Friday, April 20, 2007

Stink around Stanik

I've posted several times recently on allegations of corruption directed at deputy-head of the Constitutional Court, Syuzanna Stanik [see photo].
She is at the centre of media attention right now because she is leading the Constitutional Court's assessment into whether the President's decree to dismiss the VR was constitutional or not. Their decision, if one is made, could have a cataclysmic effect on the future of Ukrainian politics.

Today's 'Unian' publication provides more details of Syuzanna Stanik's dubious past.

According to their article, in September 2001, the first Deputy Chairman of the SBU Yuriy Vandin reported to a parliamentary committee on corruption and organized crime. He had been investigating the activities of a specialized government enterprise "UkrSpetsYust", which was subordinated to the Ministry of Justice. The minister of justice at that time was Syuzanna Stanik .

"UkrSpetsYust" was created in July, 1999 to liquidate confiscated and reclaimed property in accordance to courts' rulings, and comprised an astonishing 743 subdivisions over the entire country employing a total of 3568 people.

It was alleged that "UkrSpetsYust", in two years, had massively misused its authority by selling off profitable strategic enterprises for 'peanuts', including thousands of automobiles 'for the price of their wheels'.

Stanik declared that the outfit had brought great benefit to society, and that since the beginning of that year "UkrSpetsYust" had realized properties to to value of 4 million hryven.

However, the chairman of the parliamentary committee, Yuriy Karmazin, had his own data: in the short period of existence of 'Stanik's baby', it had 'turned over' about 6000 confiscated automobiles, which had been sold at a fraction of their worth. As a result of these vehicle sales, losses to the state exceeded 4 million hryven, It turned out later that these 6000 foreign-produced vehicles were from 3 oblasts only - Vinnitsa, Khmel'nitskiy and Chernovetsk.

It became apparent that there was a organized criminal ring operating which included a number of workers of UkrSpetsYust, court valuers and purchasers.

But this was only a small part of UkrSpetsYust's activities. 49% of the shares of private limited company "Rosava" were sold by them - the estimated value was 100 million hryven at that time. The company was sold for 20 times less - for 5 million. The size of the kick-backs can only be guessed, says UNIAN.

Other assets 'processed' by UkrSpetsYust included three power stations owned by joint stock company "DonbasEnergo", and the Luhansk, Kurakhovsk and Zuyevsk thermal power stations sold by emergency order.

First Deputy Chairman Yuriy Vandin also mentioned the "Hammer and sickle" enterprise sold for 30% of its true value, a scientific research institute sold for 4 million, whereas it had been valued at 104 million, and others.

It was no wonder that the parliamentarians proposed Stanik be removed from her post of justice minister, and UkrSpetsYust disbanded. But nothing came of this, probably because of Stanik's personal relationship with the-then president Leonid Kuchma and his wife.

The entire matter was suppressed, and Stanik sent away while things quietened down - to Strasbourg, to become Ukraine's representative at the Council of Europe. Subsequently she became ambassador to Switzerland. She was supposed to be ambassador to Poland, but there was a problem - in Polish "Stanik" means brassiere.

Stanik was born in Lviv in western Ukraine, and studied law at that city's university. She is a recipient of the presidential 'Order of Princess Olha' 3rd degree, and the presidential 'Order of Merit' 3rd degree.
LEvko thinks that other C.C. members' tacit acceptance of this woman amongst their ranks says much about the rest of the C.C...

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On a brighter note, 'Shakhtar Donetsk' played out a rather dull 0-0 draw in the first leg of a Ukrainian Soccer league semi-final match against 'Tavriya Simferopol' last night.

The highlight of the evening was an announcement on the public address system that Ukraine had been selected by the Union of European Football Associations [UEFA], in a joint bid with Poland, to host the 2012 European Nations football championship finals.

Shakhtar's fanatical fans behind one goal spontaneously started chanting 'Uk-ra-i-na! Uk-ra-i-na! Uk-ra-i-na! ..

Compared with Stanik, the president of Shakhtar, Rinat Akhmetov doesn't seem so bad..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

HA ! Akhmetov is just smarter than Stanik. And way more dangerous. Look at what he is doing to Obozrevatel.

the following from an interview made on the presentation of the stadium project -

" - Rinat Leonidovich, new stadium construction budget is 200 million dollars. That is a lot of money. Were any foreign investors involved?
Rinat Akhmetov:
- No.

- And how about city and oblast budgets?
- Of course, not. But if they would want to become shareholders, we will accept them. But they do not want that. Moreover, they don't even think about it."

http://shakhtar.com/cgi-bin/fc-sh/newstad.pl?lang=en&id=20

Anonymous said...

some of us are puzzled by the deafening silence in the media and the blogosphere about the Maidan 2 that is supposed to be happening starting today...

dlw