Firtash Dmitry Vasilyevich

Firtash Dmitry Vasilyevich

Assets

Group DF (Dmitry Firtash Group) - the oligarch's business empire as of June 2019 owns a large number of assets in Ukraine:

• nitrogen and fertilizer production,
• titanium mining, enrichment and production,
• agribusiness,
• real estate,
• media,

only more than 100 enterprises, but the basis of Dmitry Firtash's business has always been gas - export and import in large volumes, Firtash owns the gas company RosUkrEnergo, whose co-owner is Gazprom.

Biography

Born in the village of Sinkov (formerly Bogdanovka) of the Zaleshchitsky district of the Ternopil region (Ukraine).

1983 - Krasnolimansk railway vocational school.

1984-1986 - service in the USSR Armed Forces.

1988 - trade in Chernivtsi, then in Moscow.

1993 - founded his own energy business.

He graduated from the National Academy of Internal Affairs of Ukraine.

2002 - created the company Eural TransGas. At the same time, he began to invest in the chemical industry (a controlling stake in the Tajik Azot plant).

2002 - Member of the All-Ukrainian Political Association "Zhinki for maybutnє."

2003 - acquired the chemical plant Nitrofert.

He created Emfesz in Hungary to develop the gas and energy business.

2004: Creation of joint venture with Gazprom RosUkrEnergo

In 2004, together with Gazprom, he created the company RosUkrEnergo to carry out gas transit to Ukraine and the countries of the European Union. It was as a partner of Gazprom that Firtash gained fame: Rosukrenergo in 2006-2008. supplied Russian gas to Ukraine. The company was involved in various scandals, and Yulia Tymoshenko, who headed the Ukrainian government at that time, eventually sought to exclude it from gas supply schemes.

2004 - acquired by the Austrian company Zangas Hoch- und Tiefbau GmbH

2004 - became the main investor of the Crimean Soda Plant (Krasnoperekopsk) and Crimean TITAN (Armyansk).

2005 - became a shareholder of Rivneazot OJSC.

2007 - Group DF (English The Firtash Group of Companies) was created. It included a number of assets in the chemical industry, energy and real estate.

2010 - began the process of unification of Ukrainian nitrogen enterprises.

2010 - acquired the chemical enterprise PJSC Concern Styrol, the city of Gorlovka, Donetsk region.

2011 - Severodonetsk association "Nitrogen" and Cherkasy "Nitrogen."

2011 - became the majority shareholder of a large Ukrainian retail bank Nadra.

2011 - elected Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine and became one of the largest taxpayers in the country.

Firtash played not the last role in the coming to power of Viktor Yanukovych, whom he supported financially, media - the first button of Ukraine (Inter TV channel) and the organizational and business partner of Firtash Sergey Levochkin became the head of the Presidential Administration Yanukovych.

2013: Financing Akhmetov's deal to buy Ukrtelecom

In 2013, Dmitry Firtash served as Chairman of the Board of the Group DF.

In 2013, System Capital Management (SCM) of oligarch Rinat Akhmetov acquired from structures affiliated with the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine for an unnamed amount of offshore UA Telecominvest along with its controlling stake in Ukrtelecom (more about the transaction and the court here).

As it became known in 2017 during the proceedings in the Arbitration Court of London, SCM stated that the group had not voluntarily acquired Ukrtelecom. In 2012, Rinata Akhmetova was asked about this by the then President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych. Allegedly, he was concerned about the ability of the owner of Ukrtelecom to support this asset. On the part of Yanukovych, negotiations on the resale of Ukrtelecom were conducted by one of his close associates, Sergey Arbuzov, who at different times held the posts of head of the National Bank of Ukraine, deputy prime minister and other positions.

Akhmetov instructed one of the top SCM managers Ilya Arkhipov to negotiate. He, in turn, attracted a Kiev lawyer Yaroslav Simonov for negotiations. It was from Simonov's testimony given to the London arbitration that information about the true beneficiaries of the privatization of Ukrtelecom became known.

During the first meeting on the resale of Ukrtelecom, held in August 2012, Yaroslav Porokhnyak, one of the close associates of the famous Ukrainian politician and businessman Valery Khoroshkovsky, participated in the negotiations on behalf of the sellers. Khoroshkovsky in 2010-2012. headed the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), then was Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister. He also owned the Inter TV channel and other media assets merged into the Inter Media Group.

It was Khoroshkovsky, as was established during the arbitration hearings, who was the beneficiary of the privatization of Ukrtelecom in 2011. True, the London Arbitration could not understand whether he remained as of the date of the conclusion of the privatization agreement of Ukretelecom - March 11, 2011.

But, in any case, Khoroshkovsky was the ultimate owner of Raga Establishment by the time the purchase was completed by this offshore Ukrtelecom, held on May 11, 2011. This became known from the testimony given to the London arbitration by another witness, former head of Group DF Robert Shetler-Jones. This company belongs to the famous Ukrainian businessman Dmitry Firtash, who also turned out to be a secret participant in the privatization of Ukrtelecom.

It follows from the words of Shetler-Jones that Raga Establishment raised a loan of $300 million from Bank of Cyprus to finance the purchase of Ukrtelecom. The guarantor of this loan was one of Firtash's structures - Cyprus Picabo. The corresponding agreement was concluded on May 2, 2011, and then Khoroshevsky was definitely the owner of Raga Establishment. That is, the privatization of Ukrtelecom was carried out in the interests of the current head of the Security Service of Ukraine.

There is no definitive clarity regarding Firtash's role in the privatization of Ukrtelecom. Yaroslav Simonov says that in 2012 Khoroshkovsky owned only 24.99% of the shares of Raga Establishment, and SCM wanted to limit itself to buying only this share. However, the Ukrainian government insisted that SCM fully buy out the controlling owner of Ukrtelecom.

