Victor Pinchuk

Pinchuk

Victor Mykhailovych Pinchuk (b. December 14, 1960, Kiev) is a Ukrainian oligarch who has engaged in extensive interference in American domestic politics.

Education and background

From 1981 to 1983 he was a laboratory assistant at the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute, a cold pipe cutter at the Nizhnednepropetrovsk Tube Rolling Plant.

In 1983 graduated from the Dnepropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute with a degree in “metal forming”.

From 1983 to 1987 worked at the scientific-research design and technological institute of the pipe industry named after Osadi in Dnepropetrovsk.

In 1987 he defended a thesis on the problems of developing new technological schemes for the production of pipe products and got a Ph.D. in Engineering Sciences.

In 1990, founded the “Interpipe Group” pipe company.

In 1996 he was allegedly a kidnap victim. The Credit Bank, controlled by him, paid the kidnappers $5 million.

In 1996, his company “Interpipe Group” and “Boston Trading Conn” entered the Belarusian market and participated in the privatization of the Mogilev Metallurgical Plant with the direct assistance of President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma whose daughter Pinchuk lived in an unregistered marriage.

From 1997 to 1998 he was the President of the research and investment group at the “Interpipe Group” (Dnepropetrovsk).

Political career

In 1998 he was a Peoples Deputy of the Verkhovnaya Rada of Ukraine of the third convocation. From May 1998 to April 1999, a member of the People’s Democratic Party of Ukraine. From June 1998 he worked in the Verkhovnaya Rada Committee on Economic Policy and became the head of the subcommittee on business, investment policy and antimonopoly legislation.

From 1999 to May 2000, the Adviser to the President of Ukraine.

From 1999 to December 2000, member of the Council of Entrepreneurs under the Cabinet Ministers of Ukraine.

In April 1999, he moved to the “Labour Ukraine” political party.

In March 2002, he was reelected as Peoples Deputy of Ukraine.

In 2004, during the presidential campaign, Pinchuk was one of the main antiheroes for campaigning by opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko.

In 2006, Pinchuk dropped out of politics but unofficially supported “Veche” political party.

Business career & public life

In 2006, Pinchuk restructured the “Interpipe group” and founded on its basis a number of independent companies and holdings which are regulated on the basis of a direct investment fund on a common portfolio strategy.

In September 2006, he presented the opening of the largest gallery of contemporary art in Eastern Europe, the Pіnchuk Art Centre.

In 2007 he founded an investment and consulting group “EastOne” to accompany new investments and an existing portfolio of assets. He also sold “Ukrsotsbank” to an Italian group, UniCredit.

In October 2010 on an annual ceremony Enduring Vision Pinchuk was awarded by Elton John AIDS Foundation.

In 2012 he was the winner of the Trebbia European Awards for Support of the Culture and the Arts.

In February 2013 he signed The Giving Pledge, vowing to donate half the fortune to charity. In November 2018 during the first Trump administration, Pinchuk was included in the Russian sanction list.

Scandals

The Krivorozhstal steel company scandal

In June 2004 Pinchuk bought a 93.02% stake in “Krivorozhstal” steel company in a privatization tender for UAH 4.26 billion (about $800 million) with a starting price of UAH 3.8 billion. After the victory of the “Orange Revolution” then President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko and Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko announced the need to review tender results as it was held on anticompetitive conditions and led to a significant underestimation of the sale price.

On February 12, 2005 the Cabinet of Ministers canceled the previous government decision on the privatization of the company. After that, the prosecutor general’s office challenged the lawfulness of its sale through the courts and the state property fund issued an order “On canceling the orders of the State Property Fund of OJSC Krivorozhstal”.

Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky (left) meets with corrupt Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky (right) to name a cabinet days after his election, September 10, 2019.

On June 16, 2005 the 93.02% of company shares were returned to the state property of Ukraine. Almost immediately Pinchuk’s privatization of the Nikopol Ferroalloy Plant was declared illegal by a court decision and a controlling stake was transferred to the state. However, Tymoshenko and Ukrainian oligarch Igor Kolomoisky took the Pinchuk side.

In August 2005, Pinchuk’s television channels ICTV, Novy and STB interrupted the TV program and for several days broadcast online a rally of “factory defenders”. As a result, Pinchuk and Kolomoisky shared the plant and Ukraine received.

