Dmitro Firtash

Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash (; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yushchenko administration and the Yanukovych administration. As a middleman for the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom and with connections to the Kremlin, Firtash funneled money into the campaigns of pro-Russian politicians in Ukraine. Firtash obtained his position with the agreement of Russian president Vladimir Putin and, according to Firtash, Russian organized crime boss Semion Mogilevich.

His many roles during the Yushchenko administration included: presidency of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU), an interest association of industrial enterprises that he chairs; chairmanship of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council (NTSEC); co-chairmanship of Domestic and Foreign Investors Advisory Council under the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine; and membership in the Committee for Economic Reforms under the President of Ukraine.

The United States Justice Department has characterized Firtash as an "upper-echelon ssociateof Russian organized crime." He was arrested by Austrian authorities in March 2014 and has since been in Vienna fighting extradition to the United States, where he is under federal indictment for an alleged bribery scheme. American attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, associates of then-president Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, were hired by Firtash in July 2019 to fight his extradition, as Giuliani sought information in Ukraine to damage Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Early life

Firtash was born on 2 May 1965 in Bohdanivka, Zalishchiky Raion (Ternopil Oblast), Ukraine, Soviet Union. His father Vasyl () was a driver and his mother Mariya Hryhorivna () had two degrees (economics and veterinary medicine) and worked at a livestock farm and then a sugar mill as an accountant. Since the 1990s, the village has been called Synkiv.

Business career and assets

Firtash began his business career almost immediately after completing his military service. He founded a trading company in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, eventually moving to Moscow in the early 1990s.

In 2007, a private international group of companies, Group DF ("the Firtash group of companies") was formed to consolidate Firtash's business assets in different sectors. Presently, Group DF incorporates assets in the chemical industry, energy sector and real estate, and this consolidation effort is still underway.

In 2008, Firtash was involved with a firm owned by Paul Manafort in a $895 million project to redevelop the Drake Hotel in New York City into a spa and luxury mall to be called Bulgari Tower. According to court records, Firtash's firm had planned to invest $100 million in the project. The deal was never finalized.

In 2010, Firtash launched an effort towards consolidation of the Ukrainian nitrogen business. From September 2010 to September 2011, Firtash acquired ownership in 'Concern STIROL' (Horlivka), 'Severodonetsk Production Association Azot' and 'Cherkassy Azot'. In just over a year, the joint marketing strategy of the four fertilizer manufacturers owned by Firtash substantially strengthened its domestic market position.

Firtash is co-owner of RosUkrEnergo and controls much of the Ukrainian titanium industry. He gained control of former state-owned titanium assets across Ukraine in 2004 and also owns several chemical plants under his Group DF which he formed in 2007. In May 2011, Firtash took over Nadra Bank (at the time Ukraine's 11th largest bank). Nadra Bank had gone into default in 2009, but it has since restructured its foreign debt with significant write-offs.

Firtash became one of the leading investors in the power sector and chemical industry in Central and Eastern Europe. His plants and companies are present in Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Tajikistan, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Estonia.

Firtash was elected President of the Joint Representative Body, a joint representative agency of employers at the national level, on 29 November 2011.

Firtash bought back 100 percent of InterInter Media Group Limited from Valeriy Khoroshkovskyi on 1 February 2013, for his GDF Media Limited. Firtash had sold various channels to Khoroshkovskyi's U.A. Inter Media Group Ltd in June 2007 while consolidating other business interests. Firtash owns seven television channels as well as an influential Kyiv-based Ukrainian News Agency. Firtash is also cited as having part ownership of SCL Group and thus Cambridge Analytica through various shell companies, by the U.S. documentary ''Active Measures'', in its breakdown of the Russian–U.S. relationship before and after the 2016 election.

In April 2014, Firtash stated that despite the difficult conditions of doing business during Ukraine's political crisis, Ostchem enterprises, part of Ostchem Holding The investments directed to the development and modernization of Ostchem enterprises allowed significant increases in the production capacities of Rivne Azot, Stirol Concern, and Crimea soda plant in the first quarter of 2014.

In February 2014, the British Ministry of Defence sold the disused Brompton Road tube station to Firtash, who planned to convert the site into residential flats. the property remained undeveloped because (according to his lawyer) Firtash "could not travel from Vienna to London due to a U.S. extradition request."

