Millions burn in the sun: What the "green" banker Kyrylo Shevchenko keeps silent about

Millions burn in the sun: What the "green" banker Kyrylo Shevchenko keeps silent about

A few months before the presidential elections, experienced analysts noticed the first signs that the power was indeed changing: many businessmen with an animal instinct, corrupt and otherwise, who previously tried to stay in the shadows, began cautiously increasing their value through the media.

After Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s victory, most of them cast aside their shame and rushed to "PR themselves," sparing neither their own nor the state budget. One such figure is Kyrylo Shevchenko, the chairman of the board of "Ukrgasbank," which became state-owned five years ago after it was plundered by its previous owners.

On April 22, when even the darkest "porokhobots" realized that Petro Oleksiyovych was leaving, Kyrylo Shevchenko "launched" his biography in pastel tones on currently popular platforms for placing advertorials. It was so touching that an unprepared person might have wanted to, with tears of emotion, hug this banker, kiss him, and give him money. Later, evidently realizing that a supposedly decent financier should not "PR himself" in every media nook, Kyrylo began talking about the successes of his entrusted bank and his life credo on the pages of expensive business publications.

Firstly, this native of Russian Tula, who grew up in the city of Stakhanov in Luhansk region, has long had serious ambitions regarding career growth in the state financial sector. In 2016, Kyrylo Shevchenko applied for the position of head of "Oschadbank." But it remained with the "Yatsenyuk’s" Andriy Pyshnyi, so Kyrylo had to continue to be satisfied with "Ukrgasbank." Now, with the change in power, Kyrylo Shevchenko has a chance to climb higher in the career ladder. For this, it is important to successfully pass the "matchmaking." And these "matchmakings" can be completely failed, which brings us to the second point: not to be scandalously fired from "Ukrgasbank."

The fact that Kyrylo Shevchenko has many "blunders" in his current workplace and quite a few skeletons in the closet is, in principle, an open secret for financial market observers. But for some reason, they are not talking much about it now. And it’s in vain. Rereading the "authorized" description of this banker’s life and comparing it with the information from the editorial archive, we even marveled at how the image of an honest official, a successful financier, and an innovative banker is sculpted from a participant in corruption scandals and partners of fugitive criminals in the informational space. There is not a word of lies, just far from the entire truth.

For example, Shevchenko’s biography states:

"By 2006, Kyrylo Shevchenko had achieved impressive recognition in the professional environment and took the position of head of the State Mortgage Institution, which he led for 3 years and even issued the first Ukrainian state bonds."

And this is true. The professional environment was just thrilled with Shevchenko’s activities in the SMI. Especially the oligarch Dmytro Firtash, into whose bank "Nadra," the State Mortgage Institution under the leadership of Kyrylo, injected 8.5 billion UAH ($1.7 billion at that time’s exchange rate) from taxpayers’ "chests." And completely—the fate of most of that money remains quite murky.

Moving on.

"In 2010, he bought ’Terra Bank’ in the form of a share contribution with partners and, in a year, managed to dramatically advance this institution in economic ratings by enlarging the bank’s own capital and improving profitability indicators," says Kyrylo’s biography.

Indeed, according to our archival data, in the spring of 2010, Kyrylo Shevchenko acquired "Terra Bank" together with a relative and then-deputy finance minister Vadym Kopylov. The bank previously belonged to Yuriy Kolobov, the finance minister in Azarov’s government, which raises many questions about Shevchenko’s connections with the "Donetsk" clan. Shevchenko chaired the board of "Terra Bank" for a year, then became a member of the supervisory board and the chairman of the board of JSC "Ukrainian Strategic Group," which owned 99.6383% of the bank’s shares, and in another six months—also the chairman of the board of JSC "SKPD," the owner of 0.3559% of the bank’s shares.

However, in 2014, when "Terra Bank" was nominally bought out by financier Serhiy Klymenko, the seller was not Kyrylo Shevchenko, but a friend and business partner of the now-deceased Viktor Yanukovych Jr.—the scandalously known participant in several criminal cases Ruslan Tsyplakov. This means that initially, Kyrylo Shevchenko was not the real owner but a "front man" for Tsyplakov.

