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Чей Крым: Лукашенко признал Крым российским

Раскладка по новой атаке на Коломойского в США

Как мы и писали, внеочередное собрание акционеров «Укрнафты» 30 ноября не состоялось из-за отсутствия кворума по вине государственных акционеров «Нафтогаза» и «Приватбанка», которые не зарегистрировались на собрании.

Мероприятие перенесли на 23 декабря, в надежде, что к этому времени будет найден глава правления «Укрнафты», который подпишет все документы по разделу компании между Игорем Коломойским и государством.

Перед этим, 19 ноября, лауреат Пулитцеровской премии, редактор отдела расследований в Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Майкл Салла выпустил второй материал о «грязных деньгах» Коломойского. Первый был в апреле 2021-го: Салла (он же Саллех) написал его в тандеме с киевлянкой Таней Козыревой. Сейчас она не подписана как автор, но называет текст своим тоже.

В апреле Pittsburgh Post-Gazette рассказало о незаконных сделках украинского олигарха в США. Издание заявило, что Коломойский и его партнеры в 2006 – 2016 гг тайно приобрели 13 сталелитейных заводов в небольших городах США от Огайо до Техаса. А также 4 офисные башни в Кливленде с роскошным отелем на 484 номера. И все это за деньги, якобы незаконно выведенные из украинского «Приватбанка».

Сейчас речь шла о том, что из-за сильно поврежденного прохода на заводе Felman Production инженер по техническому обслуживанию Ричард Ричмонд упал и сломал 22 кости. Это было в 2010 году, когда завод уже был в собственности украинского олигарха Игоря Коломойского.

Таня Козырева, как и Кристофер Миллер, сейчас работает на BuzzFeed News. До этого она трудилась в УП и делала расследование об американских лоббистах Андрея Коболева.

По американским делам Игоря Коломойского она писала после участия в проекте по FinCEN-файлам, где цепляли Пола Манафорта. Работала так же в Pandora Papers.

Новая статья Салла начинается со слов: «Сразу после рассвета дым поднялся с крыши металлургического завода «Фельман Продакшн», где дуговая печь извергала дым и пыль, хлынувшие по окрестностям, покрывая дома слоем грязи. 42-летний сварщик Терри Генри начал дрожать, а позже стал спотыкаться и упал с головной болью».



Текст в основном сосредоточен на том, что американские регулирующие органы и политические деятели (сенаторы Джо Манчин, Шелли Мур Капиту, Шеррод Брауном, Роб Портман, генпрокурор штата Огайо Майк ДеВайн и другие.) вступали в сговор с Коломойским, подвергая американских рабочих влиянию токсинов и опасных условий труда.

Заводы олигарха, купленные на ссуды «Приватбанка» и Deutsche Bank заручились помощью избранных политиков и потратили сотни тысяч долларов на Вашингтон, округ Колумбия, чтобы отбиваться от претензий Агентства по охране окружающей среды США и других регуляторов. Это пахнет большими проблемами для Игоря Валерьевича.

Кстати, Козырева была в числе журналистов, не приглашенных в пиццерию к Владимиру Зеленскому и возмущенных этим до желания провести протест. Накануне несостоявшегося собрания акционеров «Укрнафты» Дмитрий Гордон стал разгонять на своем сайте авторскую статью Андерса Аслунда о книге «Американская клептократия» журналиста-расследователя Кейси Мишель.

В ней рассказывается о сыне диктатора Экваториальной Гвинеи Теодоро Нгеме Обианге Манге и украинском бизнесмене Игоре Коломойском. Аслунд особо подчеркнул связь Коломойского с Владимиром Зеленским.

https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/ukraine-money-laundering/

dirty dollars
Accused money launderers left a path of bankrupt factories, unpaid taxes, shuttered buildings and hundreds of steelworkers out of jobs


Years after back-to-back explosions at an aging steel factory in northern Ohio tossed workers into guardrails with bloodied faces and deep burns, the leaders of the facility met in Pittsburgh to decide the future of the company.

They summoned a new plant manager to a private aviation center at Pittsburgh International Airport in 2013 to look for ways to improve the troubled facility and increase output.

But it wasn’t the sale of steel that would keep the money flowing into the mill.

Hundreds of millions of dollars had been stolen from a Ukraine bank — the losses large enough to cripple the country’s economy — and secretly moved into the United States, where the money was used to pump up the cash reserves of Warren Steel in a money laundering scheme carried out across the country, the U.S. Justice Department alleges.

Prosecutors say Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, a powerful figure in his country who was banned last month by the State Department from entering the United States, secretly purchased a dozen other steel mills in small towns from Ohio to Texas.

In all, he and his associates acquired nearly two dozen properties, including four office towers in downtown Cleveland and a 484-room hotel with waterfront views in what became the foundation of his real estate empire.

While federal agents tracked millions to the properties, the money that poured into the Ohio steel facility would become key evidence in one of the first money laundering investigations involving the U.S. steel industry, a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette investigation found.

Bank records, emails and other critical documents were turned over to a federal grand jury examining the finances of the Ohio mill that prosecutors say became a conduit for tens of millions of dollars siphoned from PrivatBank in Ukraine, according to two sources familiar with the probe.

The explosions and breakdowns in safety underscore the dangerous impact that financial crimes like money laundering can have on everyday people — cost-cutting, neglect and a lack of investment — when buildings and workplaces are used to clean cash.

It also reveals how a foreign operator — a target of a corruption probe in his own country — could stake a claim in the U.S. steel industry at a time it’s considered vital to the national security of the United States.

A 2010 explosion at Warren Steel severely injured former millwright Brian Shaffer. His injuries led to three back surgeries and four neck operations, and he is now disabled. At another explosion at the plant in 2011, he rushed to help a maimed steelworker onto a medical helicopter. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

With prosecutors now trying to seize some of the properties, former steelworkers in the city of Warren say they’re still angry over what they described as decrepit and unsafe conditions that led to devastating injuries.

“They destroyed the lives of a lot of people,” said Brian Shaffer, 53, a millwright who suffered severe injuries in one of the blasts. “I don’t know how they got away with what they got away with.”

Federal safety inspectors turned up serious violations in the facility while state environmental agents found rampant hazardous waste problems that remained for years.

Mr. Shaffer, who is disabled and walks with a cane, said he arrived at the Ohio plant after one of the explosions and placed a co-worker on a medical helicopter as his skin was peeling from his forearm and blood was oozing from his eye. “It’s the most god-awful thing I’ve ever seen,” he said.

The Post-Gazette obtained hundreds of previously sealed court documents and sworn statements, reviewed federal workplace safety reports and environmental inspections, and conducted interviews with nearly a dozen former employees who worked at facilities owned by Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners to gain a greater understanding of a global money laundering case that went deep into the U.S. heartland.

Video contains strong language.

Workers describe the blasts that seriously wounded them. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

So far, the allegations against the oligarch and others have been raised in civil forfeiture lawsuits, but recently prosecutors asked a federal judge to temporarily halt the proceedings so they could press forward with the criminal case.

Mr. Kolomoisky, 58, a mercurial figure in Ukraine who once funded his own militia to fend off pro-Russian insurgents, did not respond to repeated interview requests.

Known for his tough tactics, he built a fortune in the free-for-all economy that followed the demise of the Soviet Union, launching companies in metals, energy and aviation before embarking on his spending spree in the United States from 2006 to 2016.

His criminal defense lawyer in the United States, Michael J. Sullivan, did not return messages, but in prior interviews with reporters, he denied all the allegations.

Years after explosions inside Warren Steel, company decision-makers met at a private aviation center at Pittsburgh International Airport to discuss the future of the plant and bring on a new manager. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

Greene County native John Goodish, retired chief operating officer of U.S. Steel who served as a director of one of the metals companies owned by Mr. Kolomoisky, said he did not know the oligarch was involved in Warren Steel or the other plants.

Mr. Goodish, who lives on a sprawling estate in the Laurel Highlands, said he was asked to serve on the board of Optima Specialty Steel by Mordechai “Motti” Korf, a Florida businessman accused by prosecutors of taking part in the laundering scheme and serving as one of Mr. Kolomoisky’s top partners.

As a board member, Mr. Goodish oversaw a company with factories in Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan and Texas, while serving as a consultant to Warren Steel.

In the four years that he sat on the board — participating in meetings in Pittsburgh, Miami and other cities — Mr. Goodish said he did not know millions of dollars were flowing into the company coffers from Ukraine.

The former steel executive said he believed money plowed into the businesses was from Mr. Korf, who lives in an opulent waterfront home in Miami Beach and was CEO of the steel plants.

“I was always told that it was Motti’s money,” said Mr. Goodish. “He was in Ukraine, He was in the U.K. Sometimes he would be gone two, three times a month, but I don’t know what he was doing there.”

While he was privy to the operating statements, Mr. Goodish said he was unaware of any illegal activities from the materials he reviewed, saying most of his duties were relegated to monitoring “the efficiency of the operations.”

