The Security Service of Ukraine did not find sufficient grounds to satisfy the request of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine to impose sanctions against Yuriy Ivanyushchenko. This is stated in the response to the request of “Ukrainian Truth”. Ivanyushchenko is a “watchman” from the time of Viktor Yanukovych, who is suspected of money laundering. This is not the first criminal case against him. Although Ivanyushchenko left abroad in 2014, he continues to own assets in Ukraine. During this time, he managed to achieve the lifting of EU sanctions, removal from the “red list” List of Interpol suspects of crimes subject to arrest in all Interpol partner countries. Interpol and the closure of two criminal proceedings in Ukraine. Who is Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, what influence did he have during the Yanukovych era, how did he then avoid arrest and what NABU now suspects him of – in the material of Suspilny.
Friend of the President
The public learned about Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, who had been a people's deputy from the Party of Regions for three years at that time, on February 25, 2010. Then, journalists photographed a man heading to the Verkhovna Rada accompanied by numerous bodyguards and hiding his face behind the raised collar of a coat from the elite French brand Zilli – the inauguration of Viktor Yanukovych was to take place in parliament.
The PR deputies then explained: the mysterious man is Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, a fellow countryman and friend of the new president. They were both born and raised in Yenakiyevo. This was Ivanyushchenko's second appearance in the Verkhovna Rada: he first visited the parliament in 2007 to take the oath of office as a people's deputy. At that time, he did not attract the attention of journalists.
In support of the stories about friendship with Yanukovych and Ivanyushchenko's influence in Donbas, they mentioned, in particular, the wedding of his daughter Yana, which was celebrated in August 2009 at the Donetsk exhibition center “Expodonbas”. The interior of the celebration was decorated by the Kremlin decorator Boris Krasnov, and the guests were entertained by the then-famous singer Eros Ramazzotti. Among the guests were the richest Ukrainian Rinat Akhmetov and Viktor Yanukovych. Ivanyushchenko's daughter was marrying a citizen of Monaco, so Yanukovych wished the newlyweds: “Be happy like the sea of Monaco, like the wastelands of Donbas.”
During the first year of Yanukovych's presidency, Ivanyushchenko's name began to be heard more and more often. Companies associated with the mysterious friend of the head of state won multimillion-dollar tenders for the supply of coal to state-owned enterprises and sugar to the Agrarian Fund. In addition, Ivanyushchenko was linked to the Minister of Agrarian Policy in the government of Mykola Azarov, Mykola Prysyazhnyuk, and the management of the state concern “Ukrspyrt”.
Ivanyushchenko's name also surfaced in the context of business redistribution, especially in the Odessa and Zaporizhia regions. Together with his business partner Ivan Avramov, he began to be associated with the “7th Kilometer” market, the Illichivsk port, and the Azovmash engineering concern.
Later, including deputies from the Party of Regions, they said that Yuriy Ivanyushchenko was almost the first representative of the informal institute of “watchmen” introduced by Viktor Yanukovych.
It worked like this: state authorities would start inspections of businesses or open criminal proceedings against their owners. When a businessman asked the authorities how to “solve the issue,” they would advise him to contact the “supervisor” of the region. There he would receive an offer to share a controlling stake in the company. If the businessman agreed, he could get good money for it; if not, his problems would grow rapidly.
Not everyone agreed. The owner of the company “Stalkanat-Silur” Volodymyr Nemirovskyi declared pressure from the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the prosecutor's office with a proposal to “pay” Ivanyushchenko's partner Ivan Avramov. Nemirovskyi withstood the pressure, and after the Revolution of Dignity he headed the Odessa Regional State Administration.
“Yura Yenakievsky”
Yuriy Lutsenko, by then the former Minister of Internal Affairs, stated in 2010 that Ivanyushchenko controlled all “serious financial flows of the country.” According to Lutsenko, before his political career, Ivanyushchenko was known in the Donetsk region as a middle-level criminal authority nicknamed Yura Yenakievsky.
“Considering that in 2005 the Donetsk region was cleared of leaders — some sat down, some fled — Yura Yenakievsky began to grow,” Lutsenko said then.