On 18 June 2021 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against Firtash because allegedly his titanium business aided the " military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation."

On 4 August 2021 the previously Firtash-owned Zaporizhzhia Titanium-Magnesium Plant was returned to state ownership. The Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhia Oblast ruled that Firtash had not fulfilled its 2013 obligations to the State Property Fund of Ukraine to invest 110 million US dollars in the modernization of the plant.

At the end of May 2022 26 Ukrainian regional natural gas distribution companies, most of which were controlled by Firtash, were transferred to the management of a daughter company of Naftogaz. (Prior to this transfer) Firtash's regional distribution companies delivered 70% of natural gas to its customers in Ukraine.

Business development initiatives

Firtash unified the employers' organizations of Ukraine into a single powerful association, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU), which he presided over from November 2011 to September 2016. The FEU membership includes companies and enterprises collectively generating 70 percent of Ukraine's GDP. It represents employers' interests in the economic, social and labor relations with the government and trade unions at the national level.

In 2012, Firtash initiated the establishment of a venture investment fund, Bukovina, aimed at supporting small enterprises. It has become Ukraine's first investment fund offering preferential lending support to small businesses in all sectors of the economy.

In October 2013, Firtash was introduced into the state commission of cooperation with the World Trade Organization by the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.

Politics

In spring 2002, Firtash ran for parliament as a member of the all-Ukrainian political association Women for the Future, under the patronage of Lyudmila Kuchma, a wife of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The party won 2.11% of the vote, below the 3% threshold required for representation in the Ukrainian parliament. In 2010, Firtash was involved in financing Viktor Yanukovych's presidential campaign. Firtash stated that he sincerely believed that Yanukovych would learn from the events of 2003–2004 and adopt different policies. Since 2011, they have been at odds on questions of public policy. In 2011, Firtash said that Yushchenko had planned good reforms, but Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko had not allowed him to implement them.

In March 2014, on behalf of the business circles of Ukraine, Firtash addressed Aleksandr Shokhin, the Head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, and the wider business community concerning the situation in the political arena and urged Russian businessmen to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine.

On 3 April 2014, Firtash announced that he hoped the forthcoming presidential elections would overcome the chaos in Ukraine and strengthen the country on the international political scene. He said: "I will not allow for my reputation to be ruined by those who are driven by political motivations and are not interested in Ukraine and its people". On 11 April 2014, he urged big Ukrainian business to act according to the logic of "economic patriotism" and buy up goods in domestic companies.

A profile piece published about Firtash by the BBC on 30 April 2014, stated that because he acted as a go-between in the gas trade between Turkmenistan and Ukraine, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine prime minister at the time made hostile attempts to push Firtash and his firm out of Ukraine-Russia gas control negotiations in 2009.

In an interview given to the BBC in May 2014, Firtash protested his innocence, denied paying bribes and any links to organized crime. He reiterated his belief that he is a pawn in the geo-political struggle between the United States and Russia.

In September 2016, after serving as president of the FEU for five years, Firtash resigned the position of the FEU President.

While in Austria fighting extradition to the U.S., Firtash gave an interview to his own Inter TV channel in which he called for Ukrainian business to unite in support of the state to help it to overcome the economic crises. He also promised to provide funds to support the Ukrainian army. In April, Ostchem enterprises, part of Firtash's group of companies, began supporting Ukraine's military forces.

Charity

As of 2014 Firtash was one of Ukraine's largest philanthropists per Top-Ukraine.com, providing systemic support to education, theaters, museums, historical, cultural and humanitarian projects and as of 2011, to science,

In 2008, the University of Cambridge in the UK established a Cambridge Ukrainian Studies program with his financial support. In 2012, another charity initiative by Firtash enabled the establishment of Cambridge–Ukraine studentships, that made it possible for eligible students from Ukraine to seek a master's degree at the University of Cambridge. As of 2014, Firtash has been a member of the Guild of Cambridge Benefactors, which recognizes major benefactors of over £1 million to the University and Cambridge Colleges. After Firtash's arrest, human rights organizations criticized the university for accepting the funds.

In 2014, Firtash financed the construction of the Ukrainian Catholic University campus in the city of Lviv.