After years of problems in the Ohio plant, Mr. Goodish said he met with Mr. Korf and others in Pittsburgh in 2013 to bring on a new manager and look for ways to better run the facility.

Mr. Korf, 48, did not respond to interview requests, but his lawyer said he has done nothing wrong.

Marc Kasowitz, a longtime personal lawyer to President Donald Trump, said Mr. Korf “has never had any dealings with laundered money and any allegations to the contrary, including the civil forfeiture actions filed by the government, are false and irresponsible and will ultimately be dismissed.”

He said Mr. Korf has never cut corners on safety and has always conducted himself and his business with “full transparency and in full compliance with all applicable laws and regulations.”

The Ohio attorney general has waged a five-year legal battle to force Warren Steel, owned by Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and his partners, to clean up the rampant environmental violations on the 345-acre site, which is now closed. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Money rolling in

While the men were meeting at the Pittsburgh airport, millions of dollars were secretly pouring into the Ohio steel mill after the money had been embezzled from the Ukraine bank and moved into the United States, say court records filed by the bank.

After the purchase of the Ohio plant, Mr. Kolomoisky and fellow oligarch Gennadiy Bogolyubov engaged in a real estate buying spree — the money zipped through shell companies set up in the British Virgin Islands — with no trace of ownership.

In 2008, Mr. Kolomoisky and others bought a steel factory northwest of Detroit for $81 million that once churned out parts for aircraft in World War II. They took $16.5 million and bought a sprawling cellphone facility in Illinois.

Two years later, they moved $18.5 million into the country to buy a historic skyscraper in Cleveland with lofty skylights that once boasted the largest bank lobby in the world.

Most of the money to buy the properties was stolen in an elaborate loan scam carried out by insiders within PrivatBank, Ukraine’s largest financial institution, U.S. prosecutors said.

Year after year, the employees who were loyal to Mr. Kolomoisky and Mr. Bogolyubov — the two major shareholders in the bank — issued loans to shell companies under their control and set up in Cyprus and the Caribbean, known havens for financial secrecy.

When the loans came due, new ones would be issued to pay them off and keep the scheme going, according to Kroll, the global investigative firm that tracked the money for the Ukraine government.

“They felt they were invincible,” Alex Danyliuk, a former Ukraine finance minister, told the Post-Gazette. “They were basically using the bank to suck out the money for their own purposes.”

To pay for the real estate purchases, at least $490 million was transferred into the country, according to an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and BuzzFeed News last year. Another $268 million was also moved into the country, the investigation found.

Mr. Bogolyubov, who lives in Ukraine, did not respond to interview requests. But in a prior interview with BuzzFeed News, he said all transactions in the United States were legal.

By 2011, Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners had purchased nearly a dozen properties in Ohio, West Virginia, Michigan and Kentucky. Inside the factory at Warren Steel, the operation was unraveling.
Explosions in plants

Workers in the facility were severely injured in two explosions that drew the attention of federal safety investigators, even as millions continued to flow into the coffers.

Panels that cool the giant arc furnace were frequently springing leaks, allowing water to mix with hot steel — a deadly combination that can spark explosions.

Mr. Shaffer was hit with wrenching injuries in the first blast in 2010 when he was blown into a steel rail, tearing the discs in his lower back, which led to three surgeries, records and interviews show.

“I’m walking along, and then, just — boom,” he said. “I’m hitting at myself because I’m on fire.”

The next year, shortly after he returned to work on light duty, another blast took place that shook the foundation of the facility. Three workers were flown by helicopter to burn units and two others were rushed to local hospitals.

Mr. Shaffer said he helped one man who looked to be in shock climb onto a helicopter. “His hair was like a black, plastic hunk — it was melted to his head,” he recalled.

Another worker, Mike Buckner, 34, who was airlifted to an Akron burn unit, said the impact of the explosion was like a “hydrogen bomb” that threw him “dead in the guardrail and down some steps.” His face was so swollen from the impact, he couldn’t see, he said.

Mike Buckner, of East McDonald, Ohio, was injured in an explosion at the steel plant in 2011 and suffered severe, permanent injuries that led to skin grafts and treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

Mr. Shaffer and Mr. Buckner, who underwent skin grafts on his left arm, said employees tried to convince the managers to invest in stainless steel camlocks, which would have been stronger than the cheaper aluminum clasps that hold the water panels on the furnace to avert the blasts. But the company didn’t want to spend the money at the time, they said.

At another plant in West Virginia owned by Mr. Kolomoisky, an explosion in a dumpster from a dangerous mix of water and chemicals severely injured a safety nurse who was trying to help put out the flames.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration found 22 serious violations at the West Virginia and Ohio plants between 2010 and 2016 — including violations after each explosion — placing workers at risk of accidents that can cause death or injury.

Mr. Goodish said that when he came on board in 2012, “there were safety problems,” but he said he was pushing the company to address them.

“You can’t say to people with no safety culture that you want to get it done [immediately],” he said. “They were beginning to try to improve it.”

Mr. Kasowitz, the lawyer for Mr. Korf, who was the top officer of the companies, said in an email that steelworkers perform “dangerous and difficult tasks,” but his client’s facilities fared “better than those of their competitors, and of the industry as a whole.”

To try to make the point, he compared the safety record at U.S. Steel — one of the world’s largest metals companies — to Mr. Kolomoisky’s steel facilities, without comparing the ratio of injuries to the total number of workers.

U.S. Steel employs tens of thousands of more employees than all of Mr. Kolomoisky’s plants combined.

Les Caulford, a former United Steelworkers president in Michigan and safety advocate for 25 years, said no such comparison can be made. “You’re talking 16,000 or more people. It’s apples and oranges. I don’t see the correlation.”

Brian Dully, an environmental manager at Warren Steel, said it was impossible to gauge the safety of the Ohio plant because he could not find the health records when he was hired in 2015. “All the records were gone,” he said. “I had to create them from [other] information that we had.”

As for complaints that Warren Steel did not invest in better safeguards on the furnace, Mr. Kasowitz said his client had no knowledge of any such requests.

By 2015, Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners had amassed a real estate fortune: 13 steel factories, five office towers, a hotel, two office parks, and a shuttered Motorola plant with two heliports.
Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky's secret stake in the U.S. steel industry

The 58-year-old billionaire siphoned millions from a Ukraine bank and moved the money into the United States, U.S. prosecutors allege, where he and his partners purchased steel factories across the country. At one time, the partners owned 13 metals facilities, including Warren Steel in Ohio — one of the key targets of the U.S. Justice Department investigation.

2006:

Kolomoisky and partners prepare Warren Steel for opening and acquire both Felman Production in West Virginia and Detroit Cold Rolling Steel in Michigan for $20 million each. `

Between 2007 and 2008:

Kolomoisky and partners siphon millions from Ukraine's Privatbank and secretly funnel money into Warren Steel in at least eight transfers for a total of $13.6 million, say U.S. prosecutors and Ukraine regulators.

May 2008:

Money originating from Ukraine bank is transferred to company set up in British Virgin Islands, then to Delaware company to buy Michigan Seamless Tube. The price: about $81 million.

Between 2010 and 2013:

Kolomoisky and partners move at least $16.5 million — the money fleeced from PrivatBank, Ukraine regulators say — into Warren Steel's bank accounts.

2010:

Explosion at Warren Steel plant. Millwright is injured and hospitalized with severe injuries; OSHA cites plant for serious health and safety violations in wake of blast.

Explosion in Dumpster at Felman Production from dangerous mixture of chemicals and water, severely injuring nurse who tried to put out the flames. OSHA cites plant for serious health and safety violations.

Serious injury at Felman Production. Maintenance supervisor falls through damaged concrete floor, fracturing neck vertebrae, shoulder, arm, ribs, leg and ankle. OSHA cites the plant for serious violations.

2011:

Second explosion at Warren Steel. Three injured workers airlifted to burn units; two others rushed to hospitals. OSHA cites facility for serious violations.

March 2011:

Kolomoisky and partners purchase CC Metals and Alloys — steel factory in Calvert City, Ky. — moving $188.1 million from Ukraine bank to shell company set up in British Virgin Islands to Delaware company.

December 2011:

$58 million originating in Ukraine is moved to the U.S. by Kolomoisky and partners to buy Niagara LaSalle — specialty steel company with six factories — for $236.1 million.

February 2013:

Kolomoisky and partners move $20 million to U.S. to buy Kentucky Electric Steel for $110.6 million.

June 2013:

$4.5 million is transferred from Cyprus shell company to Warren Steel Holdings.

July 2013:

Kolomoisky's steel factory operators meet in Pittsburgh in July to discuss future of Warren Steel. John Goodish, former chief operating officer of US Steel, attends meeting as an adviser to Kolomoisky's partners. New manager installed to look for ways to boost profits at facility.