After that, in early 2013, Group DF joined the negotiations. Simonov claims that Dmitry Firtash's company owned a 75.01% stake in Raga Establishment, Sergey Arbuzov allegedly told him. Moreover, according to Simonov, in the summer of 2013, at the time of concluding an agreement with SCM on the sale of a controlling stake in Ukrtelecom, Firtash bought Khoroshkovsky's stake and became the sole owner of Raga Establishment.

However, Raga Establishment itself denies this. During the hearing, a company representative said that Gorbunenko acquired Raga Establishment from its sole owner Valery Khoroshkovsky, and Group DF only participated in attracting funding.

Schetler-Jones also claims that Group DF was not a co-owner of Raga Establishment. The company only participated in attracting financing for the purchase of Ukrtelecom, Firtasha asked Khoroshkovsky about this, with whom they were in good relations.

Firtash and Khoroshkovsky really had a good relationship. In 2009, during the conflict between the Ukrainian authorities and Rosukrenergo, Khoroshkovsky, then the head of the State Customs Service, unexpectedly supported Firtash, which caused indignation of Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. In addition, in 2013, Khoroshkovsky sold to Firtash Inter Media Group^[1]

2014: Detention in Austria at the request of the United States

Firtash played a key role in Poroshenko's election - a meeting was held in Austria (Ritz-Carlton Hotel): Firtash - Levochkin - Poroshenko - Klitschko, the latter abandoned presidential ambitions and became mayor of Kiev, and Poroshenko - President.

On March 12, 2014, Firtash was detained in Austria at the request of the United States, issued back in 2013, and is awaiting a decision on extradition to the United States.

The essence of the charges: Dmitry Firtash, with the help of bribes totaling $18.5 million, wanted to obtain permits for the extraction of titanium raw materials in India, for the supply of Boeing to the United States, bribes passed through American banks.

The case was considered in the Land Court of Vienna, the lawyers of Dmitry Firtash appealed and secured bail in the amount of €125 million.

In November 2014, Reuters published an investigation in which it claimed that in 2011-2014 Gazprom sold more than 20 billion cubic meters to Firtash structures. m of gas at prices below market prices, while Gazprombank shortly after Yanukovych came to power in Ukraine, whom Firtash then supported, began to issue loans to Firtash companies and by March 2011 opened credit lines for them in the amount of up to $11 billion.

In Europe, Firtash has close contacts with the Austrian Raiffeisen Bank, headquartered in Vienna, the bank acted as a guarantor of many asset purchases, opened credit lines totaling more than €20 billion, in return Firtash lobbied for Raiffeisen Bank in Ukraine (4th place in terms of loan portfolio).

2019: Austrian court agrees to extradite Dmitry Firtash to the United States

In June 2019, the Austrian Supreme Court agreed to extradite Dmitry Firtash to the United States, where he faces 50 years in prison.

Under such circumstances, Firtash will make a deal with the investigation: he will disclose all schemes for working with Gazprom, Ukrainian and Russian oligarchs, begin to cooperate with the FBI, the US government - in terms of creating conditions for the supply of liquefied natural gas from the United States to Europe and Ukraine, and the CIA, for which he will be a very valuable material.

Dmitry Firtash, according to his American lawyer Dan Webb, can be extradited in early July, the final decision should be made by Austrian Federal Minister of Justice Clements Jabloner - the fate of Dmitry Firtash depends on the stroke of his pen, this is the only loophole to protect the oligarch, headed by the former Austrian Minister of Justice - Dieter Bemmdorfer.

At the trial, Firtash was calm - he knew about the decision in advance, none of his defense gave comments, perhaps a solution was found by the defense, and there will be no extradition.

Ukraine picks up 26 gas distribution system operators owned by Dmitry Firtash

In May 2022, 26 regional and city operators of the gas distribution system, which previously belonged to businessman Dmitry Firtash, came under state control.

Under the pretext of "protecting critical infrastructure," the State Bureau of Investigations arrested the rights to these gas operators. Now they have been transferred to the state-owned enterprise Chernomorneftegaz, which is part of Naftogaz Ukrainy.

Firtash himself at this time is in Austria. Since 2014, the United States has been demanding his extradition on charges of bribery and the creation of a criminal group. So far, his lawyers have managed to fight back in local courts. Firtash's partner is deputy and co-head of the OPZh Sergey Levochkin. The latter led and financed the OPZZ on mutual bases with Viktor Medvedchuk. After the start of the special military operation of Russia in Ukraine, the activities of the OPZZ actually ceased. In addition, Levochkin owns a large TV channel "Inter."

The loss of 26 gas operators will undermine the financial basis of the Firtash-Levochkin group. Some Firtash enterprises at that time are in the war zone: Styrol in Gorlovka and Azot in Severodonetsk. Against the background of financial problems at the group, the office of the president of the country decided to finally get rid of a potential opponent.

Family

The first wife is Lyudmila Grabovetskaya, daughter of Ivanna born in 1988 from her first marriage.

The second wife - from September 2001 to 2005 was married to Maria Mikhailovna Kalinovskaya.

The third wife is Lada Pavlovna Firtash. Two children: daughter Anna born in 2005 and son Dmitry born in 2007 Lada Firtash is the founder and Chairman of the Board of the FIRTASH Foundation Charitable Foundation, as well as the Chairman of the Investment and Development Projects Council.

Awards, achievements

During his service in 1984-1986 he was awarded the medal "For the successes achieved in the development of the national economy of the USSR" and the Order of the Badge of Honor.

2011 - Order of the Russian Orthodox Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov II degree.

Notes