Joe Biden and the International Corruption Scandal
US Presidential candidate Joseph Biden plays a significant role in the international corruption scandal. Under his auspices, a tariff gas scheme was conducted which made it possible for various politicians and oligarchs to steal 1.5 billion dollars from Ukraine. Through the banks owned by Viktor Pinchuk, a portion of this sum, 29 million dollars, was transferred in 2016 to the fund of former US Presidential candidate from the Democratic Party, Hillary Clinton.
Under the patronage of Joe Biden, a scheme was constructed in order to steal from the people of Ukraine. Seven years ago, in cooperation with Ukrainian authorities, “energy dependence” strategy was employed. Instead of a Russian gas, Ukraine decided to purchase so-called European gas in the future at a higher price. The money made on this difference in price was extracted from the country and paid into accounts belonging to American companies and funds that were under the control of Biden and his corrupt associates, who sheltered these schemes.
Stealing of 1.5 billion dollars was done using the largest Ukrainian energy trading company, Naftogaz. This fraud scheme was so simple and effective, it was almost as if it was created by a Serbian. Due to political misunderstandings, which later outgrew into war conflict, Ukraine ceased with a purchasing of Russian gas. According to the official statements of Naftogaz, Ukraine is purchasing European gas, not the Russian one. The trick is that it is the same Russian gas that passes by pipeline through the territory of Ukraine, leaves one kilometer from the country (most often to Slovakia) and returns back as so-called European gas. The difference being that this Russian gas is not bought from Russian companies but from shell companies registered in the EU that are under control by companies with ties to management of Naftogaz.
This whole scheme which is based on the renaming of gas has made a large amount of money to everyone who is a part of this system of international corruption. Concrete figures can show us the size of this robbery. For 3.5 years (2015–2018), the average price in Europe for 1000 cubic meters of the same gas that Ukrainians buy was 211 US dollars, while Naftogaz bought gas on average at 245.65 US dollars. The difference is almost 35 dollars. From July 2018 to April 2019, the average price in Europe was almost 238.5 US dollars, and Ukraine imported it at 288.5 US dollars. The difference is 50 US dollars for every thousand cubic meters.
Under the screen of energy dependence and under the cover of US politicians, Ukrainian authorities in cooperation with management of Naftogaz inflicted enormous damage to the people of Ukraine, all the while justifying this by false patriotism.
The first negotiations on the purchase of gas from Europe began during the time of Viktor Yushchenko. However, the companies that are trading Russian gas (Gaz System from Poland, FGSZ Ltd from Hungary, Eustream from Slovakia and Transgaz from Romania) for a long time refused to cooperate with Ukrtransgaz (a company that deals with transfer and storage of gas), citing the specifics of long-term contracts with Russian Gazprom Export. Ukraine began importing natural gas from Germany through the territory of Poland in the context of preparations for Association with the EU, in November 2012. Since April 2013, supplies of natural gas from Hungary began. In total, in 2013 up until 2014, only 4 companies carried out gas import from the Russian Federation and Europe. In 2014, on the initiative of the Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the Cabinet decided to diversify gas supply sources. Politically, the decision was implemented in the form of the Law “On the Natural Gas Market” adopted by Ukrainian parliament in 2015.
So, over 5 years Ukraine overpaid almost 1.5 billion US dollars for the so-called European gas. Most of this amount settled in the pockets of Naftogaz officials and their political partners from Ukraine and USA.
The largest importer is the company “Energy Resources of Ukraine” (abbreviated as “ERU”). Specifically, we are talking about a whole group of companies that contain “ERU” in their name, registered both in Ukraine and in other countries. These include: PE “ERU Trading”, LLC “ERU Trading”, “ERU Corporation”, ERU Management Services LLC (registered in USA) and others.
According toYouControl, in December 2018, PE “ERU Trading” changed its name to “Warland Trading”. As the final beneficiary of last company, Andrey Favorov, the deputy head of Naftogaz’s Andriy Kobolyev, is indicated. Official records show us that the revenue of PE “ERU Trading” grew until 2018, after which it dipped slightly. In any case, we are talking about billions of dollars. For example, from July 21, 2016 to June 23, 2017, the company transferred almost 348 million UAH to the account of ERU Management Services LLC, and from May 25, 2017 to July 25, 2017 almost 274 UAH. In total more than 620 million Ukraine hryvnias. whichamounts to almost 20 million US dollars. These are just the amounts that investigative journalists were able to track.
Behind the ERU is Andrey Favorov, citizen of Russia and the USA. The repatriate from Moscow to the USA, has Odessa roots, worked for the American company AES in third world countries. Since 2009, he has been working in the AES affiliate in Eastern Europe. Favorov participated in the creation of the Swiss offshore DTEK Trading SA, a company that imports natural gas from Europe.