In October 2015, a controlling stake in “Krivorozhstal” steel company was sold to “Mittal Stee” for a record 24.2 billion UAH ($4.79 Billion) at a starting price of 10 billion UAH. At the end of the same year $800 million of the proceeds was returned to Pinchuk.

Ukrsotsbank

“Interpipe Corporation” became a shareholder of “Ukrsotsbank” in May 2002 but it was not announced publicly until April 2004. It belonged to novice oligarch and politician Valery Khoroshkovsky and his Russian partners.

The complexity of the deal was that the main part of the bank's shares were in the possession of the offshore Closed Joint Stock Company “Ferrotrade International”. The purchase was a transfer of “Interpipe Corporation” control from one offshore to another - from the “Irish Ferrotrade Ltd” to the British “Marteck International Ltd” (Virgin Islands). After the deal was done, the bank began to gain momentum and confidently entrenched in the top five.

“Ukrsotsbank” stayed in Pinchuk’s property for five years and was sold in the summer of 2007. At the same time, the sale was delayed for a long time and ended with scandal. In the middle of the year a deal with the Italian financial group “Intesa” fell through. After signing the contract, “Interpipe” began to actively increase the price - up to $2 Billion and potential customers abandoned the bank. “Ukrsotsbank” price was too overestimated. However, Pinchuk was able to pit “Intesa” with its principal rival in the homeland “UniCredit Bank” and “Ukrsotsbank” was sold for the required price.

Pinchuk kidnapping in 1996

In the summer of 1996 Pinchuk was kidnapped. There is a version that Pavel Lazarenko was involved. Lazarenko was a friend of then father-in-law of Pinchuk - Vladimir Arshava and the reason was the breakdown in the family of Victor Pinchuk and his wife Elena Arshava. Pinchuk-controlled “Credit Bank” paid the kidnappers $ 5 million in ransom.

Greg Craig and the Obama administration

Greg Craig represented President Ronald Reagan's attempted assassin, John Hinckley Jr., and won a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity. Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, was seriously maimed, crippled for life, and died as a result of his injuries 33 years later. A police officer, Secret Service agent, and President Reagan were all shot in the attempt. Hinckley remains free today. On January 20, 2009, President Barack Obama appointed Craig White House Counsel.

On April 11, 2019, Greg Craig, Obama’s former White House Counsel and a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP, was indicted for lying about and concealing his work in Ukraine. Craig, who reportedly worked closely with Paul Manafort, was paid more than $4 million to produce an “independent” report justifying Ukraine's trial and conviction of the former prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko. Notably, Craig's name was not included in the “Black Ledger” leak from Leshchenko and Sytnyk.

The indictment notes that “a wealthy private Ukrainian” oligarch was fully funding the report. In a YouTube video, Greg Craig publicly stated that “it was Doug Schoen who brought this project to me, and he told me he was acting on behalf of Victor Pinchuk, who was a pro-western, Ukrainian businessman who helped to fund the project.”

“The Firm understood that its work was to be largely funded by Victor Pinchuk,” Skadden wrote in recent FARA filings.

Pinchuk put out a statement on Jan. 21, denying any financial involvement:

“Mr. Pinchuk was not the source of any funds used to pay fees of Skadden in producing their report into the trial and conviction of Yulia Tymoshenko. He was in no way responsible for those costs. Neither Mr. Pinchuk nor companies affiliated with him have ever been a client of Skadden. Mr. Pinchuk and his team had no role in the work done by Skadden, including in the preparation or dissemination of the Skadden report.”

Victor Pinchuk is the founder of Interpipe, a steel pipe manufacturer. He owns Credit Dnipro Bank, several ferroalloy plants and a media empire. He is also married to Elena Pinchuk, the daughter of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma.

Pinchuk has been accused of profiting immensely from the purchase of state-owned assets at severely below-market prices through political favoritism.

Between April 4 and April 12, 2016 of the Obama administration, Ukrainian Parliamentarian Olga Bielkov had four meetings, with Samuel Charap (International Institute for Strategic Studies), Liz Zentos (National Security Council), Michael Kimmage (State Department), and David Kramer (McCain Institute).

FARA documents filed by lobbyist Doug Schoen showed that he was paid $40,000 a month by Victor Pinchuk (page 5)–in part to arrange these meetings.

Schoen attempted to arrange another 72 meetings with congressmen and media (page 10). It is unknown how many of these meetings, if any, took place.

