#Ukraine: The secret defence of Victor Bondyk

The arguable demarche of Economy Minister Aivaras Abromavicius and the string of accusations that he threw at the first deputy head of Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Igor Kononenko, of lobbying those "overlooking" most lucrative state-owned companies revealed moth-eaten issues.

Since the new government has come to power, ministers swore to examine the old schemes very carefully. Those were widely used at different state-owned companies during Yanukovych's presidency. Spokespeople for the economy ministry informed the Segodnya.ua website that when Aivaras Abromavicius' was in office, the  heads of 42 core state companies had been removed. However, a new row arose between Abromavicius and Kononenko and the names of other state-run companies, such as Naftogaz, Ukrhimtransammiak and Powder Metallurgy Factory were mentioned in it. The director of the latter was removed only several months ago.

Yet, the work on the notorious CEO of Ukrhimtransammiak is still going. Abromavicius was trying to discharge corruption conscript, ex-member of Party of Regions, Viktor Bondyk, for more than six months. Bondyk has been working as the head of Ukrhimtransammiak (UHTA) for nearly 10 years - at least the Ministry for Economic Development says so.

Bondyk doesn’t seem to be anxious about the current situation. He simply goes on with his work and even continues cooperating with the Yanukovych family. A few criminal cases are pending against Bondyk now.

Bondyk has been the head of UHTA since 2007 and has outlasted 7 ministers. His disgraceful practices at the state-run enterprise are energetically discussed. The purchase of pumps and lifts for liquids for 55.4 million hryvnia in 2013 was quite a story! The same equipment with exactly the same technical specifications in 2010 costed the company 15.2 million hryvnia. The most high-profile scandal was the company's maneuver to raise two loans totaling $42 million from Amsterdam Trade Bank NV and Alfa-Bank.

According to the deputy of People's Front, Tatiana Chernovol, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine launched an investigation for acts of abuse of authority and irrelevant use of credit funds that were committed by Bondyk. She also told Segodnya.ua that the Office of the Prosecutor General filed these cases against Bondyk only after she asked personally to do it.

"Moreover, it was only after Arseniy Yatsenyuk had a private conversation with Abromavicius, when the Ministry for Economic Development raised the rate for the transportation of ammonia via Ukraine by nearly 30% in September 2015. Consider the fact: in 2010, pumping one ton of ammonia was $2/100 km, while during Bondyk's stay in office the price was $0.5/100 km.  Bondyk had lobbied such tariffs at the Economic Development Ministry for taking grafts from the Russian co-owner of JSC Togliattiazot, Sergei Makhlai, who transits his ammonia via Ukraine," people at the Cabinet told Segodnya.ua.  Sergei Makhlai is an outstanding person of the international criminal world. His birthplace is Russian Federation, but he obtained several US passports for Serge Makligh and George Mack. Makhlai is well-known as a respectable businessman in the US where there are harsh practices used against tax evaders, fraudsters and con men. This is because Makhlai prefers to run real business in his homeland - Russia, that he left in 1994 to live in the States.

At long last, Russian law enforcement agencies were rather interested in the shady schemes to withdraw $1.5 billion in money and assets from Togliattiazot.

In December 2012, a criminal case was filed under Article 159.4 of the Penal Code of the Russian Federation. By the decision of the Russian court, Makhlai and several of his associates had been detained in absentia and added to Interpol's wanted list. Yet, Togliattiazot continues his work. However, not at full capacity. Its only export channel, the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, is controlled by Ukrhimtransammiak. That’s why Makhial gives huge bribes to Bondyk.

Non-governmental organization Maidan Anti-Corruption Committee tried to put Bondyk to grass to some extent. Almost at the same time, an attempt was made upon the life of the vice chairman of the organization Ruslan Kalashnikov. He stayed alive, but the criminal case was hushed up.

Minister Abromavicius wasn’t able to discharge Bondyk, as he would always be either on holiday or on medical leave. Abromavichus made a decision to change the director of UHTA, at least officially, in September, when he wrote on Facebook: "Ukrhimtransammiak CEO has outlived 7 ministers.  And there is plenty of questions to him. More than a month ago, I asked him to resign (i.e, it was July - Ed.). He's gone on vacation."

According to sources at the Petro Poroshenko Bloc, Victor Bondyk was over and over seen at the presidential administration, although it is still a question what he did there. One more interesting fact: the discredited Victor Bondyk is the compadre of the sitting head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Vasily Gritsak.

As long as the heads of Ukrainian state-owned firms work as links at international corruption chains, led by criminals such as Makhlai, all endeavors to make enterprises more overt are fated to failure and so are the attempts to carry out fair and transparent privatization.

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