Privatbank has got into a new investigation: how Kolomoisky built a "laundry" in the USA for $750 million

Author

Diana Polunina

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published an investigation into the possible schemes of the Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and his partner Hennadiy Boholyubov in the United States. Journalists believe that the partners bought various real estate in the country for money siphoned from Privatbank.

Thus, to pay for real estate in the United States, Kolomoisky and partners transferred about $490 million and brought another $268 million to the country. In particular, transactions from companies related to businessmen were carried out through Deutsche Bank (about 3,000 transfers). At the same time, most often the money was transferred through the plant Warren Steel.

The investigators note that they bought the first ferrous metallurgy plants in 2006—it is about Felman Production in West Virginia and Detroit Cold Rolling Steel in Michigan, "chipping in together" $20 million, and were preparing to open Warren Steel that later (in 2007-2008) received $13.6 million from Privatbank. From 2010 to 2013, another $16.5 million was transferred to the plant's accounts and $4.5 million from an allegedly Cypriot company.

In 2008, the oligarchs also bought Michigan Seamless Tube for $81 million. This amount and some more were transferred to an offshore company in the British Virgin Islands. In 2011, Metals and Alloys was bought for $188.1 million (the money was also taken from offshore). After that, a specialized steel company having six plants was acquired for $236.1 million, $58 of them were transferred from Ukraine, as well as Kentucky Electric Steel for $110.6 million ($20 million was transferred from our country). In 2015, the partners bought Corey Steel in Illinois for $43 million, but where these funds came from is still unknown.

"By 2011, Kolomoisky and his partners had purchased nearly a dozen properties in Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan, and Kentucky. By 2015, Kolomoisky and his partners in the United States had amassed a real estate fortune: 13 steel factories, 5 office towers, a hotel, two office parks, and a shuttered Motorola plant with two heliports," the investigation says.

But they managed this property carelessly. Thus, two office towers were sold with great losses, the hotel was mortgaged, Michigan Seamless Tube, Kentucky Electric Steel, Corey Steel, Niagara LaSalle, and Warren Steel went bankrupt in 2016, CC Metals and Alloys ceased to produce in 2020. At the moment, only Felman Production is working.

As for the factories of partners, according to the Post-Gazette, safety precautions were not observed there in order to save money, and that is why in 2010 and 2011 there were two explosions at factories in Ohio. At factories in West Virginia and Ohio, 22 serious violations were found that were not managed even after the explosions. About ten people were seriously injured. After the plant Warren Steel stopped working, illegal disposal of industrial waste was discovered there: the contents of the furnaces bag filter were dumped on the ground, untreated sewage was discharged into the Mahoning River.

Context. In September 2020, it turned out that Deutsche Bank that had transferred $750 million for the business benefit of Kolomoisky in the United States, played a key role in siphoning funds from Privatbank to its former owners, Kolomoisky and Boholyubov. And on March 5, he and the closest members of his family were included in the US sanctions list.