The media have published operational reports from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the 1990s, in which Ivanyushchenko appears as a member of Givi Nemsadze's gang. At that time, he was better known as “Yurets Malay”. After the Orange Revolution, Nemsadze was accused of involvement in 40 murders and put on the international wanted list. He was later tried, but during Yanukovych's presidency, the Donetsk Regional Court of Appeal closed the case due to the expiration of the statute of limitations.
Former representatives of the Donetsk region's criminal world also mentioned the “authoritative” past of Yanukovych's friend – albeit later. In particular, the video “Listen, who are you calling? We're all here” became famous.
The media claimed that Ivanyushchenko later joined the “Lux” group, whose new leader Rinat Akhmetov allowed him to earn capital on “dumps” At that time, due to the obsolescence of the equipment of metallurgical enterprises, pure metal also ended up in the dumps. After sorting, it could be sold for recycling. Donetsk metallurgical enterprises, which Akhmetov merged into the SCM corporation in 2004. In the second half of the 1990s, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko's fellow countryman Viktor Yanukovych headed the Donetsk Regional State Administration.
According to NABU, in 2001, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko was expelled from the Principality of Monaco “due to his connections with Russian criminal groups.” In addition, Yanukovych's friend could not obtain a US visa for a long time for similar reasons. To do this, he had to hire lobbyists in Washington and obtain the status of an official representative of Ukraine at the UN office.
People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Party of Regions Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (left) leaves the Verkhovna Rada building on April 5, 2013. UNIAN/Volodymyr Gontar
Attempted legalization
In 2011, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko tried to influence his image and went public. In his only interview with the magazine “Korrespondent” he admitted that he had known Viktor Yanukovych for a long time, whom he met in “mature age”. Later, in a conversation with the publication “Forbes-Ukraine”, he added that this happened when Yanukovych worked in the association “Ordzhonikidzeugol” Viktor Yanukovych headed this association from 1976 to 1984.
Ivanyushchenko claimed to “highly value” his relationship with Rinat Akhmetov, but denied that he made money selling scrap metal from his enterprises. At the same time, Ivanyushchenko's 21-year-old son Arsen received a stake in a company that sold scrap metal. Ivanyushchenko admitted that he knew Minister Mykola Prysiazhnyuk, but insisted that they had only “friendly relations.”
Ivanyushchenko called Yuriy Lutsenko's words about him being a “watcher” absurd. Moreover, he insisted that he had no business. Instead, he lived on “7 or 8 million dollars” that he kept in bank accounts.
Within a year, in 2012, Ivanyushchenko's position regarding his own assets changed. Ivan Avramov, who recognized Ivanyushchenko as his business partner, provided Forbes-Ukraine with a list of their assets. Among them were shares in the 7th Kilometer market, Azovmash, Zhulyany airport, Komsomolska and Partizanska mines, and Ukrstandart-2009. The latter won tenders for over $80 million in 2010.
Two years later, in 2012, Ivanyushchenko's story as the most influential member of Yanukovych's team ended. In the new government, which the Party of Regions formed together with the Communist Party, there was no place for Mykola Prysyazhnyuk. The role of “watchmen” from the government passed to the president's eldest son, Oleksandr Yanukovych, and his team of “young reformers” – First Deputy Prime Minister Serhiy Arbuzov, Minister of Taxes and Duties Oleksandr Klymenko, and Minister of Internal Affairs Oleksandr Zakharchenko.
From left to right: Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine Vitaly Zakharchenko, Minister of Revenues and Duties of Ukraine Oleksandr Klymenko, First Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Arbuzov and People's Deputy from the “Party of Regions” Artem Pshonka, Kyiv, July 27, 2013. UNIAN/Vladislav Musienko
After the Maidan
Yuriy Ivanyushchenko attracted attention again during the Revolution of Dignity. After Viktor Yanukovych fled, activists entered Ivanyushchenko's office in the building of the former Rodovid Bank in Rylsky Lane in Kyiv, as well as a country estate that a friend of Yanukovych was building near the capital.
In the spring of 2014, the European Union imposed sanctions on Ivanyushchenko, including a travel ban and asset freeze. Viktor Yanukovych's friend was included in a list of 22 figures from his presidency who the Europeans considered involved in destabilizing the situation in Ukraine. The United States also imposed travel restrictions on Ivanyushchenko.
