Kurchenko-Yanukovych’s lawyers at the helm of the "fight against corruption"

How is the current government different from the previous one? For 4 years now, Ukraine has been trying to live in a new way: reforms, fighting corruption, visa-free travel.

What’s hiding behind the signs with new last names on key positions? How are the new ones different from the old ones? On what was the wealth of the oligarchs close to the former presidents and the presidents themselves based? On many schemes of money appropriation, mostly budgetary.

Such schemes were invented and implemented by professional economists and financiers. But they were necessarily consulted, and then helped to protect the "earned" money by high-class lawyers. Having proven their professionalism and ingenuity, such lawyers are worth their weight in gold in the current system of country governance.

Now the lawyers of fugitive oligarchs (Serhiy Kurchenko, Mykola Zlochevskyi, the Klyuyev brothers, and others) are coming into the current government in very significant positions, while continuing to defend the interests of the fugitives. Of course, with the consent of the current government. It turns out to be a sort of mutual cover-up.

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Vitaliy Kasko - Former Deputy Prosecutor General of Ukraine

A few years ago journalists referred to the very reputable at first glance legal company Arzinger as the "cadre forge" for the current government. Known to everyone as the disgraced Deputy Prosecutor General Vitaliy Kasko was one of the heads of the legal company Arzinger before his "assignment" to the GPU (General Prosecutor’s Office). The aforementioned Vitaliy Kasko and his colleague-"reformer", another currently disgraced deputy general prosecutor David Sakvarelidze, for almost 2 years of work did not return a penny (!) from the funds stolen by runaway oligarchs and concurrently clients of Arzinger to the budget.

This is understandable – Kasko actually helped these funds flow into the needed pockets in his previous position at the legal company Arzinger. Employees of the GPU of that period claim: Kasko personally slowed down the movement of documents to arrest the assets of the fugitives, which minimized their losses. It is worth mentioning here that Kasko, together with his colleagues from Arzinger, facilitated the release of the arrest on the assets of the fugitive Minister of Natural Resources from the Azarov Government – Mykola Zlochevskyi.

Serhiy Shklyar - Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for Enforcement Service

Another figure from Arzinger (moreover – one of the founders of the firm and former general director) Serhiy Shklyar has been working for 3 years as Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine, where he oversees, among other things, the enforcement service, the judicial work department, and bankruptcy. The fact that the Ministry of Justice is officially listed as a client of the legal firm Arzinger is minor in comparison with Mr. Shklyar’s extensive activities in protecting the interests of Yanukovych’s fugitive partners and Russian businesses in Ukraine.

Another employee of the Arzinger law firm, Anton Yanchuk, was Shklyar’s colleague – Deputy Minister of Justice, where he was in charge of returning "Yanukovych’s money", while his firm was actively and effectively protecting every penny of these monies from confiscation. Conflict of interest? No, more likely a mockery of the Revolution of Dignity: Anton Yanchuk later became… Head of the National Agency for the Detection and Management of Assets Obtained from Corruption and Other Crimes! The result of the work for the country’s budget to date is zero.

Arzinger represented and continues to represent and defend the interests of Kurchenko-Yanukovych, especially in very murky schemes with public procurement. In particular, the prosecutor in the "Kurchenko case" Kostyantyn Kulyk told reporters that he found in Kharkiv the original tender documentation for "Chornomornaftogaz", which was considered lost, and there was a lot of interesting information in it. Here’s a fragment of an interview with Kostyantyn Kulyk about this episode: "One of the documentation packages was related to the purchase of drilling rigs for 99 million hryvnias by a Lviv-based company. The company Arzinger was also a participant in the deal. At that time they were purchasing with a price increase of 40-70%. "Chornomornaftogaz" worked with 4-5 fictitious Kurchenko companies that constantly won tenders. The scheme is this: these "dummy" companies raised the price and won, and real companies supplied goods to Kurchenko’s firms. If there were direct contracts, "Chornomornaftogaz" would save half the amount. Of the 99 million UAH spent on drilling rigs, about 40-50 million ended up in the pockets of Yanukovych-Kurchenko and members of their group. In particular – in Arzinger." Is anyone surprised now that powerful lobbyists managed to dismiss Kulyk from working on the "Kurchenko case"?

While implementing very cynical projects, the Arzinger law firm was not afraid to be involved in another scandal with a strong corruption smell. Let’s quote the text reprinted by many publications from the already destroyed "Prosecutor’s Truth": "The interests of ’Rosneft’ and Kurchenko in Ukraine are represented by lawyers from the well-known law firm Arzinger. Since Ukraine, unlike the US, did not impose sanctions against ’Rosneft’, this allowed Ukrainian companies to participate in the tenders of this business structure. Thus, in August 2014 (during the heavy battles near Ilovaisk), the Ukrainian law firm Arzinger submitted documents for a tender to the subsidiary of ’Rosneft’ ’TNK-Industries Ukraine’ and won it on 10.10.2014. They agreed to lift the seizure from ’Kurchenko’s fuel’, as well as cancel the tax demand to the ’Rosneft’ subsidiary to pay 40 million UAH in unpaid taxes to the Ukrainian budget. The decision from October 2015 turned out not to be the first. On June 19, 2015, the Pechersk court also lifted the seizure from Kurchenko’s petroleum products, seized by the Ministry of Internal Affairs at the Vasylkivska oil depot. When in October 2014 the law firm entered into a contract with the ’Rosneft’ subsidiary to lift the seizure from ’Kurchenko’s fuel’, Serhiy Shklyar was the managing partner of ’Arzinger’. Now Shklyar is a Deputy Minister of Justice, curator of the enforcement service."

