Translated by Ollie Richardson
Fort RussTue, 02 Feb 2016 12:46 UTC
© Associated PressHunter Biden.
An American businessman is increasing his assets in the energy sector of Ukraine through a third party.
According to available information, the Canadian firm Serinus Energy sold a 70 percent stake in KUB-Gas Holdings Limited company Resano Trading Ltd for $30 million, an affiliate of one of the largest Ukrainian gas companies Burisma Holdings.
As a reminder, in April 2014, Hunter Biden joined the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings. It is noteworthy that the British side had frozen their bank assets worth $23 million, allegedly belonging to the ex-Minister of ecology Mykola Zlochevsky. Moreover, the cancellation of this judicial decision caused outrage from the U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey R. Pyatt.
"Leaving this matter to the National anti-corruption Bureau was my decision, because when I met with our international partners, I was frequently asked questions about the legality of the withdrawal of the arrest of the accounts of Zlochevsky in London, and how it was possible to avoid it, if the case was investigated properly," said the head of the National anti-corruption Bureau Artem Sytnik.It should be noted that during the Vice-President's (Joe Biden) speech in Parliament, he said that it was impossible to find another country where the "cancer of corruption" is booming at the same pace as it is in Ukraine.
Comment: Further reading:
"The credibility of the vice president's anticorruption message may have been undermined by the association of his son, Hunter Biden, with one of Ukraine's largest natural gas companies, Burisma Holdings, and with its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, who was Ukraine's ecology minister under former President Viktor F Yanukovych before he was forced into exile."
The paper reported that Britain's Serious Fraud Office, specifically forbade Mr Zlochevsky, as well as Burisma Holdings, the company's chief legal officer and another company owned by Mr Zlochevsky, to have any access to their British accounts, which in US Ambassador Pyatt's words held "US$23 million in illicit assets that belonged to the Ukrainian people."
But after Ukrainian prosecutors refused to provide documents needed in the investigation, a British court ordered the Serious Fraud Office to unfreeze the assets, which were immediately transferred to Cyprus. The company's legal costs were recouped.
Ambassador Pyatt called for an investigation into "the misconduct" of the Ukrainian prosecutors who wrote the letters. However, he did not mention Hunter Biden's connection to Burisma.
Biden warns Ukraine 'on the cusp' of ruin by rampant corruption
Comment: Further reading: