Ukrainian leader accused of corruption – The Times
Maxim Tucker – Odessa

Ukraine’s top prosecutors are investigating the alleged involvement of Arseniy Yatsenyuk, the country’s prime minister, in a $90 million-a-year corruption scheme, The Times can disclose.
David Sakvarelidze, Ukraine’s deputy prosecutor general, said that a raid on the state-owned Odessa Port Plant had uncovered evidence tying the prime minister to theft of the enterprise’s profits.
“We conducted a search last weekend and the first links that we found link to the prime minister’s office and the government,” said Mr Sakvarelidze, who is also chief prosecutor of the Odessa region. “It’s a very high-profile case, it’s going to be very interesting. We have millions of dollars that were stolen from the government.”
Mr Yatsenyuk’s office dismissed the allegations, saying in a statement that the claims had “nothing to do with reality”. The allegations coincide with a political battle between the prime minister and Mikhail Saakashvili, the governor of Odessa, a former president of Georgia and a favourite of Ukraine’s President Poroshenko. Mr Sakvarelidze is a key member of Mr Saakashvili’s team, recruited by Mr Poroshenko. Mr Yatsenyuk’s popularity has plummeted since he took office as a reformist figure after the revolution that overthrew Viktor Yanukovich last year. His approval rating is 2 per cent and he is reeling from the resignation of his closest parliamentary ally last week in a corruption scandal.
By contrast, Mr Saakashvili is Ukraine’s most popular politician, according to polls. A petition with 31,000 signatures has been registered with the president calling for Mr Saakashvili to replace Mr Yatsenyuk.
The investigators are looking into a deal brokered between the Odessa Port Plant and Antra, an Austrian company, announced on November 12.
Under the deal, Antra would supply more than half the factory’s gas in exchange for its ammonia and fertiliser products. Antra receives the products at cost price, allowing it to profit from them on the open market.
The deal is known as a “tolling scheme”, which is outlawed in several countries but not in Ukraine. Prosecutors argue that the deal was skewed in favour of Antra to deprive Kiev of profits. Prosecutors will have to prove that Antra is a front for Ukrainian officials to secure convictions.
According to Austria’s commercial register, Antra was set up as a “virtual trader” called Systems Active in 2013 by Leonid Marchuk, a Ukrainian citizen. Mr Marchuk is also registered as the ultimate beneficiary of Trans-Gas Bureau, the Ukrainian gas trader.
Another Ukrainian, Yuliia Surnina, is listed as the managing director of Antra’s 90 per cent owner, Universal Exports Holding, a Swiss company.
Antra’s 10 per cent owner, Eugen Hinrichs-Schramm, denied the company had connections to the Ukrainian gas trader. “Mr Marchuk does not have any ties to Antra or its majority shareholder,” he wrote in an email.
The deal was made possible by a gas law signed off by Mr Yatsenyuk in April and introduced in October. The government also delayed privatisation of the Odessa Port Plant, which had been scheduled for October, allowing the scheme to be implemented. According to Mr Sakvarelidze, the man who signed the contract for the government was “directly appointed by the team of the prime minister” in April.
The prime minister’s office denied making the appointment, saying that the official had been elected by the Odessa plant’s board.

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