Ukrainian prosecutors have issued a notice of suspicion in absentia to the alleged mastermind of an embezzlement scheme at one of Ukraine’s largest factories.
The suspect, Olga Tkachenko, is an associate of Oleksandr Hranovsky, a former lawmaker close to ex-President Petro Poroshenko. She was named a suspect in the alleged crime on March 5.
Anti-corruption investigators are also currently looking into Hranovsky’s involvement in the scheme. A notice of suspicion for the former lawmaker is currently being processed, a source close to anti-corruption investigators told the Kyiv Post on condition of anonymity, as they were not authorized to speak to the press.
Tkachenko was a corporate executive at the Odesa Portside Plant from 2015 up until she quit on March 3, 2016. She is among four people accused of causing Hr 93.3 million (almost $4 million) in losses to the factory.
According to the investigators, the illicit scheme involved selling mineral fertilizers produced at the plant to an offshore company at below-market prices. The company would then resell it for a higher price to make money off the differential.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, known as NABU, along with the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office, has arrested two of the Odesa Portside Plant’s top managers.
The whereabouts of Tkachenko and the owner of the sham company used to launder the money remain unknown. They have not been arrested.
Big connections
Tkachenko used to work as an aide to Hranovsky before receiving an executive position at the Odesa Portside Plant in 2015.
According to Kyiv Post sources who were not authorized to speak to the press, Tkachenko got the promotion thanks to Hranovsky, who was a highly influential lawmaker at the time.
Hranovsky was known to serve as a special envoy for Poroshenko during his presidency, sorting out issues related to courts and prosecution.
He and his fellow lawmaker, Poroshenko’s closest business partner Ihor Kononenko, were spotted arriving at the Presidential Administration when the then-president met with representatives of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, and other top law enforcement officials.
Hranovsky has repeatedly denied influencing the courts and law enforcement.
After Poroshenko left office in April 2019, anti-corruption investigators began looking into him and his aides. Hranovsky is among those who have received significant attention from the anti-corruption agencies.
In July 2019, Ukraine’s State Investigation Bureau launched an investigation into Hranovsky. The former lawmaker is reportedly suspected of abuse of power.
In October, the Kyiv Post revealed that Hranovsky received an Israeli immigration visa, designed for those who want to resettle in Israel.
The scheme
According to the Kyiv Post’s sources, Tkachenko was appointed to the Odesa Portside Plant in order to undertake the scheme. It operated for almost a year, from March until December 2015.
As a plant executive charged with deciding to whom the organization should sell its production, Tkachenko chose to sell to the sham company.
Tkachenko and a beneficiary owner of the London-registered Newscope Estates Limited PLC allegedly made a deal. They agreed that Newscope Estates Limited would buy urea and ammonia from the Odesa Portside Plant at exceedingly low prices. Then Newscope would resell it to international businesses at market price and store the profits in a number of its bank accounts.
Newscope used to sell the mineral fertilizers to Swiss and Singaporean companies.
Tkachenko allied with two top managers at the Odesa Portside Plant to implement the scheme.
History of corruption
The Odesa plant has long been a site of political corruption or years.
NABU is investigating former lawmakers Hranovsky, Kononenko and Mykola Martynenko in a graft case linked to gas supplies to the Odesa Portside Plant. They have denied profiteering from the plant.
The chairman of the plant’s board of directors and its deputy CEO were also charged with embezzling money from the enterprise through supply contracts. They were released on bail in 2016.
