Sergey Kurchenko’s criminal empire: how the oligarch and a team of fugitive Ukrainian officials launder billions in Russia through shell companies and ties to the FSB

Sergey Kurchenko’s criminal empire: how the oligarch and a team of fugitive Ukrainian officials launder billions in Russia through shell companies and ties to the FSB

Fugitive Ukrainian oligarch Sergey Kurchenko bought two mansions at Patriarch’s Ponds and, together with his security, seized all nearby areas belonging to residents of neighboring apartment buildings, who are no longer allowed onto their own land. Our sources revealed how and with whom Kurchenko is making money now.

According to sources, Kurchenko’s inner circle now includes Ukraine’s former Prosecutor General Viktor Pshonka, a close friend of presidential envoy Yuri Chaika. Former SBU Chairman Aleksandr Yakymenko, who has established excellent relations with the Russian Presidential Administration. Former Ukrainian Interior Minister Vitaliy Zakharchenko, who is friends with Russian Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev, while his relatives serve in the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office.

Of course, this also includes former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov.

Kurchenko’s security detail—the very one chasing Muscovites away—includes former "titushky" enforcers, among them individuals previously prosecuted in Ukraine for robberies and murders, as well as ex-"Berkut" officers.

Among the fugitives, Kurchenko oversees most business operations, both legal (construction, real estate, transportation) and illegal (alcohol and tobacco smuggling, crypto exchanges, cash-out schemes, and so on).
A separate line of Kurchenko’s activity involves coal supplies from the Donetsk and Luhansk regions. By agreement with Russia’s FSB, not a single coal train leaves from there without Kurchenko’s approval. And for transporting it out of the country, he’s been handed a portion of a seaport in Leningrad Oblast.

According to a source, special attention should be paid to the company OOO "Syndikat Promo," with annual revenue exceeding a billion rubles, legally based in Moscow but actually located in Donetsk Oblast. The company’s directors—Sergey Synelnykov, Aleksey Goncharov, and Lesya Savosko (Manaenko)—are individuals connected to Kurchenko and Zakharchenko. For 10 years, this company has handled coal sales to countries in Europe and Asia. Under fictitious contracts, a large portion of the revenue is cashed out and funneled toward the fugitives’ team’s needs and the creation of other business ventures. Separate income streams come from VAT refunds (it’s clear the tax inspectors from IFTS No. 1 aren’t doing this without their own cut).

It’s also worth recalling the company "Vneshtorgservis" (VTS), registered in South Ossetia. This firm controls nearly all coal operations and many other enterprises in the DPR and LPR. After being dismissed as deputy head of the FSB’s Fifth Service, Anatoliy Bolyukh was placed on its payroll.

As a result, Kurchenko has dozens, if not hundreds, of firms: AO "Rebort" (rental and leasing of rail equipment), OOO "Litprommash" (rental and leasing of transport), AO "P/T Druzhba" (temporary accommodations, BF "Red October"), OOO "TP" (rail transport operations (Donetsk), OOO "GS Group" (wholesale trade in solid fuels), AO "A-Med" (rental and leasing of instruments and medical equipment, founder Zakharchenko), OOO "Formula Tsveta" (accounting services), OOO "Art Nouveau" (cultural activities), OOO "Dentville" (dentistry).