2015:

Kolomoisky and partners buy Corey Steel in Cicero, Ill., for $43 million. Origin of money has yet to be traced.

Blaming tough economic conditions, Kolomoisky and partners shut down Niagara LaSalle factory in Buffalo and lay off 49 workers.

2016:

Four steel companies owned by Kolomoisky and partners file for bankruptcy: Michigan Seamless Tube, Kentucky Electric Steel, Corey Steel and Niagara LaSalle, later citing debts of $381 million.

Warren Steel is shut down, laying off 162 workers. Ohio attorney general's office sues facility, saying operators failed to clean up hazardous waste and to stop untreated waste water from flowing into the Mahoning River.

Ukraine regulators suspect massive fraud at Ukraine bank, and take over the institution.

2018:

Auditors finish investigation of Ukraine bank and identify $5.5 billion in losses due to widespread fraud; international effort underway to make up the losses and keep bank and country from economic collapse.

2019:

PrivatBank files lawsuit in Delaware accusing Kolomoisky and partners of $5.5 billion in elaborate loan fraud and for secretly moving hundreds of millions of dollars to United States.

2020:

Operators shut down steel production at CC Metals and Alloys in Kentucky and lay off about 80 workers.

2021:

U.S. State Department blacklists Kolomoisky from entry into United States over corruption allegations.

Part of the old mill at Warren Steel, where former steelworkers say they used to scavenge for parts to keep the arc furnace and other equipment operating. The state pushed for a $1.1 million judgement against the facility for failing to pay state fines for numerous environmental violations. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Millions into Warren Steel

That same year, Vadim Shulman, an investor in Warren Steel, said he detected signs of fraud.

At first, the Ukraine engineer said he found millions of dollars in what were described as “loans” sent to the company, court records state.

Suspecting that Mr. Kolomoisky was trying to drive up the company shares to squeeze him out, he filed a request in the British Virgin Islands — where a holding company owns the Ohio steel factory — for the court to intercede, but was unsuccessful. He also filed a suit in Ohio, where the case was dismissed on jurisdictional grounds.

But an investigation by his lawyers in 2015 turned up explosive evidence that stripped back the layers and provided the first glimpse into Mr. Kolomoisky’s vast real estate holdings in the United States.
John Goodish, retired chief operating officer at U.S. Steel, later became a board member of a steel company owned by Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky from 2012 to 2016. Mr. Goodish said he never knew the oligarch was involved in the operation. (Courtesy of John Goodish)

Through subpoenas, records were turned over to his lawyers that showed “hundreds of millions of dollars,” pouring into the country from offshore companies owned by Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners — three years before an audit was completed in Ukraine that revealed a similar pattern.

Mr. Shulman’s lawyers said that Warren Steel had been used as a cash machine — a pass through for some of the money that Mr. Kolomoisky moved into the country.

A part owner of the facility, Mr. Shulman said the factory was losing millions a year, but the steel mill looked as if it had reaped more than $100 million in the years leading to 2014, records state.

In one case, Mr. Shulman found that $80 million had moved through the company account, but it was not meant for the steel factory. It was instead used to buy another metals facility northwest of Detroit.

“What this is more akin to, it is not the toothpaste out of the bottle, it is the bloodhound on the scent of potential fraud,” said James Power, a lawyer for Mr. Shulman, during a heated federal court hearing in 2015.

After the evidence surfaced, lawyers for Mr. Kolomoisky pushed to seal the information, which included 3,103 transactions by Deutsche Bank on behalf of the companies tied to the oligarch and his partners.

But despite the court order to conceal the data, some of the evidence — including bank records, emails and money transfers — was turned over to a federal grand jury in Cleveland that’s been probing the purchases of the properties in the U.S., the Post-Gazette learned.

In August, the grand jury issued search warrants that led to FBI raids on offices run by the partners in Miami and Cleveland, where agents hauled away boxes of records.

Prosecutors say the millions of dollars that went into Warren Steel was an effort by the oligarch and others “to launder the money, to promote the continued misappropriation of funds from PrivatBank, and to disguise the ownership, nature and source of funds.”

The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has been investigating Warren Steel for years because of the hazardous waste violations that turned up at the site. The state attorney general's office has ordered the owners to clean up the facility and comply with state regulations. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Bankrupt factories

While the Kolomoisky companies were moving large amounts of money, the businesses were failing.

Warren Steel began to get “advances” from other Kolomoisky steel factories to make its payroll. Other facilities owed thousands to state tax revenue agencies, utility companies, suppliers and other businesses.

In 2016, four of the steel companies filed for bankruptcy, owing $381 million. At one point, the partners cut a deal to sell one of the factories in Kentucky to help pay the debts and keep ownership of the factories, but the government stepped in, said Mr. Goodish.

The U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment, a panel created to screen foreigners who invest in critical industries — and block such deals — took longer than normal to review the deal, delaying it, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.

With the deadline in bankruptcy looming, Mr. Goodish took a phone call from Mr. Korf “48 hours before the money was due,” he said. “Motti said he couldn’t come up with the money.” The deal was over.

Warren, Ohio's East Market Street. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

The U.S. government considers steel important to the country’s economy and national defense, but it’s not clear when — or if — the government tried to halt any of the prior purchases of steel mills by Mr. Kolomoisky.

At one time, the oligarch and his partners owned 13 factories, including one that produced half the silico manganese in the country — a critical element in the making of steel, federal reports state.

“How did we let this happen?” asked Roman Groysman, a former Florida prosecutor who once lived in Ukraine. “It’s a strategic industry, and it has potential [implications] to national defense.”

Experts say the federal panel can look into foreign money at the behest of investors or launch its own investigation.

But in this case, it’s unclear what happened. “It’s a valid question: Is someone looking at what they own in the U.S.?” said Ron Oleynik, a Washington, D.C., attorney and longtime practitioner in foreign investment reviews.

The committee, which operates in secrecy, did not respond to questions emailed from the Post-Gazette.

A client leaves PrivatBank in 2016 — the same year that Ukraine bank regulators took over the institution after discovering massive losses. A later audit found $5.5 billion in losses in the bank's ledgers. (Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press)
Billions drained from bank

Meanwhile, big problems were surfacing in Ukraine.

With regulators suspecting wrongdoing at the bank, an audit showed a stunning shortfall — $5.5 billion — in what auditors called “a large-scale and coordinated fraud,” noting that more than 95 percent of the bank’s business loans went to organizations tied to Mr. Kolomoisky and his affiliates.

“It was a time bomb ready to explode,” said Mr. Danyliuk, then Ukraine’s finance minister. “That is the largest bank in the country.”

In 2016, Warren Steel was shut down, leaving scores of workers without medical coverage and the ability to immediately tap into their retirement money, court records show. The gas was shut off and the dumpsters were overflowing because the bills were not paid.

“It was heartbreaking,” recalled Nancy Waselich, the former IT manager. “To have so many people work so hard to make a go of it — and it’s trashed. Everything about it. It’s terrible.” In all, 162 people lost their jobs.

Office workers told the attorney general’s office the company deducted medical benefits from the workers’ paychecks but didn’t pay the insurance. For weeks, former employees scrambled to unemployment lines, said Joanne Satterthwaite, the company’s purchasing agent.

“It just became a fiasco,” she told the Ohio attorney general’s office. “People were disappointed, hurt, angry you know. It was the holidays. They didn’t have jobs.”

Days after the plant closed, then-Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine successfully pushed for an injunction, saying the owners had abandoned the mill and left piles of hazardous waste and untreated wastewater threatening to flow into the Mahoning River.

Warren, a northeastern Ohio city of 39,000 people, once claimed Warren Steel — formerly known as Copperweld Steel — as one of its signature industries. Generations of families from the area have worked at the mill since its founding in 1939. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

State agents said they found the company illegally dumping baghouse dust — the particle waste from the furnace that can cause kidney and liver damage from overexposure — on the ground in what experts say is a dangerous practice.

In 2017, Ohio environmental agents walked onto the site and watched as untreated wastewater flowed into the Mahoning River, court records state.

For five years, the state pushed the company to clean up the violations and pay fines, but the facility didn’t do so. “They used Warren Steel to their advantage and then simply walked away when it was no longer profitable to run the steel mill,” Karrie Kunkel, an Ohio assistant attorney general, wrote in a court motion in 2019.

“Even when they were put on notice of environmental violations at the site, including the potential of wastewater treatment plant discharges to overflow into the Mahoning River, they did nothing.”

Mr. Kasowitz, the lawyer, said Mr. Korf has since spent more than $1 million to clean up the area in the last year. But that was after a court judgment and the state attorney general filed a motion for contempt charges against Mr. Korf and the company, records show. A trial date is set for June 7 over the environmental violations.

In Cleveland, where Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners once owned four skyscrapers and a hotel, the portfolio imploded: Two of the office towers were sold at major losses, and the hotel is in foreclosure, records show.

