The "Investment Capital Ukraine" (ICU) group has strangely avoided punishment in Ukraine for years, despite its involvement in a number of high-profile scandals and suspicions of top-level corruption. During Petro Poroshenko's presidency, ICU was called his "financial shadow," but the company always remained outside the attention of law enforcement agencies.
It seems that ICU provides financial services to the current government. Or it has a powerful international patron, with whom even the Office of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is forced to reckon. These two versions best explain ICU's strange invulnerability.
ICU was involved in several high-profile cases: the "coal case" of Medvedchuk and Poroshenko, money laundering by Yanukovych's associates, the "Rotterdam+" scheme, and the appropriation of interest from frozen assets of the Russian Sberbank.
"Coal case"
The treason case is expected to continue in September. The investigation believes that Viktor Medvedchuk and Petro Poroshenko organized a scheme to supply coal from the occupied territories, artificially blocking imports from South Africa. As a result, the state company "Centrenergo" purchased coal from structures associated with Medvedchuk for 3 billion UAH. These funds could have gone to finance terrorists. Therefore, the actions of the suspects are qualified as treason.
The key figure is former Minister of Energy Volodymyr Demchyshyn (2014–2016). It was he who appointed representatives of the so-called "DPR"/"LPR" as heads of state enterprises and forced "Centrenergo" to sign agreements with them.
Demchyshyn is by no means a passing character, and not even a victim of circumstances. He deliberately acted in Medvedchuk's interests. He did it for a long time, keeping the scheme viable. In fact, Demchyshyn was appointed to implement the criminal scheme. This, in particular, meant that he had the trust not only of Poroshenko, but also of Medvedchuk.
It is important that Demchyshyn headed ICU's investment banking from 2008 to 2014 and was a shareholder of the group. He remained a co-owner even while serving as minister and after his resignation – until November 2021, when he "timely" withdrew from the shareholders a few days before the SBU and SBI served him with a notice of suspicion.
Money laundering by Yanukovych's associates
In 2013, ICU was suspected of participating in schemes of oligarch Serhiy Kurchenko, when the company acted as a broker in the purchase of government bonds on behalf of eight Cypriot companies. The amount in question was over 2 billion UAH.
"Rotterdam+" scheme
ICU was also suspected of insider trading.
The ICU group bought the debts of Ukraine's largest energy company at a large discount. After that, Vovk, the head of the Ukrainian energy regulator (NCREC), approved "Rotterdam+" - a new principle for calculating electricity prices, under which the profits of energy companies soared. The value of securities after this decision increased significantly, and brought ICU considerable profit.
Investigators claimed that Vovk acted in collusion with organizations of the ICU group, but then for unknown reasons stopped the investigation. Let me remind you, Demchyshyn remained among the shareholders at that time.
Appropriation of state funds from the confiscation of Sberbank assets
A separate case concerns the appropriation of interest from the frozen assets of the Ukrainian "daughter" of the Russian Sberbank totaling UAH 949 million. The state seeks to oblige ICU and its shareholders Makar Paseniuk and Kostiantyn Stetsenko to return about $47.5 million as part of a civil process. The Supreme Court has already confirmed the legality of removing Paseniuk and Stetsenko from the supervisory board of "Avangard Bank."
Conclusion: despite a number of high-profile scandals and suspicions of cooperation with the most influential political figures in Ukraine – from Yanukovych to Poroshenko and Medvedchuk – the ICU group has never become the subject of a full-fledged anti-corruption investigation.