The Sennichenko scheme: The way in which financier Oleg Tsyura, associated with Russian business, diverted billions from the Ukrainian Mining and Chemical Company and the Odesa Port Plant via companies in Germany and Switzerland

The Sennichenko scheme: The way in which financier Oleg Tsyura, associated with Russian business, diverted billions from the Ukrainian Mining and Chemical Company and the Odesa Port Plant via companies in Germany and Switzerland

The name of Oleg Tsyura came up in a scandal connected to former State Property Fund chief Dmitry Sennichenko and a massive embezzlement scheme costing Ukraine more than ten billion hryvnias.

Remarkably, it was investigative reporters—not NABU officials—who traced Tsyura’s links to Sennichenko’s schemes and other figures involved in the Odesa Port Plant and United Mining and Chemical Company frauds. So far, Tsyura has not been mentioned in any official NABU or SAPO documentation.

Meanwhile, he is involved in schemes that helped the group led by Dmitry Sennichenko sell Ukrainian resources to Russian companies bypassing international sanctions and transfer money from these schemes abroad. There is also a connection between Oleg Tsyura and Russian capital and business.

Involvement in sanction bypassing and ore supply to Crimea

Oleg Tsyura is connected with one of the suspects in the "Sennichenko case" - Serhiy Bayrak, who is considered one of the key participants in the scheme to embezzle ten billion from the state. According to the investigation, his role was in "facilitating transactions and communication between interested parties in the operation."

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Tsyura is connected to Bayrak through the German companies ITS International Trade & Sourcing GmbH & Co KG and ITS International Trade & Sourcing Verwaltung GmbH, registered in Düsseldorf. The owner of the companies is Serhiy Bayrak, and the director is Oleg Tsyura.

These companies were involved in dubious deals, including the suspicious purchase of zirconium ores, raising additional concerns about their role in international business relations. The case in point is that in 2018, ITS International Trade & Sourcing GmbH & Co KG won an auction to purchase a batch of zirconium ore from the state-owned VostGOK. The deal’s price was 45 million hryvnias, but ITS International Trade & Sourcing GmbH & Co KG offered only one thousand hryvnias more than its competitors, raising suspicions about the auction’s integrity.

In 2020, ITS International Trade & Sourcing GmbH & Co KG participated in supplying 24,000 tonnes of Ukrainian ilmenite ore to the "Crimean Titan" plant in occupied Crimea. At that time, the plant was controlled by Dmitry Firtash, Serhiy Lyovochkin, and Ivan Fursin.

Swiss and Russian business operations

According to registry data, Oleg Tsyura holds dual citizenship: Germany and Switzerland. He owns several firms in these two countries providing financial management and asset protection services in Switzerland, particularly for clients from Russia. These services include facilitating cross-border transactions and asset movements, allowing Russian companies to bypass sanctions imposed by Western governments.

Some firms have either been liquidated, or Oleg Tsyura is no longer among their directors:

As for Russia, Oleg Tsyura is associated with MidUral, a Russian metallurgical corporation specializing in ferroalloys and chemicals, owned by Russian businessman Sergey Gilvarg.

Phoenix Resources AG, one of Tsyura’s companies, is involved in the export of ferrochrome on behalf of MidUral. This export involves distorting the product’s origin, meaning shipments to the European Union are labeled as originating from Uzbekistan instead of Russia, allowing them to circumvent EU sanctions.

From 2022 to 2024, Oleg Tsyura was the manager of Linvo AG, which was founded in 2014 by Lyudmyla Tsyura on behalf of Nikolay Korobov, a major developer from St. Petersburg associated with local authorities.

Besides Lyudmyla Tsyura, who is apparently Oleg Tsyura’s wife, Yeva Tsyura, born in 2008, has also come into the spotlight in Germany. She is likely their daughter and, along with Oleg Tsyura, is a member of the municipal council of the Swiss town of Uitikon.

The case requires further investigation

What exactly is Oleg Tsyura’s role in Dmitry Sennichenko’s embezzlement scheme remains to be determined. As previously mentioned, Oleg Tsyura’s name does not appear in the investigation materials. At least, it didn’t until a few weeks ago.

However, according to unofficial data, Serhiy Bayrak, associated with Oleg Tsyura and one of the three key participants in the Sennichenko scheme, has cooperated with the investigation. As a result, there is a likelihood he may testify against Oleg Tsyura, without whom it would have been impossible to transfer at least part of the 10 billion stolen from Ukraine abroad. It stands to reason that Oleg Tsyura, as a specialist in investment and capital management, knows where exactly each key participant in the scheme invested their money and how much. It is also evident that without cooperation with Swiss and German law enforcement, it will be impossible to recover this money.

In conclusion, one can be sure that the case of thefts at the Odesa Port Plant and the United Mining and Chemical Company, purportedly organized by the former head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine, Dmitry Sennichenko, requires further investigation, and the role of Oleg Tsyura in this scheme demands thorough examination.