Only one of the steel plants is still active: Felman Production in West Virginia.

The historic Huntington Building on East Ninth Street in downtown Cleveland purchased by Ihor Kolomoisky and his partners in 2010 once boasted the largest bank lobby in the world. The partners have since sold the structure. (Ryan Ready/Flickr)

Mr. Groysman, the former Florida prosecutor, said the debts, environmental violations and injuries are characteristic of the kinds of activities that happen with money laundering.

He said the goal of the owners is not to increase the value of the properties, but to clean the money. “They were not behaving in an economically sound manner,” said Mr. Groysman, now a real estate attorney in South Florida. “If you worked your whole life to make that kind of investment, you would have been there 24/7 to make sure everyone was safe.”

Beyond the injuries and the environment, the closing of the plant was a blow to the workers and the community, said Mr. Shaffer, the millwright injured in one of the blasts.

The amount of work that went into the plant to reopen it in 2007 was daunting, said Mr. Shaffer, whose father worked 37 years at the same site when it was Copperweld Steel.

“We put our hearts in it,” he said. “We made a go of it. Everybody there, especially us guys in the initial crew. Got down and did some real dirty work. We did that because we got a steel mill opening back up in Warren, Ohio. And we’re going to put some people to work. It’s going to be good for our families. It’s going to be good for the economy. We’re not sitting behind computers. We’re out there doing all the work. To have them pull that on us and walk away from us the way they did, it’s unforgivable.”



Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, one of the most powerful figures in his country, has ties to the current president of Ukraine and appeared in the events that led to the first Trump impeachment drama. He is accused by the U.S. Justice Department of masterminding an elaborate scheme to steal hundreds of millions from a Ukraine bank and then secretly plow the money into U.S. real estate, including steel factories in the American heartland. (Vladyslav Musienko/UNIAN/AFP via Getty Images)


For years, Ihor Kolomoisky cut a large swath in Ukraine, building his fortune in oil, metals and aviation, while funding his own private army during the Russian invasion and offering bounties for militants who were captured alive.

The 58-year-old billionaire, who has ties to Ukraine’s president, kept a shark in his office in a large aquarium to show his guests and played a role in the first Trump impeachment drama last year centered on Ukraine.

A larger-than-life figure, he has survived a legal battle with a rival oligarch, a bank fraud investigation in his country, and political attacks from pro-Western advocates in Ukraine pushing for greater democracy.

But his move into the United States years ago to secretly buy real estate — including an aging steel factory in Warren, Ohio — eventually led to a widening federal money laundering probe that poses one of the most serious legal challenges he has faced.

Last month, the U.S. State Department imposed sanctions on the oligarch and family members, banning them from entry into the United States over allegations of corrupt activities when he was a provincial governor in Ukraine in 2014 and 2015.

Ihor Kolomoisky, left, in his office in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, in 2014. (Mauricio Lima/The New York Times)

Mr. Kolomoisky did not respond to interview requests, but his lawyer, Michael J. Sullivan, has told reporters his client has not committed any crimes.

A federal grand jury in Cleveland investigating the alleged laundering scheme is expected to test his political support in Ukraine — including his relationship with President Volodymyr Zelensky — in the event the oligarch is charged.

A former actor, the 43-year-old Mr. Zelensky once starred in a comedy show on a TV network owned by Mr. Kolomoisky and owes much of his success in politics to the oligarch, who “helped and enabled Zelensky’s rise,” said Melinda Haring, a deputy director of the Atlantic Council, a Washington think tank that focuses on international issues. “It’s been a tight relationship.”

Though Ukraine does not have an extradition treaty with the United States, experts who study Ukraine say the United States can still request that Ukraine look for ways to extradite. Ultimately, such a move would require the support of Mr. Zelensky, said Ms. Haring.

Though the constitution of the country doesn’t allow Ukraine citizens to be extradited, Mr. Kolomoisky also holds citizenships in Cyprus and Israel, which may allow the country enough room to find a loophole, said former Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka.

Oleksandr “Alex” Dabyliuk, former Ukraine finance minister, said his country was forced to nationalize Ukraine’s largest bank after oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and others looted the institution of billions of dollars, nearly crippling the bank and the nation's fragile economy. (Efrem Lukatsky/Associated Press)

Last year, a team of U.S. Justice Department agents jetted to Ukraine and met with Mr. Ryaboshapka and the chief of the anti-corruption bureau to discuss the U.S. money laundering case targeting Mr. Kolomoisky, but it’s unclear what — if anything — was agreed on.

Mr. Ryaboshapka said he talked about the prospect of extradition with federal agents, but no requests were made at the time because the U.S. probe was still in progress.

The investigation follows a long history of controversy swirling around Mr. Kolomoisky in a country where corruption has run rampant for decades.

In 2014, Mr. Kolomoisky earned praise from some Ukrainians when he was appointed governor of his home province and funded his own army to fend off invasions by pro-Russian insurgents while the regular Ukraine army was floundering.

The next year, however, he fell into trouble when he directed a team of armed men in combat fatigues to take over a state-owned oil company in the capital city of Kyiv after the government fired the chairman, who was an ally of the oligarch.

Volodymyr Zelensky participates in a 2019 presidental debate in Kiev, Ukraine. He is now president of the country. According to a U.S. think tank, he owes much of his political success to Ihor Kolomoisky. (Brendan Hoffman/Getty Images)

With the raid captured on video, Mr. Kolomoisky stood outside the company, cursing at a reporter and claiming he was protecting the firm from corporate raiders, but offered no evidence. He was later stripped of his post by then-President Petro Poroshenko.

The next year, problems arose again when the government was forced to take over the bank he co-founded after an audit found it was hemorrhaging losses — $5.5 billion — in a loan scheme that directly implicated him and the U.S. real estate purchases.

Mr. Kolomoisky fought back, contending the government had contrived the losses to expropriate his property, but he ended up leaving the country for two years in self-exile to Switzerland and later Israel.

The losses would force the government to come up with a massive amount of money to plug the hole and keep the bank — and the country — from collapse, said Alex Danyliuk, then the minister of finance.

Despite critical evidence that emerged in Ukraine that implicated Mr. Kolomoisky, he was never charged. With his influence over a large portion of parliament and even the criminal justice system, the case was never brought forward, said Mr. Danyliuk.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst said if Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is indicted by a federal grand jury, it would be a positive step forward for the Ukraine people in ridding the country of oligarch rule. (uz.usembassy.gov)

“The whole system that was supposed to effect justice was working on his behalf,” he said.

John Herbst, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, said in an interview it will be difficult to extradite Mr. Kolomoisky because of legal barriers in Ukraine. But if indictments are ever handed down by a U.S. grand jury, “the impact in Ukraine will be quite positive,” said Mr. Herbst, director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center. “This will be a major blow to his fortune.”

Mr. Ryaboshapka, the former prosecutor, said with the election of Joe Biden as president and recent sanctions imposed by the State Department, Ukraine, which is dependent on the U.S. for military aid to fend off Russia, will work with the United States.

Ms. Haring said the United States will have to take the lead because Mr. Kolomoisky still wields power in his country. “There is no way Kolomoisky is going to be brought to justice in Ukraine,” she said. He still has “an enormous amount of influence in the Ukraine government.”


To better understand the FBI’s money laundering case against Ukrainian oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is accused of orchestrating a massive scheme that stole millions from a Ukraine bank and plowed it into U.S. real estate, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette examined thousands of publicly available court documents, Justice Department news releases, a forensic audit and carried out dozens of interviews.

In addition, the Post-Gazette obtained previously sealed court filings — including sworn statements of steel executives and an internal accounting report — from the Ohio attorney general’s office, and confidential bank records.

The story builds on previous reporting by Post-Gazette Investigations Editor Michael Sallah in his role as a senior reporter for the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and BuzzFeed News on the alleged money laundering scheme for the FinCEN Files project, which exposed the role of big banks in moving billions for criminal groups.

However, for this story, the Post-Gazette went further in exploring the impact of accused money launderers on the steel industry and the everyday people who worked in the mills, while turning up details of a federal grand jury investigation in Ohio.

To that end, the newspaper tracked down nearly a dozen former employees who worked for companies owned by Mr. Kolomoisky, including a onetime Pittsburgh steel executive who later became a board member of a Kolomoisky parent steel company; a chief accountant who worked at the Ohio steel mill owned by the oligarch, and a former purchasing agent and IT director at the same facility.

As part of the project, Andrew Rush, a veteran photojournalist, traveled to Warren, Ohio, several times to conduct interviews — including videotaped sessions — with former employees of the steel plant at the center of the government’s probe. Mr. Rush documented the mill site with drone photography in addition to locating archival footage of the oligarch.

The Post-Gazette also reviewed federal workplace safety inspections and violations from the 13 steel mills purchased by Mr. Kolomoisky, medical records of injured workers, and state environmental investigations of the steel mills in Ohio and West Virginia.