Notably, the law firm Arzinger once consulted on the development, implementation, and justification of "green tariffs" for Andriy Klyuyev (his company "Activ Solar" owns a park of solar power plants in Ukraine). Various subordinate acts were adopted one after another, establishing a comfortable regime for Klyuyev’s business development and an ultra-high tariff for his "green energy". The war in Donbas was already raging, the Klyuyevs had long fled to Russia, yet his companies continued to profit from the corrupt tariff. Arzinger continued (and continues) to protect and lobby for the interests of the fugitive Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council under Yanukovych in Ukraine and to receive substantial money (millions of hryvnias) from him, while several representatives of the Arzinger company already work in the Ministry of Justice and the General Prosecutor’s Office. Today this law firm successfully represents the Klyuyevs in courts, winning compensations from the state for the cancellation of "green tariffs". And it should be noted: court decisions in favor of Klyuyev on the collection of these "green tariffs" are executed like no other decisions in Ukraine. This issue is personally controlled by the Head of the Enforcement of Judgements Department Serhiy Kraychynskyi (the person of the co-founder of the Arzinger law firm, Deputy Minister of Justice, curator of the enforcement service Serhiy Shklyar).

"What we protect – we have." This principle, very accurately formulated by Mikhail Zhvanetsky many years ago, applies here today. Who cries about the fight against corruption the loudest? Various "anti-corruption" "public" organizations living on generous foreign grants and donations. One of these is Transparency International Ukraine. But let’s note: it was this organization that most actively lobbied for blocking the adoption of the law on special confiscation (of Yanukovych’s money and his entourage) in parliament. How so?! Let’s look at the personal composition of the leadership of Transparency International Ukraine: a member of the supervisory board of this organization in Ukraine is the current head of the legal company Arzinger Tymur Bondarev! Surprised?

Tymur Bondarev - Managing Partner of the Arzinger Law Firm

Here’s another quote from a high-profile interview with Prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk: "Arzinger collaborated with Kurchenko’s lawyers before the Maidan in building financial schemes. When the question arose of how to organize the movement of Yanukovych-Kurchenko’s money offshore and into Europe, it was initially planned to use the services of a Swiss company. But a representative of Kurchenko insisted on the Kyiv company Arzinger." Appointees of this law firm in power together with the regular lawyers of Arzinger facilitated lifting the arrests of assets of yet another fugitive – the Minister of Natural Resources from the Azarov government Mykola Zlochevskyi.

Protection from the confiscation of, to put it mildly, dubiously sourced Ukrainian assets of Yanukovych, Kurchenko, Zlochevskyi, and Klyuyevs is far from the full list of those with whom the Arzinger law firm’s activities and financial relationships are associated. Although even this is enough to be considered a "toxic" company in the Ukrainian legal service market. But this law firm seems to challenge all ethical norms, thinking not at all about its reputation, but about big money. Reputation is one of the two most important components of the intangible capital of a respectable lawyer or a solid legal firm. The second component is experience and knowledge, which Arzinger has in abundance. However, with the first – with reputation – the Arzinger law firm has a complete failure: they not only protect the stolen billions of Yanukovych’s entourage but also cover themselves with corruption-fighting slogans, boldly using the opportunities of their people in government offices! Furthermore, Arzinger openly finances several political projects aiming to strengthen its presence in power – and for what else?

On the Arzinger website, we can read: "The company provides individual, high-quality legal services and can meet client expectations." Among the numerous clients of Arzinger are simultaneously Rosneft of the aggressor country and the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine. The fact that the Ministry of Justice (!) is a client of Arzinger looks like a curiosity. But in reality, they do have many reputable clients.

And here’s the interesting question: do the headquarters of foreign clients know about such a "toxic" reputation of the lawyers serving them in Ukraine? Often the local leadership of the offices of large foreign companies selects contractors, in this case, lawyers, not at all based on reputation or professional parameters. The Ukrainian practice of Arzinger’s victories in tenders is often regulated by banal kickbacks to the customer. The head offices of large firms may not even suspect such schemes. Yet, the Ukrainian office and the hired law firm get along perfectly. And, as market participants say, Arzinger does not shy away from kickbacks.

So international clients of Arzinger - ADM Trading, GSK, Souflett, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - should think about the reputation risks of collaborating with such "reputable" lawyers. And also about whether the lawyers are using their foreign clients as a beautiful front, behind which other, completely unprofessional standards are hidden? Criminal cases initiated on Arzinger "projects", we hope, will shed light on these issues.

izvestia.kiev.ua