying fuel from Rosneft, "producing" diesel, but in fact mud from kerosene and base oil, killing the engines of Ukrainian tanks and other military equipment, and robbing the country of billions in "bosses" with Medvedchuk in Ukrzaliznytsia tenders.

Yes, Hranovskyi is now on the run in Vienna, and Adamovskyi is under investigation by the NABU. But the Trade Commodity group is still operating. Because its grey cardinal and "engine", Yakubovsky, is still at large. Few people know this, but it was Vladyk who did all the work "on the ground" of the Commodity Group. Adamovskyi developed the strategy of how the bunnies should become squirrels, Hranovskyi "decided" in "his" department of the Prosecutor General’s Office and the courts. And the quiet Vladyk, who, after the Kyoto Protocol money scandal, realised that it was better not to sign anything himself, was in charge of the group.

So let us remind you what Trade Commodity is, or as it is called in the market - "commodities". This is an extensive system of companies that emerged after Petro Poroshenko was elected president and became one of the largest tender winners and fuel importers to Ukraine. According to Nashi Hroshi’s calculations based on the analysis of data from the Public Procurement Bulletin and information from the Prozorro system, during the time of Petro Poroshenko "commodes" have tendered 17 billion in fuel for the state. A group of previously unknown non-name companies, mostly registered in pounds from the Dnipro region, entered the market in 2015 and took on the most fatty topics.

In particular, they received UAH 17 billion of public funds from such customers:

The Production Support Centre branch of Ukrzaliznytsia JSC - UAH 10.28 billion.
The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine - UAH 5.53 billion.
The State Reserve Agency of Ukraine - UAH 0.42 billion.
Centrenergo JSC - UAH 0.23 billion.
The Volnogorsk Mining and Chemicals Branch of UMCC JSC - UAH 0.10 billion.

The funds were distributed among only 6 companies:

Trade Commodity LLC of Vadym Maiko from Kamyanske - UAH 5.18 billion
Fidea Firm LLC of Yevhen Holovachov from Kamyanske - UAH 3.34 billion.
August Prom LLC of Oleksandr Berkovskyi from Kamyanske - UAH 3.20 billion.
Optimus Connection LLC (Gaztrade) of Mykola Veselskyi from Kamyanske - UAH 3.06 billion.
Torum LLC of Dmytro Medvedyev from Kyiv - UAH 1.97 billion.
Meta Oil LLC of Heorhiy Hnoyanyi from Kamyanske - UAH 0.22 billion.

However, this is not a complete list of companies led by Vlad Yakubovskyi from the fifth floor of the Eurasia business center at 73-81 Zhylyanska Street in Kyiv. The business center where Adamovsky’s office was located and the sign “Reception of People’s Deputy Oleksandr Hranovskyi” hung.

Therefore, we will add to the list of companies whose activities are supervised or supervised by Yakubovskyi.

Firstly, a certificate for the SSU. Companies with which Yakubovskyi is affiliated personally or through his brother Vyacheslav. Who is devoted to him a little more than completely for his success in life, so much so that he named his daughter after his brother-leader - Vlad.

