Mykola Zlochevsky


Mykola Vladislavovich Zlochevsky is a Ukrainian oil and natural gas businessman, politician and a Ukrainian oligarch. Zlochevsky was Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources from July 2010 until April 2012 and was the deputy secretary for Economic and Social Security on the National Security and Defense Council from April 2012 until February 2014 when Euromaidan occurred.

Biography

Business

In 2002, he co-founded the largest independent oil and natural gas company Burisma Holdings with Ukrainian businessman. Through his sole ownership of Cyprus-registered Burisma Holdings, he owns the Ukrainian gas and oil producers Aldea, Pari, Esko-Pivnich, and the First Ukrainian Petroleum Company and the investment group Brociti Investments.

Governmental posts

Zlochevsky served as Ecology and Natural Resources Minister during most of the first cabinet of Mykola Azarov, and during both the later part of Azarov's first government and all of Azarov's second government, he served as deputy secretary on National Security and Defense Council of the President of Ukraine Viktor Yanukovych.

Investigations

In 2012, Viktor Pshonka, the Ukrainian prosecutor general, began investigating Burisma Holdings owner, Zlochevsky, over allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption during 2010–2012.
In early November 2014 Deutsche Bank reported that $24 million of funds from his companies were wired from Cyprus to the Latvia branch of PrivatBank, a Ukrainian bank.
In April 2014, the Serious Fraud Office froze approximately $23 million belonging to companies controlled by Zlochevsky. At the end of 2014, Zlochevsky fled Ukraine amid allegations of unlawful self enrichment and legalization of funds during his tenure in public office. In January 2015, Prosecutor General Vitaly Yarema announced that Zlochevsky had been put on the wanted list for alleged financial corruption. At the end of January 2015, the Central Criminal Court in London released the $23 million that were blocked on accounts of Zlochevsky due to inadequate evidence. In June 2018, the Serious Fraud Office stated that the case was closed.
Zlochevsky returned to Ukraine in February 2018 after investigations into his Burisma Holdings had been completed in December 2017 with no charges filed against him.
On 18 April 2018, an alleged recording of part of a conversation between President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko and fugitive Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Onyshchenko was released by Onyshchenko which implicated Zlochevsky in graft.
On 15 June 2018, after the Solomyansky District Court in Kyiv had annulled the ruling of the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office to close a criminal proceeding against him in 2017, Zlochevsky was accused of having illegally issued, while he was Ecology Minister in 2010–2012, oil and gas licenses to the companies that belonged to him.
According to Ukrainian authorities Zlochevsky is suspected of "theft of government funds on an especially large scale". Authorities said the criminal investigation on suspicion of embezzlement is currently on hold because Zlochevsky whereabouts cannot presently be determined. As of 2019, Zlochevsky is reported to live in Monaco.