Serhiy Stefurak, Shmyhal’s advisor, is lobbying for billion-dollar schemes of the corrupt EDAPS • Версия для печати • ANTIKOR portal

Serhiy Stefurak, Shmyhal’s advisor, is lobbying for billion-dollar schemes of the corrupt EDAPS

Shmyhal’s economic adviser owns significant business assets.

According to the publication "Fakty," the advisor to Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Serhiy Stefurak, allegedly supported the revival of the EDAPS consortium schemes in Ukraine, which deals with document production and has interests in other areas, including construction and amber extraction.

The publication notes that Stefurak is the son of Mariya Savka, the former head of the Ivano-Frankivsk Regional State Administration, who held this position until Denys Shmyhal replaced her in 2019. The article claims that Stefurak is one of the closest economic advisers to Prime Minister Shmyhal. Journalists report that he has stakes in a number of business assets related to the woodworking industry, amber and sand extraction, construction, agriculture, and trade. Additionally, according to "Fakty," Stefurak has also worked within the structures of the "Ukrlandfarming" agroholding owned by Oleh Bakhmatyuk, particularly in its "Favorit" retail network and supervisory boards of other companies. The publication also reminded that Bakhmatyuk’s enterprises under Stefurak’s management once attempted to circumvent tender rules for food supply, resulting in fines from the Antimonopoly Committee.

"According to government sources, Stefurak’s political patron was the late Member of Parliament Andriy Ivanchuk, who could represent the interests of Russia’s ’Lukoil’ after the formal sale of his asset in Ivano-Frankivsk region—the ’Karpatnaftokhim’ plant—to a group of companies connected with Ivanchuk. It is also known about Ivanchuk’s interests in Duty Free stores, which he owned together with his partner, Forbes publication owner Artur Grants. Meanwhile, Stefurak’s responsibilities as Shmyhal’s adviser include fiscal and customs policy, which is tied to the activities of duty-free shops," the article reports.

"Fakty" also reported on the latest public scandal associated with Stefurak’s name, when in August 2023 it became known that he might support the government in reviving mid-2000s schemes associated with the EDAPS consortium, which monopolized secure document production. This refers to the consortium that was a monopolist during Yanukovych’s era, through which all possible documents in the country were printed.

Media: Shmyhal’s advisor Serhiy Stefuryak lobbies for EDAPS schemes dqxikeidqxitkant

"As journalists discovered, at least from 2021 to 2023, the government—not without Stefurak’s influence—made a number of decisions allowing EDAPS to resume its former activities. In particular, the government changed requirements for passports, driver’s licenses, and technical passports, established a monopoly on the production of notarial forms, and reinstated the hologram on excise stamps. The materials for all these productions are supplied exclusively by ’Polly-Service,’ controlled by the former EDAPS. According to journalists’ estimates, from 2021 to 2023, EDAPS received government contracts from the state printing company ’Ukraine’—the largest client—amounting to at least 2.3 billion hryvnias of taxpayers’ money," the article states.