Ruslan Tsyplakov

Then the following occurs. As we wrote earlier, on March 31, 2014, Kyrylo Shevchenko became the president of the supposedly his own but sold by "young oligarch" Tsyplakov to third parties "Terra Bank," and in April, problems began in the bank. On August 21 of the same year, a temporary administration was introduced into the bank. After that, Kyrylo Shevchenko and Kopylov created a "transition" bank "Crystalbank," to which part of the assets and liabilities of "Terra Bank" were transferred. Formally, the hundred percent owner of the new bank was Maryna Lening, Kopylov’s wife.

When everything that "was lying around" was withdrawn from "Terra Bank," in December 2014, Kyrylo Shevchenko assumed the duties of the head of the board, and from May 28, 2015, he took the position of the full-fledged head of the board of "Ukrgasbank," which he has been "managing" to this day. After joining the major bank, even more questions arose regarding Shevchenko’s activities. You can familiarize yourself with these questions at the link above. We will focus on why Kyrylo Shevchenko is called a "green banker," and "Ukrgasbank" — "green bank," and where the deception lies.

"Kyrylo Shevchenko asserts that achieving good results at work is significantly easier if it is loved," says the "authorized" biography of our hero. "And ’green banking,’ the main direction of ’Ukrgasbank’s’ development, is not just a beloved job for him but a true passion. As a personality, Shevchenko is a staunch advocate of environmental protection, and as a financier, he views eco-banking as an instrument for saving lives in Ukraine."

Before we explain how Kyrylo Shevchenko and those behind him, under the guise of "chatter" about socially responsible "eco-banking," rob the state bank and deceive the simple users of its services, let’s clarify what real "green banking" is.

Of course, "green banking" has nothing to do with the newly elected President of Ukraine and his regional oligarch (although, this is not yet certain). This is a variety of so-called ethical banking (ethical banking)—financial activity aimed not only at making a profit but also at benefiting society in accordance with its established notions of ethics and morality. Essentially, "green banking" is the financing of environmentally "clean" business projects. In the execution of "Ukrgasbank" under the leadership of Kyrylo Shevchenko, this ethical banking turned out to be a banal "scam," and in places—outright robbery of the state budget and naive population.

For example, "Ukrgasbank" has been implementing a household energy independence program for several years. Allegedly, on preferential terms, it provides loans for the purchase and installation of "home" solar power plants by ordinary "small" Ukrainians, so that they would not only be independent from various regional energy companies but also earn extra money by selling the surplus electricity generated by the solar panels to the state at a "green" tariff (which is several times higher than the regular one). Citizens who took this offer quickly discovered that they, frankly, got into a financial "trap." First, the loan, which Kyrylo Shevchenko "promotes" everywhere, only becomes truly preferential if the borrower pays an advance of over half the cost of the equipment financed under the "Ukrgasbank" program (and this, for a power of 50 kW, is equivalent to the cost of an apartment in a regional center or a decent car). Second, the price of this equipment under the "Ukrgasbank" program for a strange coincidence of circumstances, even not considering the interest on the loan, comes out to be about one and a half times higher than buying it without the caring help of Shevchenko’s "office." Third, as the calculations of ordinary citizens who fell for the "Ukrgasbank" adventure show, the payback period for such an "project," considering various markups, stretches for them over 10-15 years, after which the equipment will need, if not complete replacement, then serious repair, which in itself implies shifting the payback period of the home solar power station to an indefinite period. Whether there is any personal gain in this "scheme" for a citizen named Kyrylo Shevchenko is a rhetorical question.

The "green tariff," under which the Ukrainian state buys electricity from both private households and large energy-generating companies, is the highest in Europe (despite the fact that we are one of the poorest countries on the continent). But in the European Union, where the tariff is significantly lower, installing solar panels for private households is a simpler and more profitable business than in Ukraine. The problem is that in our country, unlike the civilized world (where, it is worth noting, a lot of mistakes were also made in this area), the initially "green" tariff was introduced not as a tool for saving the environment, but as a loophole for robbing the state budget. It is not surprising that the implementation of this norm at the level of national legislation was promoted not so much by ecologists as by associates of Viktor Yanukovych, who earned (and still earn) the main money on the entirely non-ecological chain "coal – coke – metal." And the appearance of ordinary taxpayers in the super-profitable market of "green" electricity, which originally envisaged the earnings of the "elite" at the expense of these very taxpayers, did not suit and does not suit the "masters of life," both yesterday’s and today’s.