In Ukraine, Kyiv investigative reporter Tanya Kozyreva interviewed former law enforcement agents who assisted U.S. agents in the case.

https://newsinteractive.post-gazette.com/dirty-dollars-2/

Accused money launderers secretly moved millions into America to buy steel mills — while elected leaders helped them fend off U.S. regulators and foreign competitors. Left in the wake: hazardous waste and injured workers.

By Michael Sallah and Emma Loop | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

November 19, 2021
A Post-Gazette Investigation

Just after dawn, the fumes rose from the top of the Felman Production metals factory where the arc furnace belched out smoke and dust that cascaded over the neighborhood, covering the homes in a layer of filth.

Inside, Terry Henry, a 42-year-old welder, started to shake and later began to stumble and come down with excruciating headaches.

What he didn't know at the time was he was slowly filling up with toxins so dangerous from the furnace fumes pouring into the factory that doctors later found traces of manganese in the base of his brain.

Plant engineer Richard Richmond suffered severe injuries after he fell through this hole in a badly damaged upper floor at Felman Production in 2010.

When the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency stepped in years later to push tough restrictions on the factory — after workers were found to have been exposed to emissions — the operators of the West Virginia facility turned to some of the most powerful members of Congress to fend off regulators and keep the doors open.

Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito joined other lawmakers in firing off a letter to the agency in 2015, saying the plant in their home state and another in Ohio could shut down if they were forced to install expensive equipment and submit to testing under a strict deadline.

"It would be extremely disappointing if the companies were forced to stop operating," the letter read.
Warren, Ohio, paid a heavy price for supporting Warren Steel, a money laundering front for a Ukrainian Ihor Kolomoisky.
Michael Sallah
A Post-Gazette Investigation: Dirty Dollars (April 16, 2021)

But as lawmakers were warning the agency the plan was risky for the factory, the owners were amassing a fortune that went far beyond what was told to the EPA.

The owners had been secretly pumping millions of dollars into the plant and other real estate — while fighting federal regulators — in a massive criminal scheme that was carried out across the country, federal prosecutors say.

The factory was the centerpiece of a U.S. steel fortune acquired by oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky, who is accused by prosecutors of stealing hundreds of millions from Ukraine's largest bank between 2008 and 2016 and then plowing the money into steel mills from New York to Texas.

The 58-year-old billionaire, a powerful figure in Ukraine who was banned earlier this year from entering the United States by the State Department, is the focus of a federal investigation that tracked millions of dollars coming into the United States in a flow of money that nearly crippled the bank in Ukraine.

Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky is accused by federal prosecutors of amassing a real estate empire in the U.S., with millions in stolen funds from Ukraine bank. (Vladyslav Musienko/ Unian / AFP via Getty Images)

The money — at least $225 million — was moved back and forth between the West Virginia factory and other companies owned by Mr. Kolomoisky as part of a larger laundering scheme that helped the oligarch acquire factories and skyscrapers that grew into a real estate empire, prosecutors said.

The allegations against Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners have been raised in federal forfeiture actions and are now being taken up by a federal grand jury, the first investigation of money laundering in the U.S. steel industry, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has learned.

There's no indication the elected officials knew at the time the companies were steeped in an alleged laundering conspiracy, and public campaign reports do not show any of the officials received money from the owners.

But the help that key lawmakers lent to Mr. Kolomoisky's companies underscores the lack of scrutiny by elected leaders at a time when warning signs of hazardous work conditions were escalating, and the government was supposed to be on guard against foreign operators investing in industries vital to the nation's security.

"Unbelievable," said Raymond Baker, a financial crimes scholar who has testified several times before Congress on money laundering. "They were going through all sorts of gymnastics not to ask the questions as long as money was coming into the economy."

The case also illustrates just how dangerous workplaces can become when they are used in financial crimes, leading to carelessness and cost-cutting that expose workers to even greater risks.

The Post-Gazette published an investigation in April that revealed the broad outline of the operation and the dangers of a troubled mill in Ohio, but the facility in West Virginia was hit with twice as many federal safety violations that put workers at risk of harm or death.

Just two months ago, federal inspectors discovered that a worker suffered serious injuries and was hospitalized after the facility failed to provide fall protection from a ledge 15 feet above the factory floor.

Years earlier, a safety and health employee was thrown across the concrete when dangerous chemicals exploded during a fire, leaving her severely injured and disabled.

A fire broke out in 2010 in a Dumpster containing dangerous chemicals at Felman. As Paula Cunningham Rickard, a health and safety worker, tried to put out the flames, the chemicals exploded, throwing her across the concrete. She said she now collects disability from her injuries.

In the case of Mr. Henry, who worked on the upper floor of the aging facility, his exposure to smoke and fumes was so intense that he came down with toxic poisoning that forced him to leave his job in 2011, court records state.

"There were so many people injured and hurt," said Richard Richmond, 47, a former plant engineer who plunged 30-feet through a hole in a badly damaged upper floor a decade ago and broke nearly two dozen bones in his body. "It's heartbreaking."

Along the way, the operators gained the help of the elected leaders and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Washington, D.C., lobbying firms to fend off regulators and keep operating in one of the most economically distressed areas of West Virginia.

After the letter was sent by Sens. Manchin and Capito, along with Sens. Sherrod Brown and Rob Portman of Ohio and four House members, the EPA eventually dropped part of its plan for Felman to put in a new pollution detection system.

That same year, Mr. Kolomoisky and others spent tens of millions of dollars to buy another steel factory in Illinois, the 13th in their portfolio.

Mr. Kolomoisky, a Ukraine resident who once sent his own armed militia to take over a government oil company, did not respond to repeated interview requests. His criminal defense lawyer, Michael J. Sullivan, did not return messages, but in earlier interviews with reporters, he denied the allegations.

Mr. Manchin, an influential centrist Democrat who has pushed back on President Joe Biden's more progressive environmental plans, did not respond to questions from a Post-Gazette reporter on Tuesday near the Senate Chambers.

An aide accompanying the senator said he would accept questions emailed to the staff. Despite repeated messages, Mr. Manchin's office did not respond to written questions but provided a statement:

"Senator Manchin has always fought to protect West Virginia jobs and worked in a bicameral, bipartisan way to protect the good-paying jobs at the Mason County facility," said Sam Runyon, communications director.
(Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

The senior senator, who has been critical of foreign investment in the energy industry, appeared at the opening of Felman Production in 2006 as governor of West Virginia after the oligarch and his partners bought the factory out of bankruptcy for $20 million.
The company showed “an utter disregard for its duty of candor to this court.”
U.S. Judge Robert Chambers

Ms. Capito, now the top Republican on the committee that oversees the EPA, said in a brief interview outside the Senate chambers that she was unaware of any controversy surrounding the factory despite national news stories about Mr. Kolomoisky, his steel plants, and an FBI investigation into his properties.

"I didn't know anything about the ownership [issue]," said Ms. Capito.

Republican Sen. Portman declined to comment, while a spokesperson for Mr. Brown said the Democratic senator joined in the letter to advocate on behalf of the factory in Ohio, which is under different ownership.

Mr. Baker, once a member of a United Nations commission on foreign money laundering, said the lawmakers had a responsibility to know the owners of the facilities when they stepped in to help the two plants.

"You have to be able to identify who you are doing business with. To me, it's elementary when you're writing a letter in support of someone," he said. "I want to know who I'm dealing with. Otherwise, don't write the letter."

Time and again, the operators of the West Virginia factory received help from Sens. Manchin and Capito to help swat away foreign steel competitors while the owners drained the bank in Ukraine in amounts that would later stun regulators in that country.

A badly damaged walkway at Felman Production gave way in 2010, sending maintenance engineer Richard Richmond plunging to the floor below, where 22 bones in his body were broken, including his neck, shoulder, ribs, leg and ankle. Federal safety inspectors later found serious violations at the facility.

Warning signs appeared in 2011 when a federal court in West Virginia slapped sanctions on the factory — three times — after a judge found the facility was trying to conceal its ownership structure and ties to Ukraine.

During the legal dispute between the factory and another business, the court found that Mr. Kolomoisky and others were among the top people in control of the facility, prompting U.S. Judge Robert Chambers to issue a scathing ruling, saying the company showed a lack of transparency and "an utter disregard for its duty of candor to this court."

The fight over the release of the information came as the oligarch was moving the money into the country — sometimes tens of millions a week — with the help of PrivatBank employees who were loyal to Mr. Kolomoisky and fellow oligarch Gennadiy Bogolyubov, both major shareholders in the Ukraine bank.
A Felman overhead crane operator in 2012 pours slag, a waste product, from the top of a batch of molten ferrosilicomanganese. (Craig Cunningham/Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail)
A top producer of silicomanganese — a critical element in steelmaking — Felman says it has spent millions to improve safety after years of federal workplace violations. (Craig Cunningham/Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail)

Month after month, the workers inside the bank issued bogus loans to companies under the control of the oligarchs, the money moved through a labyrinth of bank accounts to make it more difficult to track, according to an audit by Kroll Inc., the global security firm hired by the Ukrainian government.