Andrey Favorov was appointed Head of the Integrated Gas Business Division of Nagtogaz in November 2018, led by his friend and his poker partner Andriy Kobolyev. Obviously, Favorov is important ace up one’s sleeve. Kobolyev and his associates could not crank out this multi-million dollars scheme without a more influential “back”. We can find this “back” in the Supervisory Board of Naftogaz.
On December 5, 2015, by Decree N0. 1002, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approved a new charter for Naftogaz, a regulation on the company’s Supervisory Board and the regulation on the company’s Board. The independent Supervisory Board of Naftogaz received unprecedented broad powers and responsibilities for control over the activities of the company’s Board. One of the main architects of this reform was the representative of the Supervisory Board, Amos Hochstein. On the Naftogaz’s website it is noted that he advised the Vice President of USA. Although the name of this Vice President is not noted, it is not difficult to conclude that the person in question is Joe Biden. Hochstein was also the Democratic Party’s chief officer in the Subcommittee on Economic Policy, Trade and Environment. In the US State Department, Hochstein began work in 2011 at the Energy Resources Agency. As US Deputy Ambassador to Ukraine, Carlos Pasquale was in charge of the gas sector. On August 1, 2014, Hochstein became the current special envoy and coordinator for international energy issues. As the chief energy diplomat of the United States, Hochstein worked closely with Vice President Joe Biden. Hochstein never hid the fact that in his activities he unconditionally obeys Joe Biden. “I was in almost every single meeting that Vice President Biden had with President Poroshenko. I was on every trip, and I was on most of the phone calls.” – Hochstein admits.
Hochstein’s key goal was to pressure Ukrainian authorities and President Petro Poroshenko demanding that the activities of the state gas company Naftogaz, which controlled about two-thirds of the country’s energy resources, be reformed. This pressure worked and the activities of Naftogaz were reformed in accordance with the interests of Biden and Hochstein. Judging by the fact that part of the stolen money was transferred to American companies, these two covered this scheme.
Ukraine has been imposed an erroneous model of energy dependency. Instead of increasing its own production, there was a purchase of gas in Europe from intermediaries, due to which its price was overestimated. Commission to intermediaries are on average 30 to 50 euros for each thousand cubic meters. In order to make this kind of business profitable, the domestic gas price in Ukraine for consumers, both commercial and citizens, has been raised by about 10 times in recent years. In the same period of time, domestic gas production in Ukraine by the state-owned company UkrGasVydobuvannyadecreased significantly.
A few years ago, Naftogaz announced an ambitious 20/20 program that provides for an increase in gas production by 2020 to 20 billion cubic meters per year. In July this year, Andrey Favorov acknowledged the failure of this program even though 40 billion UAH was spent on its implementation. In other words, they killed their own production for the sake of their own income. Because, the more Ukraine would produce, the less import would be and they wouldn’t be able to steal so many millions of dollars.
Kobolyev proved this by setting a personal example, which inflicted enormous damage to the people of Ukraine. He did not hesitate to receive hundreds of millions of bonuses and millionth salary. A million for every day of overwork. The higher the price of tariffs for people, the higher the salaries and bonuses for the management of Naftogaz.
Ukraine stopped its own production and increased the import of Russian gas, renaming it as European. Independent researchers are naming this behaviour an act of treason and they are initiating the establishment of a Temporary Investigation Commission to investigate the facts of international corruption of senior officials of Ukraine, oligarchs and their American protectors, led by Joseph Biden.
This all has led to the great public dissatisfaction in Ukraine, and already the spiders in the oil and gas jar are accusing each other of treason and corruption, trying to weave from responsibility. One of the top officials of Naftogaz, Yuri Vitrenko, admitted that raising the price of the gas is nothing other than paying for corruption and lack of professionalism.
Next to Biden, Hochstein, Ukrainian politicians and the management of Naftogaz, a person who plays a significant role in the international corruption scandal is Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk, founder of The Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the owner of numerous banks and companies. In 2015, Pinchuk financed the Presidential campaign of one Hillary Clinton with 29 million US dollars, the money that was stolen from Ukrainian people.
How did Pinchuk became one of the wealthiest Ukrainian oligarchs? A recently released document can give us an answer. In his “personal recognizance”, dated April 27, 1987, Pinchuk wrote in his own handwriting: “I, Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk, agree to voluntary assist the KGB in their work to protect the security of our country. In the course of cooperation, the well-known forms and methods of the KGB organs, as well as persons of interest to the KGB organs, which I became aware of, I have undertaken to never disclose to anyone. The written information that I will provide I will sign as Valery.”
The same year, Pinchuk was commended on “Chekist Day”, which all former KGB officers, as well as agents, traditionally celebrate on December 20, for his “fruitful contribution to the service”.