This logic includes "green banking" from "Ukrgasbank," the chairman of the board of which Kyrylo Shevchenko, as noted above, soared to the financial sky thanks to and together with the "Donetsk" clan. Under his sensitive leadership, "Ukrgasbank" finances projects by various "schemers" from solar energy, who build facilities with a capacity not of a dozen kilowatts, like "ordinary mortals," but in megawatts.

Serhiy and Andriy Klyuyev

For example, "Ukrgasbank," under the leadership of Shevchenko, financed the company "Skhid-Sonar" for 235 million UAH, moreover, under the collateral of assets that other creditors have long and hopelessly tried to seize. And Kyrylo Shevchenko simply could not fail to know that "Skhid-Sonar," previously part of the "solar" corporation Activ Solar, owned by the "regional" Klyuyev brothers, is currently drowning in debts like silk. This "terrible secret" has long since gone beyond the banking market.

As a result, the state bank, due to the "blindness" of its top management, "got caught" on almost a quarter of a billion, which it is unlikely to ever be able to return. Since friendly companies to the Klyuyevs suddenly became the primary creditors of the company "Skhid-Sonar" and initiated its bankruptcy. As a result, if the scheme works, everything that "Skhid-Sonar" owes to banks, it will return... to the Klyuyev brothers.

Yevhen Varyahin

Or, for example, in the framework of "greening" the Chornobyl zone, "Ukrgasbank" financed the construction of a solar power plant by the company Solar Chornobyl for 22 million UAH. The owner of which, Yevhen Varyahin, by a strange coincidence of circumstances, is a former top manager of the company Activ Solar GmbH of Andriy and Serhiy Klyuyev and, among other things, builds solar power plants in Russia, where these same Klyuyevs fled to escape Ukrainian justice.

A year ago, Kyrylo Shevchenko blessed the issuance of a "Ukrgasbank" loan in the amount of 19 million euros (about 570 million UAH) for the construction of a solar power plant with a capacity of 50 MW in the Zaporizhzhya region by the company Tokmak Solar Energy, about which the state bank disseminated news through all leading news agencies for a fee. Meanwhile, the owner of the "office" with the beautiful foreign name, which received an astronomical sum from the state financial institution, is a deputy of the local regional council from the pro-Russian "Opposition Bloc" - a native of Donbas Oleksandr Repkin.

Oleksandr Repkin

Regarding how the graying "mladoregional" Oleksandr Repkin was able to obtain all the necessary permits at the local level, there are many rumors in Zaporizhzhya, and they all boil down to one word—"corruption" (by the way, they say that Oleksandr Repkin "entered" the solar energy market under the protection of those same Andriy and Serhiy Klyuyev). One way or another, the "green" state financier Kyrylo Shevchenko blessed the financing of a private millionaire project with state funds with a return on investment of one and a half years and a potential profitability of 200-300 million UAH/year, and this profitability is compensation for the size of the "green" tariff (now—almost 5.5 UAH per 1 kWh) from the state budget.

And here we stop to admire the beauty of the scheme (which is absolutely legal), the key link of which is Kyrylo Shevchenko. Look. A simple citizen, to install solar panels on the roof of his house, become energy independent, friendly to the environment, and earn a few hundred euros a year, needs to scrape together about half a million UAH as an initial deposit in the state "Ukrgasbank" or agree to a loan with hefty interest (while, let us remind you, he is "pushed" equipment at a price significantly higher than the market). At the same time, let’s speak directly, some mafia-associated "devil" freely walks into Kyrylo Shevchenko’s state "Ukrgasbank," receives one loan of half a billion with a "tail" UAH (by the way, at quite loyal 6-8% per annum), places a field of solar panels on land obtained through corrupt schemes, pays off the loan in one and a half to two years (by the way, if desired, he may not return it, as the pioneers on this path, the Klyuev brothers, did), and then withdraws astronomical sums from the state budget at the "green" tariff.

For a moment. Even considering a gradual reduction of the "green" tariff, only one solar power plant with a capacity, for example, of 50 MW, built on a state bank loan, will draw about 3 billion UAH from taxpayers’ pockets by 2030 (when, in theory, this "green" outrage should end). That is, thanks to the financial genius of Kyrylo Shevchenko, we essentially lend to cunning guys with corrupt connections, only to then have the opportunity to fill their bank accounts from our pockets with tens and hundreds of millions per year.

However, all this "green" affair is not the only "scheme" currently involving Kyrylo Shevchenko. So...

To be continued...

Anton Luzer and Yaroslav Harmash, specially for CRiME and [loud stories]