Once the funds arrived in the United States they were poured into real estate, including most of the steel factories, two office parks in Dallas, a sprawling manufacturing center in Illinois and four office towers in Cleveland, including a 31-story high rise with gleaming skylights and a sweeping view of the city.

In less than a decade, at least $750 million was moved into the country from Ukraine — all through Deutsche Bank, the global lender that has paid millions in fines to U.S. regulators in recent years over breakdowns in anti-money laundering.
The level of scrutiny paid to the operation was “pathetic. They never performed due diligence.”
Former state auditor for Tennessee

"It's extraordinary the amount of money that was flooding the U.S. markets," said Lakshmi Kumar, policy director at Global Financial Integrity, a Washington, D.C., research group that tracks financial crimes.

The top officer of the West Virginia factory, Mordechai "Motti" Korf, a Florida businessman accused by federal prosecutors of participating in the laundering scheme and serving as one of Mr. Kolomoisky's key allies, did not respond to interview requests.

But his lawyer said his client has done nothing wrong. "Mr. Korf never engaged in money laundering of any kind, and he has no knowledge of anyone else doing so," said Marc Kasowitz, a New York attorney who once served as a personal lawyer to former President Trump. "Any allegations against Mr. Korf are false and irresponsible [and] arise from Ukrainian political disputes he has nothing to do with and ultimately will be dismissed."

He said his client "has created hundreds of good-paying union jobs in the Appalachian, Midwestern and Southern United States, including in economically depressed areas." Mr. Bogolyubov, a Ukraine native, did not respond to interview requests.

Mr. Richmond, the engineer who was badly injured in the 30-foot fall at the West Virginia plant, said while the owners were buying the properties, safety breakdowns were taking place in the factory that placed workers in danger.

Smoke and dust from the furnaces were filling the plant from leaky exhaust ducts, leaving 2 to 5 inches of baghouse dust on surfaces — residue that can cause kidney and liver damage from overexposure.

Paula Cunningham Rickard, former safety employee at Felman Production, who was injured in an explosion in 2010. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

The factory is one of the only producers in the United States of ferroalloys, critical elements that purify and strengthen steel, but create emissions that are laden with lead, manganese and other harmful fumes.

Workers like Mr. Henry began to get sick, he said.
Finished ferrosilicomanganese, a steel alloy, looks like shiny, gray rock. (Craig Cunningham/Charleston (W.Va.) Gazette-Mail)

"You couldn't see 10 feet, the dust was that bad," said Mr. Richmond, 47, who left the company in 2013. "I mean, the poor guys on the top floor that were welding the casings, they had a horrible time."

He said he pitched a plan to fix the filtration in the factory, but the operators did not want to make the investment at the time. "We were pulling equipment out of the garbage that has been scrapped" for parts, he said.

Around the same time, the company was spending hundreds of thousands on Washington lobbyists to plead its case to Congress and others over rules proposed by the EPA, records show. In four years ending in 2017, the factory spent at least $335,000 on lobby firms.

While the owners were taking on the regulators, they were gearing up for another battle.

In 2012, Mr. Manchin penned a letter to the U.S. International Trade Commission to ask the agency to continue to press anti-dumping orders on nations like China to protect badly needed jobs at the facility.

Not imposing the penalties "will only further aggravate our economic environment," he wrote.

That same year, Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners had acquired enough office skyscrapers in downtown Cleveland — 2.8 million square feet — to become the largest commercial landlords in the city.

The Cleveland skyline in 2016. Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners became the largest commercial landlords in the city. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

The next year, Ms. Capito went to the trade commission to ask that tariffs be continued on Venezuela and other countries accused of dumping steel to help the factory in West Virginia save jobs, just months after Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners secretly moved $20 million in embezzled money into the United States to buy another steel facility in Kentucky, according to court records filed by prosecutors.

To hide the transfers, the money was moved through 13 different bank accounts of offshore companies in a dizzying series of transactions, prosecutors said.

Months after the Kentucky factory was purchased, red flags were raised once again, this time by state officials who demanded to inspect the financial records of the West Virginia metals plant but were unable to get them.

In order for the factory to get a big reduction in electric costs, it needed to show financial audits, which track the dollars that go in and out of the facility.

Again and again, state officials demanded to see the reports, but Felman Production said it didn't have them.

"The fact that a company with sales exceeding one hundred million dollars does not perform an annual audit is telling," wrote the consumer affairs division of the West Virginia public services commission.

Ultimately, the state officials demanded the factory be rejected.
“They are not in business to make a profit.”
A former senior fellow at the Center for International Policy

But after testimony from the Mason County commission president and others who said the jobs were critical — the jobless rate was nearly 10 percent — the public services commission approved up to $90 million in discounts over the next decade.

While the plant was pumping money into the local economy, the facility was drawing the attention of federal safety inspectors, who had repeatedly cited the factory for dangerous and decrepit conditions.

On some days, the smoke and fumes rising from the facility would blow into the nearby neighborhood, covering the homes with a layer of industrial grime, said neighbors and three former employees.

"It ate the paint right off. Imagine what it does to your body," said Paula Cunningham Rickard, 57, the safety employee who was injured when a dumpster filled with chemicals caught fire and exploded in 2010.

Two homeowners who live near the facility said they are unable to remove the brown stains from the sides of their homes, even though the fumes have lessened in recent years. "It eats right into the vinyl siding," said Tom Roush, 70, who lives less than a quarter mile away.

A brown grime covers the siding at Tom Roush's home near Felman Production in Letart, W.Va. He and his neighbors say the emissions from the plant have lessened over the years, but still leave a layer of residue that's difficult to clean. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

In 2007, the facility was cited by federal safety workers for air contaminants, and five years later, state inspectors said they found "heavy fugitive emissions" coming from the roof, windows and sides of the plant.

In the first decade of operation starting in 2006, federal regulators turned up two dozen serious violations that they said could cause accidents and lead to injuries or death, the most of any of Mr. Kolomoisky's factories.

When the EPA pitched the plan to impose pollution restrictions on the facility and another in Ohio, then Ohio attorney general Mike DeWine jumped into the fray and wrote a letter to three of the most powerful politicians in the country at the time — Vice President Mike Pence, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul Ryan — asking them to help ease the restrictions.

"There is no doubt that protecting the public health from hazardous air pollution is critical, but a proper balance should be struck to prevent job losses, let alone a risk of closure to local businesses," he wrote in 2017.

Farmland and small towns dot the area around Felman Production. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

Dan Tierney, a spokesperson for Mr. DeWine, now Ohio's governor, said Mr. DeWine was mostly focused on the facility in his home state and that the EPA plan appeared to be an overreach by the Obama administration.

"We can be strong on protecting public health and strong on promoting these jobs, which are critical to the U.S. economy," he said.

The next year, federal regulators showed up at the West Virginia facility and found more workers exposed to hazardous levels of fumes and imposed a violation and fine.
“When you're desperate, you're willing to take any lifeboat.”
Latshmi Kumar, policy director of Global Financial Integrity

About the same time, the factory was sued by the EPA and state over allegations that included failing to have a pollution control system in place for years, leading to an agreement by the factory to make dozens of improvements or face steep penalties.

Mr. Kasowitz, the lawyer for Felman's CEO, said the factory "has made significant investments in worker and environmental safety and will continue to do so." And that the reportable incidents that took place so far this year at the facility are below the industry average.

He said that since the agreement was reached in the lawsuit, Felman has invested more than $2 million in "safety and environmental capital expenditures" and more than $1.6 million in safety and environmental initiatives.

By 2016, Mr. Kolomoisky's money run in the United States began to shift in a new direction when Ukraine regulators turned up evidence that showed the largest bank in the country was in trouble.

Stress tests on the institution by the government showed big money shortages, prompting regulators to take over the bank in late 2016 to avoid a collapse from what they suspected was massive fraud.

After the government looked at the evidence, "we found the fraud was even bigger," former Ukraine finance minister Alex Danyliuk told the Post-Gazette.

A subsequent audit showed $5.5 billion in losses — most of the money in loans doled out to companies owned by the oligarchs and related companies, auditors said.

Mr. Kolomoisky and associates transferred money from Ukraine and Cyprus into the United States through Deutsche Bank USA in New York. (Jeenah Moon/The New York Times)

To make up for the losses, the country was forced to turn to taxpayers or otherwise, "the consequences would have been terrible," he said, adding that it would have led to a national recession. "It's like trying to stop a train coming at full speed."

As Mr. Kolomoisky and others were under investigation in Ukraine, their empire in the United States began to collapse. They stopped paying their bills on many of their U.S. properties.

