I have to be careful when linking to John Helmer at Dances with Wolves Bears.
He's been reporting from Russia for a very long time, which raises the red flag question, why are the Rooskis putting up with him.
And the answer, of course, is that he serves some purpose for the regime and since he's in media it's probably because he's somewhere on the spectrum between CNN's Eason Jordan:
CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan yesterday sent a memo to his staff defending his decision to withhold information about how Saddam Hussein's regime had intimidated, tortured and killed Iraqis who had helped the cable news network over the years....—WaPo, April 15, 2003
His approach became known as "Taking the Eason Way Out...". Catchy, someone should write a song.
Somewhere between that and the New York Times' Pulitzer prize winner, Walter Duranty who was an actual mouthpiece for Stalin.
And while I don't think Mr. Helmer is anywhere near as ethically corrupt and morally bankrupt as CNN and Eason Jordan, it is something that the reader should be aware of.
From John Helmer's Dances With Bears, February 19, 2015:
THE HUNT FOR BURISMA – WHEN THE PACK OF HOUNDS IS MISSING ITS MASTER, THE FOX ESCAPES
Burisma, an influential Ukrainian oil and gas company with disputed ownership involving Nikolai Zlochevsky and Igor Kolomoisky, is under criminal investigation in the UK. But you wouldn’t know it from a release issued by the company on January 22. According to Burisma, “Britain closed criminal proceedings against the assets of Nikolay Zlochevskyi [sic]. The case was closed after the Court analyzed the period from 2002 to December 2014 for alleged illegality of the source of funds of companies the ultimate beneficiary of which was Nikolay Zlochevskyi [sic] and ‘found no grounds for further consideration of the case’, said the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales decision.”
A statement issued yesterday by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) in London, which initiated the criminal proceedings against Zlochevsky in April of 2014, said its investigation of Zlochevsky and Burisma is “ongoing”. The SFO regrets, it added, that unexplained changes of position by the state prosecutor in Kiev led to last month’s court judgement. “We are disappointed,” said the SFO spokesman, “we were not provided with the evidence by authorities in the Ukraine necessary to keep this restraint order in place. Our criminal investigation continues.”
No trace of Burisma’s “no grounds” quotation from the court judgement can be found.
Instead, Justice Blake ruled that until or unless the SFO and the Ukrainian authorities produce fresh evidence of wrongdoing by Zlochevsky, a freeze order over Burisma’s bank accounts in London should be lifted. Blake also ruled: “it is not known why the [Ukrainian] authorities subsequently changed their minds 27 days later, or whether fresh evidence has arisen… In the event that this information suggests that a Ukrainian request for mutual assistance is about to be made on fresh evidence not considered in this application, that is a matter that can be addressed by a timetable for setting aside the existing order and to which the parties can give consideration following the handing down of this judgment.”
Burisma Holdings Ltd. was incorporated in Cyprus in 2006; there is no trace of its registration, asset history, or financial accounts on the company website. Its registered office appears to be on St. James Square in London. The chief executive, Leonid Petukhov, and his deputy, Alexander Gorbunenko, pick up the telephone at Asterius Fund, a small hedge fund registered in the Cayman Islands since 2011. Petukhov used to work at Victor Pinchuk’s EastOne holding.
Burisma reports that its auditor is KPMG, but it doesn’t release audited statements of its financial condition. Instead, the company issues press statements of production plans and operating intentions. “By the end of this year, Burisma Holdings is planning to produce more than 700 million cubic meters of natural gas. At year-end 2014, the Company invested around UAH 2 billion. Based on a previously approved strategy, Burisma Holdings intends to put into operation another 28 wells and invest around UAH 3 billion in case of subsoil use tax reduction. In 2015, the Company is aiming to produce more than 1 billion cubic meters of natural gas. Openness and operational transparency are key factors in the activities of the largest independent gas producer in Ukraine.” For the last report on Burisma, read this.
Until the release of Justice Blake’s judgement, Burisma and Zlochevsky refused to confirm their shareholding relationship. The SFO evidence discussed in Blake’s ruling omits the name of Igor Kolomoisky; he has been identified in Ukrainian investigations and media reports as a stakeholder in Burisma. Kolomoisky runs the Privat Bank group and he is governor of Dniepropetrovsk region.
The attempt by the Ukrainian government to protect Zlochevsky and Burisma from UK charges of money laundering, and the British Government’s decision to continue the investigation of Burisma’s shareholders and their sources of cash, have not deterred the US Government from financing a role for Burisma in what the US Agency for International Development (USAID) calls its Ukrainian Municipal Energy Reform Project (MERP). According to a Burisma press release, the company and USAID have combined to “promot[e] energy security of our country.” USAID is spending $13.5 million on MERP; the locations selected for the programme in April of 2014 are all outside the areas of Lugansk and Donetsk where the civil war is most intense.
Lobbying for US Government support of Burisma are two Americans who were appointed to the Burisma board in 2014, just after the change of government in Kiev. Hunter Biden (below left) is one of the sons of Vice President Joe Biden. Devon Archer (centre) is a campaign advisor and family friend of Secretary of State John Kerry. Biden and Archer work together in a group of investment vehicles known as Rosemont Capital Partners, Rosemont Seneca Advisors, Rosemont Realty, Rosemont Opportunities Fund, and Rosemont Solebury Capital Management. US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filings indicate that together they are “pooled investment vehicles” linked to Christopher Heinz, managing director of the group (right), and the Heinz family fortune.
Heinz is Kerry’s stepson. His mother Teresa, who was married to Senator John Heinz until he was killed in a 1991 aircrash, controls several Heinz family wealth trusts, as does Kerry his own family trusts. The two also share their investment wealth. According to the SEC dossier, the Rosemont group appears to be funded by money from the Heinz and Kerry trusts; Biden and Archer are fund managers for the Secretary of State’s pocket, as well as crew for Isabel, the Heinz-Kerry family yacht.
The UK investigation of Burisma began just before Biden and Archer officially joined the Burisma board of directors. Initially, when the SFO issued this release on April 28, 2014, there was no identification of Zlochevsky or Burisma. The SFO said it had “opened a criminal investigation into possible money laundering arising from suspicions of corruption in Ukraine. The SFO has obtained a restraint order freezing approximately $23m of assets in the UK in connection with this case. For reasons of confidentiality we cannot say more at this time.”
The SFO was confirming a London court order issued on April 16 in favour of SFO’s request to freeze the cash and other assets of Burisma and two related parties, Brociti Investments Ltd. of Cyprus, and Andrey Kicha. Intended to pre-empt the disappearance of the money abroad, before SFO could complete its investigation and frame indictments, the procedure was made without notice to the defendants. Kicha is identified in court as a “Ukrainian commercial lawyer, the chief legal officer of Burisma and other companies owned by the defendant [Zlochevsky]. He was the sole authorised signatory on the BNP accounts that are the subject to the restraint order.”
Burisma identifies Kicha as having worked for the company since 2007. He can be found signing asset transaction documents on behalf of Burisma recorded by the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) in June 2009. The SEC records treat Kicha as Zlochevsky’s employee. The British court found that as soon as Zlochevsky and Kicha got wind that the British had started an investigation of money-laundering, Kicha tried to empty the London bank accounts. He wasn’t quick enough....
....MUCH MORE
Thus far we have Deutsche-Welle trying to understand who owns Burisma in 2014:D-W May 2014 "Who owns Burisma?"
Ukrainian investigative reporter Anna Babinets at “Slidstvo.Info” in August 2012:
Who Owns Burisma? Part II "Kings of Ukraine Gas"
and now Mr. Helmer in 2015, with more to come
