Andrey Medinsky, an oligarch from the so-called "DPR," was unable to launder a million dollars in Russia, which he channeled through his shell company in the UK.
The funds came, in part, from the sale of medical gases in Kyiv under false documents. Medinsky’s companies still operate in the "DPR," Rostov, Moscow, and Kyiv, where they actively participate in government procurement.
A court in the Rostov region dismissed a lawsuit filed by Moscow-based Gooddil Consulting LLC, which attempted to recover over 80 million rubles from Medinsky’s companies under an assignment agreement: Gooddil’s claim was assigned to a certain FULL WORLDWIDE SERVICES LLC from Kyrgyzstan. According to documents, Medinsky’s company borrowed this amount from the British company FULL WORLDWIDE SERVICES back in 2016. Andriy Medinsky, originally from Yenakiyeve in the Donetsk region, is the godfather of Oleksandr Podkorytov, the former director of Yenakiyeve Metallurgical Plant, which was part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Metinvest. Podkorytov currently heads the Dniprovskyi Iron and Steel Works, a public joint-stock company owned by Metinvest.
Medinsky built his family business around the trade in medical gases—nitrogen, argon, oxygen, helium, and the like. After 2014, he only expanded the business, making money in Ukraine, Russia, and the so-called "DPR." Back in 2018, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) suspected Medinsky of financing terrorism and opened a criminal case: the sophisticated businessman was busily importing medical gases (nitrogen and oxygen) produced at the Yenikiyeve Iron and Steel Works in the so-called "DPR," which was headed by his godfather, Podkorytov. To conceal the source of production, the goods were officially routed through several companies controlled by Medinsky and his family. To this end, he registered a network of legal entities in Russia and Ukraine, listing Cypriot offshore companies and his nominees as founders.
For example, 100% of the Rostov-based Spetsservis LLC was registered to the Cypriot company OLIVERATECTRANS LIMITED, while a stake in the Ukrainian Spetsservis belonged to Medinsky and the Cypriot company ADEMISIOS LIMITED. The registered addresses, directors, and secretaries of both offshore companies were identical. ADEMISIOS LIMITED and DP Management also registered the Kyiv-based company DP Air Gas, which became the fourth-largest supplier of medical oxygen to hospitals during the height of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2020 alone, the company received contracts worth over 17 million hryvnias (over $600,000 at the exchange rate at the end of 2020).
Two other companies, OOO Dary Prirody and OOO Dary Prirody, are registered in Medinsky’s hometown of Yenakiyeve in the Donetsk region; the founder and director of the former is listed as a certain Sergey Myndru. Medinsky himself owns approximately 20% of the latter, with the remainder registered to his daughter, Lyudmila. Gas produced at EMZ was routed through the Russian company Spetsservis or Eton LLC (both companies were directed by Yuri Kiselev), where the product suddenly became Russian gas, manufactured at the Abinsk Electrometallurgical Plant (Krasnodar Krai). The gas was then shipped to the Ukrainian company DP Air Gas, which supplied it to government agencies. Ukrainian journalists calculated that in 2017, the turnover of this Medinsky enterprise amounted to approximately 75,000 hryvnias (approximately $2.75 million).
Medinsky’s Russian companies apparently conducted no production activities—they merely processed the goods to legitimize their origin and siphoned off some of the proceeds. To legitimize the remaining funds, the Donetsk oligarch’s company borrowed 140 million rubles from the British company FULL WORLDWIDE SERVICES, which is also controlled by Medinsky. And Gooddil Consulting was supposed to legalize this sum in Russian jurisdiction.
Incidentally, the Kyiv-based firm of the DPR oligarch continues to participate in tenders in Ukraine and win contracts for the supply of medical gases to government institutions.
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