So, Construction Point was founded in 2009. The authorised capital is UAH 500,000. Yakubovskyi owns 50% of it, and another 25% belongs to Zaza Zozirov and Zaza Gumberidze, a citizen of Georgia. The signatory is Iryna Shvedovska.
Synergy is a logistics company founded in 2015. The authorised capital is UAH 716,000. Yakubovskyi owns 30% of the company (currently through Eurasia), Danylo Konstantinov 25%, Valeriy Lozutov 25% and Ian Nemyrovskyi 20%. All partners in this firm are from the Dnipro region. Until 2020, the company was headed by Dmytro Medvedyev, who was then replaced by Oleh Bondar. The office of this company was located in the same Eurasia business centre.
Eurasia Investment Company was founded in 2016. The authorised capital is UAH 1,000,000. Yakubovskyi owns 50% of the company, and another 50% is owned by Dmytro Adamovskyi, son of Andriy Adamovskyi, through the Centaur venture fund.
Ukrainian locomotive construction company founded in 2016. Yakubovskyi and Adamovskyi own 30% of the company through the Eurasia investment company. Volodymyr Vitnytskyi owns 29% through Full Trading, another 29.9% is owned by Pavlo Tishchenko through Solar Energy Green, and 10% since 2021 belongs to Oleksandr Slyusarchuk. The office of this company was also located in the Eurasia Business Centre. Among other things, this company is interesting because in 2020, the Odesa-American swindler Lev Parnas, who was sentenced to 20 months in prison in the United States last year, tried to lobby for its interests. In 2020, in correspondence with Arsen Avakov, Parnas asked the Interior Minister to help Yakubovskyi to get the Ukrainian Locomotive Company to start transporting goods on the Lviv railway.
The Association of Ukrainian Railway Carriers was founded in 2019. Its founders are the Ukrainian Locomotive Company, co-owned by Yakubovskyi, and the Western Ukrainian Logistics Company, which is registered with lawyer Oleh Yarema. The company’s signatory is Andriy Miroshnikov, former head of the Commercial Department of Ukrzaliznytsia.
Maxmed International LLC. The office of this company was also located in the Eurasia business centre, and the head of the company was Yuliya Pavlichenko, who, together with Vladyslav Yakubovskyi, was a co-owner of the Ukrainian Locomotive Construction Company. Prior to that, she was known as the former head of Ukrekoresursy and deputy director of the Department of Accounting, Financial Planning and Support of the State Environmental Investment Agency of Ukraine, which was headed by Yakubovskyi.
Ukr Petrol LLC, Element Nafta LLC, Western Oil and Gas Company LLC, Alexprom LLC, and Khimprodtorg Ltd. are suppliers of fuel, or rather, of the bodega that the Komodos under Yakubovskyi’s leadership purchased for the Ukrainian army and railway.
Nafta Capital Group LLC, Skytorg LLC. Owners of the SKY petrol station chain, which began to grow rapidly in 2015-2016, when Trade Commodity became the dominant bidder in tenders of state-owned companies and budget organisations.
Energomed+ LLC is a company involved in the process of fraudulently paying VAT to the Ministry of Defence for fuel supplies in 2022. The owner of this company is Kostyantyn Arsentyev, a resident of the same town of Kamyanske, who is also the owner of the aforementioned Skytorg LLC.
Nova Trade Group LLC and Optimum-V LLC are the companies that were used to bankrupt Trade Commodity LLC, imposing a fictitious debt of UAH 2.7 million on it, as stated in the tax notice-decision No. 0001914614 of the Dnipro Department of the Office of Large Taxpayers of the SFS of 2017.

This list can be supplemented with a dozen more companies, but we will not abuse the reader’s attention.

So how did the "dressers" work?

We will examine the main fraudulent schemes developed not by Adamoskyi and, especially, not by Hranovskyi, but by the shadow director of the group, Vladyslav Yakubovskyi.

Concluding additional transactions after the tender, price blackmail of the customer

In April 2016, the Ministry of Defence held a tender for the purchase of fuel - the then unknown Trade Commodity won almost all the lots. The company was supposed to supply various types of fuel to the Ministry in the amount of 1.24 billion hryvnia. According to an investigation published in Mirror of the Week, the tender had a number of features:

- the largest competitor, the WOG company literally cleared the way for Trade Commodity, and then supplied the gasket with its own fuel so that it could fulfill the contract;

- after the completion of the tender, the Ministry of Defence and Trade Commodity twice agreed to increase the price of fuel, and both times they did not publish data on the new price and changes in fuel names;

- the Ministry of Defence began collecting and paying for fuel not when the price was the lowest, but on the contrary, at its peak after reviewing the contracts;

- after the contracts were revised, the market price collapsed, but a new revision did not occur - that is, the Ministry of Defence tried to buy fuel not cheaper, but more expensive;

- as a result of price manipulation, the Ministry of Defence overpaid Trade Commodity by at least 100 million hryvnia.

The main heir of Trade Commodity - Torum LLC, acted in the same way:

- In 2018, Torum won a tender for the supply of diesel fuel to the Astra plant and did not supply fuel because prices increased and the State Reserve refused to increase the price.

- In the same year, the company tried to sell gasoline to the Ministry of Defence, which was banned in Ukraine (previously, Trade Commodity tried to sell the same gasoline).

– In the same 2018, Torum supplied UZ diesel for 700 million hryvnia at an inflated price, according to the State Fiscal Service. She also failed to pay about 920 million hryvnia in taxes when importing fuels and lubricants into Ukraine.

- In September 2020, the management of the tender division of Ukrzaliznytsia was changed - Timur Valiyev, Arsen Avakov’s man, was put in charge of the tenders. Just a month after this, Uzbekistan experienced a fuel crisis - the companies that submitted tender proposals for the supply of diesel refused to supply fuel at the agreed price, since the market price for diesel increased. Based on the results of that fuel tender, the Torum company was chosen as the largest supplier , and it was the first to refuse to supply fuel. After lengthy negotiations, UZ paid 30% more.

Elimination of competitors from tenders due to appeals against tenders in the courts and the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine

In the spring of 2017, Ukrzaliznytsia announced a tender for 304 million hryvnia - it planned to purchase 250 freight gondola cars. 3 companies were admitted to the tender - the well-known Kryukivskyi and Popasnyanskyi plants and the unknown at that time company Maxmed International , which was admitted to the tender despite the obvious violation of its terms - it was supposed to provide at least 2 contracts for the performance of similar work, but provided only one, and that concerned the supply of one old (1990 year of manufacture) flat car to the company KPK-Invest , and the agreement was concluded on June 12, 2017, that is, after the announcement of the Ukrzaliznytsia tender. At the same time, Maxmed International won another tender from Ukrzaliznytsia, for 60 million hryvnia.

During the tender process, Maksmed appealed to the Antimonopoly Committee with a demand to exclude the largest competitor, the Kryukivskyi plant, from the tender due to the discrepancy of one of the parts of the Kryukiv cars with the tender conditions - and thus removed the Kryukivsky plant from the competition. After this, Maksmed appealed against a number of Ukrzaliznytsia tenders, which caused the blocking of purchases of wagons worth about 8 billion hryvnia. Economic Truth found out that mass appeals against tenders began when Maxmed International was re-registered under Yuliya Pavlichenko.

In total, in 2017, Maxmed filed 157 complaints about procurement, mainly procurement by Ukrzaliznytsia, and VoxUkraine investigated that it unusually often did not then take part in the appealed tenders and came to the conclusion that the company’s actions can be interpreted as sabotage.

Artificial restriction of competition

After the introduction of special certification of companies that can supply UZ lubricants, UZ became one of two companies that received the necessary permission to operate. The second company, Agrinol, is associated with ex-people’s deputy, Russian citizen Alexander Ponomaryov (Volya Naroda).

Ukrzaliznytsia’s needs for lubricants in 2018 were fully met by companies in the orbit of the two mentioned business groups: Agrinolov workers supplied the railway with 7.941 thousand tons, companies from the Trade Commodity group - 7.861 thousand tons. Because the Ukrzaliznytsia blocked everyone except the two mentioned groups from receiving these permits. The same practice continued in 2019, that is, after the presidency of Petro Poroshenko. In particular, Ukrzaliznytsia ordered another 1,197 tons of oils produced by the Agrinol and KSM plants from the Miroil and Torum companies for UAH 53 million.

A similar scheme worked for the Ministry of Defence. The conditions of tenders for the supply of oils of a certain brand in the military department are prescribed only for one company - Agrinol, but the "dressers" made money by selling Agrinol products to the ministry.

This monopoly in supplies led to the failure of tank engines. In 2018, the relevant case was investigated by the SSU. According to the investigation, officials of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, “acting with the knowledge and in prior agreement with representatives of special and intelligence agencies of the Russian Federation and business entities,” starting in 2016, purchased motor lubricant for tank engines with engine-power for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. operational properties of inadequate quality People’s Deputy Serhiy Sobolyev spoke from the podium of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine about the cooperation of suppliers from the FSB, noting that when the SSU exposed this scam, on January 27, 2017, a train with 350 tons of this lubricant burned down in Slavyansk .

Disruption of tenders in collusion with Medvedchuk’s associates with the help of the AMCU and courts

In 2019-2020, the government changed, new players began to enter tenders, and state-owned enterprises were cautious and tried not to enter into obvious agreements with bidders.

So Yakubovsky used a new tactic - disrupting "wrong" tenders by filing lawsuits and complaints with the AMCU. Very quickly, a common language was found with Medvedchuk’s structures - Hlusko, Proton Energy and Cornet Holding, the new supplier of lubricants for UZ.

With the help of the AMCU alone, three quarters of Ukrzaliznytsia’s tenders were disrupted in 2019-2020 following complaints from Medvedchuk’s associates and "commodes" (Torum, August Prom and others). Out of the planned UAH 66 million worth of tenders, only UAH 149 million was auctioned, causing fuel shortages and disruption to the state-owned company.

At Yakubovskyi’s initiative, the entire deputy head of the AMCU, Natalya Buromenska (dismissed by presidential decree in October 2021), and judge Yevhen Ablov, an odious character even for the Ukrainian judiciary, owner of a golden Porsche and deputy of the legendary DACK chairman Pavlo Vovk. It is worth noting that Ablov is a very expensive judge, but the amount of funding was such that Yevhen Valeriyovych literally felt sorry for himself and held hearings for "friend Vlad" even at night.

Fake fuel and tax evasion

This is perhaps the most scandalous chapter in the activities of Komodity and Yakubovskyi, as by supplying "bodyaga" to state-owned enterprises they not only caused economic damage to the state, but deliberately sabotaged Ukraine’s defence capability, deliberately destroying its strategic enterprises, working in the interests of the aggressor state.