Just like many other KGB associates, Pinchuk later became philanthropist and advocate for democratic values, and even a financier of Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign. However, this adventure will cost him dearly. Concerned due to investigations of operations in his banks and companies, Pinchuk is preparing to fled the Ukraine. The selling of his Credit Dnepr bank was announced, and his companies will be for sale as well. Also, it is expected that he will soon liquidate his Foundation.Pinchuk arranged a “Black Friday” so he could withdraw his assets, clean tails andcover up traces of corruption, the corruption that includes the politicians from Clinton and Obama administration.
In the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations, a criminal proceeding is registered under number 12019000000001138, dated December 16, 2019, based on the application made by Ukrainian parliament member A. L. Derkach against Pinchuk. According to those allegations, Pinchuk is suspected for the seizing of large amount of money from the accounts belonging to Delta Bank and Credit Dnepr Bank. Misconducts were made by using the Austrian Meinl Bank AG, and non-resident companies Seisen Trading Limited, Agalusko Investment Limited, Melfa Group Ltd, Nasterno Commercial Limited, Tandice Limited, Tosalan Trading Limited, Winter Trading Limited and others. Investigation should establish the origin of the 29 million US dollars that The Victor Pinchuk Foundation transferred to The Clinton Foundation. The establishment of these facts will help the American side to conduct its own investigation in order to determine the criminal liability of Hillary Clinton.
Hillary Clinton has officially confirmed that she received donations from Pinchuk’s Foundation, and details of this transaction were reported by an independent French online publication known for its political investigations and investigation on corruption, Mediapart. Kate Matberg, the author of an article titled: “The Austrian bank was involved in Ukraine’s money laundering schemes”, stated that by a decision of the Pechersk Court in Kyev in May 2016, it was confirmed that some Ukrainian banks used shadow schemes to withdraw funds through correspondent accounts of the Austrian Meinl Bank. The damage from their actions amounted to more than 800 million US dollars.
Among the banks involved in these frauds is Credit Dnepr, owned by Victor Pinchuk and affiliated with Delta Bank. Victor Pinchuk was shareholder of the two banks and the beneficiary of the Credit Dnepr and Delta Bank loans. Delta Bank withdrew more than 87 million US dollars to an Austrian bank. These banks were granted loans by the Ukraine National Bank at the expense of IMF. On March 11, 2015 Ukraine reached an agreement with the International Monetary Fund on a new four-year program of expanded financing of17.5 billion US dollars. In the same month, Ukraine received the first tranche of 5 billion. From this package Pinchuk’s Credit Dnepr received a stabilization loan in the amount of 357 million UAH. In relation to Delta Bank, the National Bank was much more generous: in 2014 it provided loans to the bank in order to maintain liquidity in the amount of 4 billion 150 million UAH, and later that year, a stabilization loan of 960 million UAH.
Oligarchs and corrupt bankers, according to the court, withdrew more than 800 million US dollars from Ukraine. This money was transferred to The Victor Pinchuk Foundation through aforementioned Austrian bank,, and later the part of it was donated to The Clinton Foundation. Because of this, a criminal case was being investigated in Austria against Meinl Bank AG. Meanwhile, this bank was closed by the European Central Bank.
In connection with this large-scale scheme of international corruption, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has registered the corresponding criminal proceedings. Some of the evidence that prove which of the oligarchs and politicians from Ukraine and USA are implicated in this corruption scandal, has already been made available to the public.
Three of the most interesting audio recordings were published in the course of action titled “Temida” (Themis). First one is the recording of the conversation between Vice President of USA Joe Biden and the Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko, dated August 19, 2016, when they discussed the nationalization of PrivatBank. You can find this recording at the following link:
The following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6ubflICyhM, contains the recording of another conversation between Biden and Poroshenko, a conversation they had on the same day concerning the issue of publishing of the so-called Black Book of the Party of Regions.
The third conversation in question was the one between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Petro Poroshenko. On April 30, 2019, just two months after the Battle of Debaltseve, they talked about mutual relations. You can find this recording at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8f8urNuFPsk&t=159s.
During the last presidential campaign and after the win of Donald Trump, a large amount of evidence concerning international corruption was published. In order to cover their tracks, individuals at the top of Democratic Party have tried to shift responsibility for the affair “Ukrainegate” towards Trump. Impeachment process started and the charges were that Trump blackmailed current Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. In February this year, Trump was acquitted by the Senate, and at the end of April, “Ukrainegate” entered the second phase which will result in judicial proceedings, both in Ukraine and in USA.
Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Telizhenko, who used to work for the Embassy in Washington DC, recently claimed that while being a President of the Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko took a bribe in the amount of 200 million US dollars, in order to stop the investigations into disputes business operations of the Kiev-based Burisma Holdings Limited. A managerial position at Burisma was held by Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President and current US Presidential candidate Joe Biden. Poroshenko received the money in order to stop the activities made by Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, who launched an investigation into tax evasion and money laundering of Burisma. When Shokin was replaced, Biden bragged around, saying that he was responsible for the removal of “that son of a bitch”.
On May 19, 2020, Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine launched an investigation against Poroshenko, placing him under suspicion that he “systematically used his official position during the years 2015-2016, acting against the interests of Ukraine, which all led to grave consequences to national interests.” Prosecution is in the possession of audio recording of the conversations between persons ‘’whose voices are similar to the voices of former President Poroshenko, former Vice President of USA Joe Biden and former United States Secretary of State John Kerry”. Analysis of these conversations established the fact that, between December 2015 and November 2016, Poroshenko committed criminal acts prohibited in Article 111 of Criminal Code of Ukraine that pertains to high treason. Poroshenko acted in such way that he inflicted damage to sovereignty of Ukraine and to its economic and intelligence security. He did so by revealing state secrets to representatives of foreign countries.
He is suspected of pressuring (along with Biden and Kerry) the Prosecutor General’s Office with goals of replacing Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin, enforcing the nationalization of PrivatBank and changing Ukrainian government. Poroshenko, Biden and Kerry committed these criminal offences in order to gain financial profit for themselves and other individuals and legal entities. These are the conclusions of analysis of the conversations that Poroshenko had with Biden on February 11, 18 and 19, 2016, on March 22, 2016, on May 13, 2016 and on November 16, 2016, as well as analysis of the conversation Poroshenko had with Kerry on December 3, 2015.
A group of oligarchs and politicians conducted this scheme of corruption, and they stole more than 1.5 billion US dollars from the Ukrainian people. Money was transferred through numerous banks and companies at the accounts belonging to, among others, Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton. In the process of several judicial proceedings, the fraud was already established and some of the participants were punished. The final resolution of this affair in Ukraine will happen when Poroshenko, his partners from the Ukrainian government and Naftogaz, as well as oligarch Pinchuk are held accountable in criminal court. As far as USA is concern, there are ongoing judicial proceeding in several cases of scandals in which Bill and Hillary Clinton played a major role. Next to other criminal offences, Hillary Clinton is certainly going to be prosecuted for money laundering of dirty money donated to her by Victor Pinchuk.
Serbia is the only country in which there seem to be no announcements of investigations that would establish responsibilities of Serbian oligarchs and politicians in the ““Ukrainegate”. By orders of Aleksandar Vucic, Zeljko Mitrovic transferred 5 million US dollars at the accounts of Ukrainian banks. Through intermediaries, this money has been invested in the losing Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton. Miodrag Kostic and Tahir Hasanovic also took part in these combinations. There are leads, but there is a clear absence of political will to investigate all these allegations. Just like Poroshenko, Aleksandar Vucic enabled illegal financing of Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Both politicians did this with money belonging to the people of their respective countries. For now, only Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office reacted, preparing the criminal charges against their former President for high treason and for inflicting a damage to Ukraine’s national interests, while Public Prosecutor’s Office of Serbia remains silent. But, even Vucic won’t be able to escape responsibility for his participation in this global international corruption affair.
Joseph Biden organized and politically covered international corruption in Ukraine. However, he took the money belonging to the people of Serbia in a much simpler way. Serbian magazine “Tabloid” reported on this in several articles.
Biden’s first visit to Serbia happened when he was a member of the delegation of US President Jimmy Carter. Thirty years later, in May 2009, he was greeted with the highest honors.
He entered The Palace of Serbiathrough the lane (guard of honor) made by Serbian Guard. He was greeted on the red carpet by Boris Tadic, Vuk Jeremic and Dragan Sutanovac. Biden told Jeremic: “Hey, you’re that kid that’s been giving us trouble about Kosovo.” He hugged Sutanovac, of course, since Sutanovac was always obedient to his NATO masters. When he was a Minister of Defense, Sutanovac was put under investigation led by Serbian Security Intelligence Agency. This was done by Boris Tadic, then President of Serbia, and the reason was that Sutanovac committed grave criminal offence together with Stevan Nikcevic, the Director of SDPR Yugoimport. Sutanovac saved himself from being arrested by giving Mr. Biden 370 million US dollars. The debt that Iraq had to Serbian industrial sector in amount of over 2 billion US dollars, Sutanovac sold to American company for 200 million dollars, and the rest was split between Biden and him.
Vucic was of no such financial use for now, but the two of them are certainly hoping for Biden’s win in November, so they can make a similar corruptive scheme in Serbia like the one that was conducted in Ukraine.
predragpopovic 