Ukrainian law enforcement agencies were in no hurry to investigate Ivanyushchenko's activities. Only in December 2014 did the Ministry of Internal Affairs inform him in absentia of suspicions of illegal enrichment. In Ukraine, Ivanyushchenko faced up to 10 years in prison. Two months later, he was put on the international wanted list.
Based on materials provided to the investigation by activists from the Anti-Corruption Center (ACC), investigators claimed that in 2011-2014, through eight of his companies, Ivanyushchenko misappropriated more than 1.2 billion hryvnias, which Ukraine received from Japan for the sale of greenhouse gas emission quotas under the Kyoto Protocol. The money was supposed to go to insulation of schools and hospitals in the Luhansk region. Since Ivanyushchenko was wanted, law enforcement officers suspended the investigation into the case.
Other materials that the CPC activists transferred to the Prosecutor General's Office — about the seizure of the Odessa market “7th kilometer” by Ivanyushchenko and his business partner Ivan Avramov in 2010 — were only registered as suspicious by law enforcement officers in September 2016. The Prosecutor General's Office qualified such actions of the partners as illegal appropriation of property on a particularly large scale. For this, Ivanyushchenko and Avramov faced up to 12 years in prison.
Later, the two cases of Ivanyushchenko were merged, but no verdict, not even in absentia, was reached. The former MP's lawyers sought to close the investigation through the courts several times, and law enforcement officials sought to reopen it. Ultimately, in February of this year, the Cassation Criminal Court of the Supreme Court finally rejected the prosecutor's office's attempt to reopen the investigation.
Ivanyushchenko achieved the lifting of EU sanctions back in 2017. The European Court of General Jurisdiction found the restrictions against him groundless, since the criminal proceedings in Ukraine did not concern the embezzlement of budget funds. The following year, also through the court, a friend of Yanukovych achieved the lifting of restrictions on travel to the United States. Finally, in 2019, the Ministry of Internal Affairs removed him from the international wanted list due to the closure of criminal proceedings against him based on another court decision.
The much more high-profile suspicions of law enforcement officers regarding Ivanyushchenko — about his involvement in financing the “titushki” during the Revolution of Dignity — were also not proven. In April 2014, the newly appointed Minister of Internal Affairs Arsen Avakov claimed that in February of that year, at least two groups of “titushki” were based in the area of the deputy’s office, known as “Yenakievsky”. On February 18, Avakov continued, they killed Vyacheslav Veremiy, a photo correspondent for the Vesti publication, and five other people in the area of Mikhailivska Square. However, law enforcement officers did not officially suspect Ivanyushchenko of involvement in the crimes of the “titushki”.
Founder of the financial and industrial group “Smart-Holding” Vadym Novinsky (in 2023, President Zelensky imposed sanctions against him and a number of representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church) and People's Deputy of Ukraine from the Party of Regions Yuriy Ivanyushchenko during the Ukrainian Cup final match between FC “Shakhtar” and “Metalurh” (Donetsk). Kyiv, May 6, 2012. UNIAN/Volodymyr Gontar
New attempt
After the Revolution of Dignity, Yuriy Ivanyushchenko did not appear in Ukraine. But during all this time, living, according to Radio Liberty, between France, the UAE, Turkey and the Russian Federation, he continued to earn money in Ukraine. In September last year, the NABU suspected Ivanyushchenko in absentia of legalizing funds obtained illegally. According to the investigation, Ivanyushchenko helped developer Vladyslav Molchanova (whom NABU suspects of misappropriation of property and legalization of funds) legalize nine land plots, which law enforcement officers estimated at 160 million hryvnias. The land plots that, according to investigators, Molchanova illegally seized were supposed to be part of the deal between her and Ivanyushchenko: since 2019, the former People's Deputy has been trying to get money from the developer for a controlling stake in the company that owned the Stolichny wholesale market near Kyiv.
Yanukovych's friend has been put on the wanted list again. NABU detectives have not yet succeeded in convincing the Supreme Anti-Corruption Court to arrest Ivanyushchenko in absentia. On March 19, the court refused to grant the relevant motion. In court, the former MP's lawyers Angelina Oshedshaya, Svitlana Sikorina, and Larisa Ageeva insisted on his innocence. It was after this that NABU appealed to the president and the National Security and Defense Council with a request to impose sanctions on the former MP.