Companies Connected To Ukranian President Yanukovych Linked To Magnitsky Corruption Investigation

Several newly uncovered documents reveal that three companies connected to Ukraine’s ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, have ties to corruption exposed by late Russian lawyer Sergei Magnitsky. Magnitsky died in prison after uncovering fraud and embezzlement among Russian officials.

According to an investigation by Hermitage Capital Management, the investment firm that employed Magnitsky, several companies listed in documents found at Yanukovych’s presidential palace are registered to the same U.K. address as those found in Magnitsky’s investigation. The same offshore shell companies and Latvian directors are shared by the companies.

The findings were posted to YanukovychLeaks.org by Vadim Kleiner, a hermitage employee who looked through all the documents collected by Ukrainian journalists after Yanukovych fled Kiev. All of the nearly 200 folders of documents have been added to the site.

Kleiner found that three companies listed in the documents hold a portion of Yanukovych’s assets or are tied to the ousted president -- Navimax Ventures, Roadfield Capital LLP and Fineroad Business LLP. The companies all had links to the businesses Magnitsky exposed in his investigation, which linked Russian officials to the $230 million in tax revenues stolen from Hermitage holding companies.

Magnitsky’s investigation tracked $40 million to a Latvian bank account that belongs Technomark Business Ltd. Technomark is a company with ownership in Nevis and is registered to the same address as Navimax. Technomark's Latvian directors are also present in documents connected to the other two companies. Ukrainian newspaper Ukrainska Pravda reported that Navimax “features in the ownership structure of a major Donetsk coal trading company, Donbassk Clearing and Financial Center, founded in 1999. DRFTs has long been associated with Yanukovych, who in 1999 became governor of the Donetsk region, the first step in his path towards the presidency.”

According to the documents, DRFT traded coal from illegal mines. Roadfield Capital LLP was discovered to be part of a Yanukovych estate in Crimea. And the third company, Fineroad Business LLP, is the shell company that owned both a data center and building constructed with funds from the same holding company that owned Yanukovych’s Mezhyhirya estate.

The charts below from Hermitage detail the links between the Latvian and Russian entities in the Magnitsky investigation and the companies with connections to Yanukovych.

Connection Between Magnitsky Investigation and Yanukovych Companies by Rosie Gray

Connection Between Magnitsky Investigation and Yanukovych Companies2 by Rosie Gray