The Main Investigation Department of the National Police, in the framework of criminal proceedings No. 42015000000000717, found that in 2015-2016, companies from the Trade Commodity group sold "mixtures of oil fractions containing hazardous chemicals" under the guise of A-80, A-92, A-95 petrol and diesel fuel. The list included 4 fuel suppliers for Trade Commodity - Ukr Petrol LLC, Element Oil LLC, Western Oil and Gas Company LLC and Aleksprom LLC. "The "bodega" was prepared on the territory of the State Enterprise Pavlohrad Chemical Plant (PCP), where the fraudsters set up an illegal refinery. Low-quality fuel was sold for cash to a number of companies, including Trade Komoditi LLC, "which, by artificially improving the quality of fuel at shadow bases, fraudulently sells low-quality fuel, passing it off as products that meet standards". The final buyers of the fuel were the state-owned enterprises Pivdenna Zaliznytsia, Pivdenno-Zakhidna Zaliznytsia and Lviv Zaliznytsia.

Throughout the entire period of their existence, the "commodes" did not hesitate to supply "bogus" to bodies on which national security depends - Ukrzaliznytsia, the Ministry of Defence, and the State Reserve.

In particular, in 2017, Vadym Mosiychuk, the head of the State Reserve, reported a conflict with Trade Commodity over the supply of low-quality fuel. The conflict was related to the fact that the supplied petrol began to stratify in the tanks after two weeks.

In 2019, an investigation by the SFS found that in 2018-2019, fuels and lubricants (diesel fuel, petrol, jet fuel, aviation fuel for JET A-1 gas turbine engines, and base oil) were imported into Ukraine with underpayment of customs duties. The oil products were mixed and sold to enterprises at inflated prices.

According to investigators, the following companies were involved in the criminal activity: Ferst Group LLC (which supplied the Ministry of Defence with petrol worth UAH 0.5 billion in the same year), Soft Oil LLC, Fidea Firm LLC, and Torum LLC, Gold System LLC, August Prom LLC, Optimus Connection LLC, Itioli LLC, SkyTorg LLC, Meta Oil LLC, and Mergen LLC - all "commodity" structures managed by Yakubovskyi.

Investigators believed that this scheme was a cover for imports to Ukraine of diesel fuel under the guise of aviation fuel for JET A-1 gas turbine engines instead of another excisable good - diesel fuel, which has a much higher tax rate. Until the end of 2018, the nomenclature of aviation fuel was subject to customs clearance at the excise tax rate of EUR 21 per 1,000 litres. At the same time, the excise tax rate on diesel fuel was EUR 139.5 per 1,000 litres. And supplies of base oil, which is not an excisable good, are not subject to excise tax at all.

In other words, a scheme of cosmic profit was created based on excise tax evasion alone: buy aviation kerosene and base oil, mix them in a ratio of 85% to 15%, and sell them to the state as diesel fuel. The result. This is exactly how commodes operated throughout the entire period of their existence. Characteristically, after Medvedchuk’s team came on the scene, kerosene and oil were purchased from Rosneft, delivered to Oleshky in the Kherson region, and stored at oil depots in Kryvyi Rih, Kherson, and Oleshky.

Who has been punished? Actually, no one.

In 2018, the NABU completed the pre-trial investigation. The perpetrators were found to be:

- Deputy Minister of Defence Ihor Pavlovskyi,

- Director and employee of the Department of Public Procurement and Supply of Material Resources of the Ministry of Defence,

- an official of the Defence Ministry’s Internal Audit Department,

- the actual owner of Trade Commodity.

In 2019, the NABU brought charges against officials of the Ministry of Defence and Trade Commodity in relation to this tender.

Also in 2019, Andriy Adamovskyi gave an interview to Ekonomichna Pravda in which he stated that he was only an investor in Trade Commodity, and that the ultimate beneficiaries of the company were a "group of young guys", whose names he refused to disclose.

Let us shed some light on this issue. The young guys are Vlad Yakubovskyi.

All over again

Despite Adamovskyi’s assurances that Trade Commodity is “everything,” so to speak, this is not so. And it’s not just the twisted VAT of the Ministry of Defence. Vlad Yakubovskyi has big plans for his life.

He intends to enter the aviation refueling market under the SKY Avia brand. This is evidenced by the group’s application for trademark registration on the website of the State Enterprise “Ukrainian Institute of Intellectual Property” (Ukrpatent).

An application to enter the aviation refueling market was submitted on behalf of Oil Capital Group LLC (Kyiv). The specified company is the owner of the SKY trademark for the operation of gas stations and Roadhouse restaurants in Dnipro and Kamyanske. The company also leases the land plot where the group’s mini-refineries are located in Kamyanske. According to the application, the SKY Avia trademark will be used for "aircraft maintenance and refueling."

There is no doubt that the product will be of “branded” quality, and this is a direct threat to national security. Since the fuel will be for Ukrainian combat aviation. Therefore, we urge the SSU not to miss the mark in searching for “young guys.”

Author: Maksym Protsenkov