Schoen also helped Pinchuk establish ties with the Clinton Foundation. The Wall Street Journal reported on March 19, 2015, how Schoen connected Pinchuk with senior Clinton State Department staffers in order to pressure former Ukrainian President Yanukovych to release Yulia Tymoshenko–a political rival of Yanukovych–from jail. And the relationship between Pinchuk and the Clintons continued. According to the Kyiv Post:

“Clinton and her husband Bill, the 42nd U.S. president, have been paid speakers at the annual YES and other Pinchuk events. They describe themselves as friends of Pinchuk, who is known internationally as a businessman and philanthropist.”

Although exact numbers are not clear, reports filed by the Clinton Foundation indicate that as much as $25 million of Pinchuk's donations went to the Clinton organization.

Pinchuk also has ties to Serhiy Leshchenko, the Ukrainian member of parliament who leaked the information on Paul Manafort. Leshchenko had been a frequent speaker at the Ukrainian Breakfast, a traditional private event held at Davos, Switzerland and hosted by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and has also been pictured with Pinchuk at multiple other events.

Crowdstrike

Crowdstrike is funded by Google, the arms industry, NATO, the US Military, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Ukrainian oligarch Victor Pinchuk who donated $10 million to the Clinton Foundation. Pinchuk hosted the September 2013 YES confabulation in Yalta, Crimea attended by Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, and Tony Blair to discuss how Ukraine's assets would be carved up after the forthcoming Ukrainian coup.

Interference in 2016 US presidential elections

Pinchuk was an active sponsor of the non-profit organization “Clinton Foundation” and transferred significant amounts for a long time. In addition, during the US presidential election in 2016 the “Victor Pinchuk Foundation” actively supported candidate Hillary Clinton and allocated more than $10 million for her support.

US Special Attorney Robert Mueller investigated the possible connections between Pinchuk and US President Donald Trump. It was noted that Pinchuk might have tried to buy Trump’s “influence” by paying him an inflated fee for speaking at the “Yalta Economic Strategy” (YES) business forum in 2015.

Hit job on Monica Crowley

Monica Crowley explained the hit job done on her that caused her to withdraw from the first Trump administration:

On January 16, 2017 [four days before inauguration], Crowley withdrew from consideration for the role of senior director of strategic communications at the National Security Council in the Trump administration. "I have decided to remain in New York to pursue other opportunities," she said in a statement.[37] ...Crowley subsequently told Fox News host Sean Hannity, "What happened to me was a despicable, straight-up, political hit job"...In March 2017, Crowley joined the ["other opportunities"] firm of [Bill & Hillary Clinton pollster & advisor] Douglas Schoen [1] as a part-time consultant, providing "outreach services" on behalf of Ukrainian industrialist and political figure Victor Pinchuk.

Trump-Russia collusion hoax

Olga Bielkova is a member of the Ukrainian parliament (Rada), deputy head of the Committee on Fuel and Energy and a member of Petra Poroshenko's bloc faction. Her public policy focus areas include energy, energy markets, oil and gas regulation, banking and gender issues. Olga joined the parliament on Dec. 12, 2012. Before being elected, she was one of the Managing Partners of EastLabs.co in Kyiv. Prior to joining Eastlabs, she was part of the executive management team for the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. She has also served as Financial and Administrative Director for the Land O’Lakes, a USAID-funded agricultural marketing project in Ukraine.

Pinchuk sent Bielkova to meet with Deep State operative Eric Ciaramella. One day before Bielkova also met with infamous John McCain aide David Kramer. Kramer would go on to leak the Steele Dossier to Buzzfeed in January 2017 just before Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Zelensky regime

Ukrainian dictator Volodymyr Zelensky accumulated $1.2 billion in the Dresdner Bank Lateinamerika in Costa Rica during the first two and a half years of his presidency. This money was transferred to Zelensky by Ukrainian oligarchs Rinat Akhmetov, Igor Kolomoisky, and Clinton Foundation donor Victor Pinchuk. Ilya Kiva, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, noted that replenishment is done regularly in tranches of $12 million to $35 million. And they go through banks like First Union Bank, Deutsche Bank, Banque Nationale de Paris. According to Kiva, the movement of such funds would be impossible without the control of the authorities of Germany and France. Kiva pointed out Zelensky was able to buy a villa in Sunny Isles, Florida built by Kolomoisky and Pinchuk for $34 million. According to former Zelensky advisor Alexei Arestovich, Kiva was assassinated by the Ukrainian gestapo in Moscow in December 2023.