Four of the steel companies filed for bankruptcy in 2016, owing millions to suppliers. The massive manufacturing center in Illinois was left empty and shuttered, the electricity shut off because the bill wasn't paid.

The breakdowns — vacant buildings, unpaid taxes, jobless workers — are the result of an operation driven by people who wanted to take control of properties and clean cash, not to run normal businesses, said Mr. Baker, the financial crimes scholar and former fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington.

"They are not in business to make a profit," he said. The goal was to buy properties to "plow revenues and hide those revenues" and ultimately, "run the business in the ground in the process."

Of the 22 properties once owned by Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners in the U.S., the West Virginia facility is one of the few still operating, records show.

Felman Production near Letart, W.Va., in Mason County. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

While U.S. prosecutors press to seize some of the real estate, experts say a larger question surrounds the role of the elected leaders who helped protect the oligarch's factory in West Virginia.

There is a balance "between going to bat for your constituents and failing to do your own due diligence," said Mr. Baker, who founded Global Financial Integrity in 2006.

Mr. Baker said that there were enough warnings about the facility — including the sanctions imposed by the federal court in West Virginia — that should have been scrutinized by elected leaders before lending their help. "None of this is rocket science. It comes down to political will," he said.
“I didn't know anything about the ownership.”
U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), who helped Felman Production fend off regulators

Dennis Dycus, a former state auditor for Tennessee, said the elected officials who helped the West Virginia facility had a responsibility to balance the need for jobs with supporting the regulations that protect the lives of workers.

The level of scrutiny paid to the operation, he said, was "pathetic. They never performed due diligence."

The ability of Ukraine oligarchs to purchase 13 steel factories — an industry considered crucial to national defense — raises questions about the performance of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a federal panel empowered to screen such deals, said experts.

But elected officials could have also played a much stronger role in questioning the ownership of the facility before agreeing to help, said Edward Martin, a former special agent for the U.S. Treasury.

Mr. Martin, now a trial consultant, said he does not believe most of the public officials took the time to ask the most fundamental questions. "That's not what they do," he said. "They are looking for votes. They are not considering what's going on." But in the end, there were consequences for helping the factory. "They created a fertile environment" for the scheme to continue.

Ms. Kumar, who co-authored a recent study on illicit money in real estate, said the help that was given to the factory — including the special electric cuts — shows the fragile position of a community when it needs the jobs.

"It's sad. There were questions asked, but when you're desperate, you're willing to take any lifeboat," said Ms. Kumar.

Mr. Kolomoisky and his partners shut down Warren Steel in Warren, Ohio, in 2016, leaving 162 people out of jobs, mounds of hazardous waste and untreated wastewater flowing into the nearby Mahoning River. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)

Although the federal government has set up targeting zones in places like New York and Miami to look for money laundering in property purchases, the orders do not extend all over the country and do not include commercial transactions.

With the help of lawmakers, the oligarch and the others were able to operate freely, she said.

"They know no one is going to be looking. They know it will not receive national attention. A lot of these places are desperate for capital at this point," she said. "It's equally important to talk about the human cost. What are those costs in human lives?"

Post-Gazette Washington bureau chief Ashley Murray and Tanya Kozyreva, reporting from Ukraine, contributed to this report.

Michael Sallah: msallah@post-gazette.com

Ashley Murray: amurray@post-gazette.com
Dirty Dollars: More trouble for oligarch's Ohio steel facility
Warren Steel's company offices caught fire on Aug. 11, 2021. Firefighters found the electricity leading to the site and the water hydrants had been shut off. Arson is suspected. (Andrew Rush/Post-Gazette)
Oligarch and partners reaped millions in public perks — loans and utility rate cuts — to help Ohio communities, and then pulled up stakes and stopped paying back the money

By Michael Sallah | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

For the operators of Warren Steel, it was a major step that would allow them to reap millions of dollars by convincing the state of Ohio to approve deep cuts in their electric bills.

The facility "needs a competitive electric rate in order to remain in business," the company said in its request in 2014.

To help the factory in eastern Ohio, two of the state's most prominent Democratic leaders, Sen. Sherrod Brown and U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, co-wrote a letter urging the state utilities commission to approve the deal.

"A plant closing would be devastating to the local economy," they wrote.

Warren Steel -- Rate Cut-- Lawmakers by Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Scribd

But less than 18 months after the state agreed to help by approving up to $35 million in rate cuts over six years, owner Ukraine oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky and his partners shut down and abandoned the facility, leaving 162 workers out of jobs without any medical insurance and owing dozens of suppliers, including Ohio Edison.

"They left the employees and the property high and dry," wrote Ohio assistant attorney general Karrie Kunkel in an environmental action against the facility.

The closing shows how powerful foreign figures with questionable pasts and wealth can exploit vulnerable communities in the heartland that are desperate for jobs and investment.

It also illustrates the lack of scrutiny paid by public officials to a facility whose operators had been accused in civil court cases in the United States and Europe of fraud and other financial crimes.

The plea for rate reductions in Ohio took place just months after the oligarch and his associates received discounts on their electric costs for their factory in West Virginia. But there, the process took eight months with robust challenges by state consumer agents over what they said was the company's lack of transparency.

In Ohio, state officials took just weeks.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, in 2019. (Associated Press)
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan, D-Ohio, in 2021. (Jetta Fraser/Toledo Blade)

The request for the cuts took place as the area surrounding the factory was battling increasing unemployment, with major job losses in manufacturing.

Once a steelmaking center, the community had been deeply impacted by the bankruptcy of Copperweld Steel — now the location of Warren Steel — more than a decade earlier and the decline of the area as an industrial powerhouse.
“The garbage is overflowing. We are cleaning the toilets ourselves.”
John Scheel, Warren Steel plant manager

"They were desperate," said Tom Creal, a Chicago certified financial accountant who has advised the United Nations and the U.S. military on money laundering investigations. "They were probably going to say yes, no matter what."

Spokespersons for Mr. Brown and Mr. Ryan said the lawmakers wrote the letter to help the workers in 2014, and that the criminal investigation of Mr. Kolomoisky only became public in the last two years. Neither lawmaker received political or financial contributions from the steel companies or from any of the owners, the spokespersons said.

Warren Steel wasn't the only place where the oligarch received help.

He and his partners managed to get tens of millions in economic development loans from Cleveland community leaders to renovate a hotel purchased with embezzled money in 2011, said U.S. prosecutors.

The hotel company took in at least $42 million in loans from the city, county, and Cleveland International Fund to turn a Crowne Plaza into a four-star Westin.

The Westin Cleveland Downtown is now in foreclosure and under the control of a receiver. (Westin Cleveland Downtown)

But in recent years, the company owned by the oligarch and his associates stopped paying the loan money and owe $1.3 million in taxes on the hotel, which is now in foreclosure and under a receiver.

One elected leader who was on the city council when the money was loaned said Cleveland was in dire economic straits in the wake of the 2008 real estate downturn that led to one of the highest foreclosure rates in the country.

Jay Westbrook said more scrutiny should have been paid, but he said the city was in need of investment. "It's the thirsty man, and it's the dehydrated trail," he said. "It wouldn't matter if Billy the Kid came bringing us investment [money]."
“They were probably going to say yes, no matter what.”
Tom Creal, money laundering expert for the United Nations and the U.S. military

At Warren Steel, the losses are still being felt.

When the plant was shuttered in January 2016, the operators left mounds of hazardous waste on the property and eventually untreated wastewater flowing into the nearby Mahoning River, state records show.

They also failed to pay millions of dollars to vendors and utility companies.

"If the power is disconnected, we are very simply done," wrote then plant manager John Scheel in an email to top supervisors. "We have not paid to empty any of the dumpsters on site since October; the garbage is overflowing. We are cleaning toilets ourselves but running out of supplies.

"It is bad enough that we have not kept our word on hundreds of thousands of dollars of vendor payments, and our suppliers are trying to be understanding," he wrote.

In the ensuing five years, the Ohio attorney general's office battled Warren Steel to clean up the property, including the illegally dumped hazardous waste, getting a court order and filing contempt charges.

Fire departments from three counties battled a suspicious fire on Aug. 11, 2021, on the second floor of a Warren Steel building. (Courtesy of Tom Dempsey)

Finally, two months ago, just days after a settlement was reached between the attorney general's office and the mill, a spectacular fire broke out in the company offices in the early morning hours on Aug. 11.

When firefighters arrived to battle the blaze, they found the electricity had been turned off leading to the site and the fire hydrants shut off, with no water to douse the flames.

Ultimately, firefighters had to run fire hoses 1,500 feet to reach working hydrants on the main roadway, records and interviews show. The Ohio fire marshal's office suspects arson as the cause but has not reported any suspects.
“The whole thing is disappointing.”
Doug Emerine, trustee chairman of Champion Township, where part of the plant is located

One source familiar with the investigation told the Post-Gazette a light-colored SUV was spotted on the property for 28 minutes just prior to the fire, and then sped away.

