You're reading: Prosecutors: Kurchenko crime ring stole Hr 1 billion, hired ‘titushki’ to suppress EuroMaidan Revolution

A team of investigators from Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office say they have uncovered information regarding an alleged criminal group created and run by former billionaire Serhiy Kurchenko, whose metoric rise to prominence is surpassed only by his sudden fall from grace.

Kurchenko, the 28-year-old owner of Eastern European Fuel and Energy Company (VETEK), a conglomerate, is wanted by Ukrainian authorities for embezzlement and is suspected of simply being a front man for the family of overthrown President Viktor Yanukvoych.

The Prosecutor General’s Office placed Kurchenko on its wanted persons list on March 20, joining the former president who is now in exile and wanted for mass murder and massive corruption in Ukriane.

According to a report published to the Prosecutor General’s Office website on March 24, Kurchenko and a crime ring comprised of some 20 associates – including heads of several ministries – siphoned more than Hr 1 billion from state companies, inflicting serious damange on the national economy, and used a “significant amount” of the money to hire “titsuhki” – paid-for thugs – to violently suppress the anti-Yanukovych EuroMaidan Revolution.

Thousands of titushki were reportedly bused to Kyiv in December, January and February from eastern and southern regions of the country – the stronghold of Yanukovych and his former ruling Party of Regions – in order to intimidate protesters and cause chaos on the captial’s streets so that the government might have justification to crackdown on dissenters. Several “titushki” the Kyiv Post spoke with during that time said they were paid Hr 200 to Hr 800 for their services.

At a press briefing on March 24, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Oleh Makhnitsky added that the stolen funds were also used to finance the country’s Berkut riot police “to massacre the people.”

As part of the investigation into Kurchenko’s alleged criminal ring, the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), which is working jointly with the Prosecutor General’s Office, reported on March 21 that it identified and arrested some members of the criminal group who embezzled budget funds. Among those arrested is director of Gaz Ukrainy 2020, Arkadiy Kashkin, a Ukrainian. In addition, Chairman of the Supervisory Council of Brokbusinessbank PJSC Denys Buhai was detained. Other names were withheld but would be released later, prosecutors said.

“The organizer of the criminal group (Kurchenko) is on the international wanted list. Ukraine requires the immediate extradition of the citizen so that he can be prosecuted,” the SBU said.

Kurchenko is widely believed to have skipped town and made his way to Moscow. He has long been suspected of being a front man for the Yanukovych family, but in previous interviews categorically denied the claim. Yanukovych fled his lavish Mezhyhirya estate outside Kyiv by helicopter late on Feb. 21, turning up days later in the southern Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

Kurchenko left behind some 30 trash bags filled with shredded documents and business cards of VETEK employees when he hastily fled Ukraine. Ukrainian investigative journalists discovered the documents on Feb. 24 in a parking lot near Arena City entertainment center, which used to host the company’s office. They have since been working to piece the documents back together. 

Gaz Ukrainy 2020 and Brokbusinessbank belong to the VETEK group of companies.

As the country’s youngest billionaire, Kurchenko amassed a fortune in just over a year’s time through murky acquisitions of some of the nation’s key assets.

Acting Interior Minister of Ukraien Arsen Avakov wrote on Facebook recently that Kurchenko and his VETEK conglomerate evaded $875 million in taxes and caused state-owned oil and gas company Naftogaz to lose $200 million in revenue.