In 2011, Firtash made a sizable contribution to construction of the Holy Trinity Cathedral at the Holy Ascension Monastery in the village of Bancheny, Chernivtsi region. His support was recognized by Patriarch Kirill of Moscow who awarded Firtash with the Order of Venerable Serafim of Sarov, 2nd Degree.

Controversy

As of 2011, Firtash has been a controversial figure in Ukraine.

In April 2005, Oleksandr Turchynov, the head of Ukraine's Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), explained to the ''Financial Times'' that Semion Mogilevich was associated with RosUkrEnergo after SBU had collected a 20 volume file on Mogilevich over a twelve-year period. In 2006, an ally of Tymoshenko stated in the Rada that Firtash's Swiss-registered RosUkrEnergo, which has been the dominant natural gas supplier to Ukraine since 2003, replacing the Hungarian-registered Eural Trans Gas, which replaced Itera beginning in late 2002, had Semion Mogilevich as a silent partner. In an April 2006 ''Financial Times'' interview, Firtash explained relationships with various holding companies after Firtash's bank Raiffeisen hired Kroll, Inc. to investigate connections to Mogilevich. According to documents uncovered in 2010 during the United States diplomatic cables leak, Firtash in 2008 had told U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor of needing permission from alleged Russian crime boss Semion Mogilevich to do business in Ukraine during the lawless 1990s. The same documents suggest that Firtash also claimed to be friends with President Viktor Yushchenko. Firtash denied the remarks. Allegedly, Gazprom, a Russian natural-gas extraction company, had asked Mogilevich to oversee natural-gas deliveries from Russia to Ukraine via gas intermediary RosUkrEnergo. All parties deny connections with Mogilevich. Other cables said Firtash and Mogilevich were linked through offshore companies either by joint ownership through former spouses or through Firtash-headed companies in which Mogilevich's former spouse was the shareholder. As of 2010, it was also suspected that Raiffeisen Bank International, an Austrian-based bank, was a front to legitimize RosUkrEnergo.

On 15 June 2005 after the Security Service of Ukraine started an investigation by Oleksander Turchynov in May 2005, Tymoshenko charged that Firtash and his Nicosia, Cyprus based Highrock Holdings had been central to over $1 billion stolen from Ukraine through his Turkmenistan gas scheme involving both Eural Trans Gas and RosUkrEnergo. On 8 September 2005, Yushchenko dismissed Tymoshenko and subsequently, on 23 September 2005, the SBU investigation into the missing money was halted by direct order of Yushchenko according to Turchynov.

On 16 June 2009, Yulia Tymoshenko accused the other candidates in the 2010 Ukrainian presidential election – Viktor Yushchenko, Arseniy Yatseniuk and Viktor Yanukovych – of sharing a single campaign headquarters financed by Firtash. She accused Firtash, who is a key contributor to Yanukovych, of fraudulently using New York real estate through which to launder money from Ukraine through the United States and then back to Ukraine to support various corrupt political activities and politicians. On 26 April 2011, Tymoshenko sued Firtash and RosUkrEnergo in a U.S. District Court in Manhattan, accusing them of manipulating an arbitration court ruling in Stockholm – the ruling had ordered Ukraine's state energy company, Naftogaz, to pay RosUkrEnergo 11 billion cubic meters of natural gas to compensate for fuel it had "expropriated" plus 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas as a penalty. She claimed in court that Firtash had money laundered revenues from gas to support pro-Kremlin and pro-Putin candidates and officials in Ukraine associated with Yanukovych's political party. Both Firtash and RosUkrEnergo officials denied the allegations and a U.S. judge dismissed the lawsuits in September 2015.

As of 2011, Firtash and influential multi-time Minister Yuriy Boiko were alleged to be "close associates".

As of 2012, analysts and Ukrainian politicians believed that Firtash was a secret force behind the sentencing of Yulia Tymoshenko in 2011, either for revenge or to hinder Ukraine's European Union integration for personal financial gain. Firtash was accused in a New York court of "masterminding" Tymoshenko's imprisonment; the case was dismissed in March 2013.

In the 2012 Ukrainian parliamentary election, Firtash was perceived as being one of Ukrainian Democratic Alliance for Reform