Because of the unpaid taxes on the property — $767,543, including assessments and penalties — the Trumbull County treasurer slapped a lien on the property and filed a foreclosure action last month.

Doug Emerine, trustee chairman of Champion Township where part of the plant is located, said the land needs to be cleaned up. "That's really our only hope at this point," he said. "It's sad to drive by that mill and see it. The disregard for the safety and health. The whole thing is disappointing."

He said that the electric rate cuts made to the facility were because the mill offered "a glimmer of hope" in restoring jobs. "You have an area that's dependent on jobs, and everyone was willing to throw everything at them." And now, "we're stuck with the mess."

Как же их (запад) бесит, что надо содержать Украину вместе со всем украинским голодным и визгливым стадом...

У Коломойского есть железные доказательства - кто сбил Боинг MH-17, так что я бы его не списывал со счетов...

жиду наепать как с горы скатится

Хрюн Моржов пишет:

Всё это пи3дёжь. Нормально живут. По разному, но не хужее нас точно.

capt пишет:

Хрюн Моржов пишет:

Всё это пи3дёжь. Нормально живут. По разному, но не хужее нас точно.

Хохол не может не воровать: Долг частных украинских компаний перед Россией превысил миллиард долларов

Сколько российские граждане задолжали банкам не хотите узнать?

Крым наш - Тайвань ваш!
Никарагуа разрывает отношения с Тайванем

Украинский олигарх Коломойский занялся майнингом криптовалюты

Слава пишет:

Что опять не так?
Джамиля, разве ты не была любимой женой? Обидел я тебя хоть раз? Почему ты не умерла? ))

"А скрипач не нужен, родной. Он только лишнее топливо жрёт".
США остановили поставку военной помощи Киеву.
Украинское правительство "озадачено" и не понимает, почему помощь не поступила, как это ожидалось, утверждают источники.
Администрация президента США Джо Байдена отложила на неопределенный срок предоставление Украине пакета военной помощи на сумму $200 млн, который был ранее подготовлен.

Слава пишет:

я так понимаю такую ху йню в хохло-педерастии на банковой целый департамент сочиняет

гулять станем. С девками

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFijwCl3OMs

Нате говорю: Ира сказала, что у мужиков в 62 года волочы расти в ущах начинают. Почему у меня растут на носу???????
А у тебя с детсва растут. Ты мой волк.

Слава пишет:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsrCusGPI7w

Слава - это же вурдалак, сцуко!

Молодой девушке они вонзают клыки в самоё её лучшее... ужас.
Я считаю - только осиновый кол

capt пишет:

Слава пишет:

Что опять не так?
Джамиля, разве ты не была любимой женой? Обидел я тебя хоть раз? Почему ты не умерла? ))

Не ответила. ля крыса какая!

capt пишет:

capt пишет:
Что опять не так?
Джамиля, разве ты не была любимой женой? Обидел я тебя хоть раз? Почему ты не умерла? ))

Не ответила. ля крыса какая!

Мне один раз девушка прислала письмо пустое. А письмо для ребят это ж радость. И вот почту забрал дневальный и мне вручает. Я открываю, а там белый лист бумаги. Праститутка!

capt пишет:

capt пишет:
Не ответила. ля крыса какая!

Мне один раз девушка прислала письмо пустое. А письмо для ребят это ж радость.  И вот почту забрал дневальный и мне вручает. Я открываю, а там белый лист бумаги. Праститутка!

А у всех военных жена либо педичка либо медичка. За редким исключением. А почему? Приглашали нас в гости в свои училища. Типа чаепитие. Как собачек бляха-муха. Внеплановая вязка ))))))
И вот я с ней танцы танцую, а грудь у неё вздымается. сердечко колышится. Пьяный без водки. Но всё контролирую. А пацаны мне: Игорёха, ну..... зато у неё очки красивые.
Суки

capt пишет:

capt пишет:
Мне один раз девушка прислала письмо пустое. А письмо для ребят это ж радость.  И вот почту забрал дневальный и мне вручает. Я открываю, а там белый лист бумаги. Праститутка!

А у всех военных жена либо педичка либо медичка. За редким исключением. А почему? Приглашали нас в гости в свои училища. Типа чаепитие. Как собачек бляха-муха. Внеплановая вязка ))))))
И вот я с ней танцы танцую, а грудь у неё вздымается. сердечко колышится. Пьяный без водки. Но всё контролирую. А пацаны мне: Игорёха, ну..... зато у неё очки красивые.
Суки

Как в том анекдоте.

Я работаю в ЗАГСЕ и скажу вам так. Потихоньку разбирают всех ))))

capt пишет:

capt пишет:
Что опять не так?
Джамиля, разве ты не была любимой женой? Обидел я тебя хоть раз? Почему ты не умерла? ))

Не ответила. ля крыса какая!

А друзья предупреждали: не женись на ней!

Дубровник я відвідав майже відразу після закінчення війни на території колишньої Югославії. Хорватське посольство тоді спеціально запрошувало журналістів, щоб відновити інтерес до туристичної інфраструктури одного з найяскравіших міст Адріатики. Зараз у це, звичайно, важко повірити, але тоді Дубровник був практично порожнім. У розкішному готелі соціалістичних часів, де ми оселилися, не працювали ліфти та кондиціонери. Біля туристичних об'єктів нерідко можна було побачити дивовижні та жахливі фотографії загиблого під час війни знаменитого хорватського майстра Паво Урбана, які показували, як виглядав Дубровник у дні бомбардувань та обстрілів. Навіть тоді, на цих уже мирних, але все ще підупалих вулицях, все це важко було уявити. Хоча якраз під час нашого перебування з боку позицій боснійських сербів – війна у Боснії ще тривала – знову обстріляли місцевий аеропорт.





Місто ледве приходило до тями після стресу, і кожен, хто приїжджав просто на прогулянку, сприймався тут як обіцянка того, що мирне життя обов'язково повернеться. На безлюдних стежках острова Локрум – за кілька років до війни це був один із найпрестижніших куточків Югославії, а тепер на Локрумі ви зустрінете сотні курортників – я зустрів Адама Міхніка з маленьким сином. Адам, як завжди, жодних високих слів не промовляв, жартував, і ми з ним безтурботно обговорювали погоду та поточну польську та пострадянську політику. Але я розумів, що для Адама з його загостреним почуттям справедливості подорож у Дубровник не була випадковістю.



У Цавтаті ми зустріли молодого хорватського хлопця, який розповів нам, що живе у Загребі та має будинок на березі моря неподалік Спліту, але тепер щоліта приїжджає відпочивати сюди, до Дубровника. Коли ми запитали, чому він проміняв свій власний будинок на апартаменти в іншій частині Хорватії, парубок, який уже встиг повоювати, глянув кудись у бік Чорногорії і сказав: «А це щоб вони знали!» «А це щоб вони знали!» – це тоді визначало настрої місцевих мешканців. Щоб вони знали, що ми все відновимо, повернемо нашому місту славу адріатичного курорту, сюди знову приїжджатимуть, Дубровником знову будуть захоплюватися без остраху… Звичайно, якби мешканцям Дубровника тоді сказали, що кілька сезонів «Ігри престолів» перетворять їхнє місто на справжнісіньку туристичну мекку і вони просто знемагатимуть від кількості людей, які тепер уже без усякої сезонності прилітатимуть, приїжджатимуть і припливатимуть, щоб доторкнутися до каменів Дубровника та відчути себе всередині улюбленого кінофільму, вони навряд чи повірили б – хто вірить у натовп на безлюдних вулицях? Але якщо подумати, тоді, під час і після війни люди жили в Дубровнику у справжнісінькій, а не кінематографічній «грі престолів» і бачили, на що може зважитися дракон заради влади.



А зараз у такій справжній «грі престолів» ми живемо в Україні. І коли люди запитують, чи справді я вірю, що російські бомби можуть впасти на Київ – на той самий Київ, який шкільні підручники називали «матір'ю міст руських» і який ще недавно відвідували тисячі російських туристів, – я відповідаю, що жодних особливих сумнівів у можливості такого повороту подій не маю. Для сербів та чорногорців, які бомбили та обстрілювали Дубровник, це місто теж не було чужим, аж ніяк. Багато хто з них приїжджав сюди на літо – тим більше, що район Дубровника, як відомо, відділений від решти території Хорватії і знаходиться між Боснією та Чорногорією, а отже сюди було ближче дістатися сербам із кількох республік одразу. Для багатьох це могло бути місто романтичних спогадів, веселої юності, першого кохання, сімейної відпустки – і що з того? Це не завадило обстрілювати райони, які вважалися надбанням людства, через 46 років після бомбардувань Другої світової війни. І за 30 років до того, як ми в Україні замислюватимемося про те, чи не впадуть російські бомби на наші міста.



в.портников "Місто під бомбами"
12.12.2021