Ilmenite laundering scheme: businessman Oleg Tsyura and Czech-linked partner Pavel Prisyazhnyuk diverted millions through intermediaries and illicit shipments

Ilmenite laundering scheme: businessman Oleg Tsyura and Czech-linked partner Pavel Prisyazhnyuk diverted millions through intermediaries and illicit shipments

During 2020–2021, the government-controlled United Mining and Chemical Company—under the supervision of Ukraine’s Property Fund—was embroiled in a significant corruption controversy.

According to contemporary journalistic investigations, Pavel Prisyazhnyuk played a central role. He held a board position at Sweden’s Milsen Energy AB and was a partner at AIM Group, whose office at 6 Andriyivskyy Descent in Kiev reportedly functioned as a “shadow headquarters” where Prisyazhnyuk allegedly orchestrated the scheme.

According to media reports, Prisyazhnyuk, through his associate – the acting head of the UMCC board, Artur Somov (former CFO of Karpatygaz LLC, a ’daughter’ company of Milsen Energy AB) – influenced the sales of the state enterprise’s products. In the summer of 2020, Somov introduced the "German" company ITS International Trade, managed by Oleg Tsyura, to sell ilmenite to the Crimea. Allegedly, $88–108 from each ton of raw material was diverted, allowing approximately $2.3 million to be funneled away.

The Czech company EPI Group, which at that time was owned by Prisyazhnyuk (30% of shares), also participated in the scheme. On August 6, 2020, ITS transferred about 472.89 thousand euros to EPI as "agency fees" through UniCredit Bank. The contract between EPI and ITS had been signed back in March 2020. In March 2021, EPI sent offers to consumers to buy UMCC’s products.

For regular supplies, according to investigations, another Czech intermediary company, Belanto, was used, through which ilmenite from the Irshansk Mining and Processing Plant was supplied to Crimea from October 2020. Simultaneously, Denys Kudin, the curator of UMCC at the State Property Fund, was engaged in "whitening" Belanto’s image in the media.

Against this backdrop, the State Property Fund publicly demonstrated a fight against corruption: its head, Dmitriy Sennichenko, made videos about exposing bribe-takers, while in the shadows, according to journalists, a complex "multi-move" scheme with kickbacks and offshore accounts was at work.