[For urgent updates please follow Ukrainian Freedom News on Telegram]
The mouthpiece of Russian propaganda, against which his own state has imposed sanctions, is still «feeding» in the Lviv region. Taras Kozak, unlike his friend and colleague Viktor Medvedchuk, managed to escape from Ukraine in time. On April 7, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv arrested Taras Kozak in absentia. The court chose a measure of restraint in the form of detention without the possibility of bail. The former people’s deputy is accused of treason, and he is on the international wanted list. Part of his business is still working, and the property remains in the family, although some had to be rewritten «for third people». Today, the State Bureau of Investigation searches approximately 30 of its properties. In particular, in a house near Lviv. Lviv Now found out what businesses of the sanctioned people’s deputy from OPZZh pro-Russian party and the propagandist of Russia still work. Which of this property belongs to his family and whether it is possible to confiscate it in favor of the state.
After the arrest of Putin’s ‘kum’ and Ukrainian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk, interest in his closest associates has sharply increased. Last year, Ukraine imposed personal sanctions on Taras Kozak, Medvedchuk’s close partner. Due to a favorable friendship in the mid-90’s he managed to grow from an employee of the state farm «Lviv» to an influential businessman and media mogul. Since he came under sanctions, his media has been hit hardest. Other businesses remained, including companies run by the Kozak family. The mother, father and brother of the sanctioned people’s deputy work without problems in Lviv and other cities of Ukraine.
Briefly about the Kozak
Taras Kozak was born in April 1972 in the village of Sokilnyky, near Lviv. After graduating from school, he worked on a state farm, and later entered the Agricultural Institute. In 1993 he got into the Lviv tax office. At first, he worked as an auditor-inspector, later graduated from the Faculty of Law of Lviv University by correspondence. After a rapid ten-year tax career, he became a deputy head. In 2003, Kozak became the head of the Western Regional Customs.
In the early 2000s, Lviv region was a zone of influence of the Medvedchuks. Politicians close to Serhii Medvedchuk, Viktor Medvedchuk’s younger brother, who was then the head of Leonid Kuchma’s administration, ruled here. They united under the Social Democrate Party of Ukraine (o) brand. Serhii Medvedchuk led it informally. He worked closely with the then head of the region Mykhailo Hladiy, and joined the Agrarian Party of Ukraine, headed by Mykhailo.
Serhii Medvedchuk, a graduate of the Kyiv University of Physical Culture, became the head of the Lviv Tax Inspectorate in 1997 and the head of the State Tax Administration in the Lviv Region within a year. There he had such an influence that he was called the shadow governor of the region.
Taras Kozak was his first deputy during Serhii Medvedchuk’s presidency in the Lviv Regional State Tax Administration. Later, Lviv Customs came under his control. At the same time, he held the position of Deputy Head of the State Customs. He resigned after the Orange Revolution in 2005, but was reinstated in 2007 under Viktor Yanukovych.
In 2005, Taras Kozak became involved in several scandals. A large-scale search was conducted at a hotel complex in Navarre that belonged to his family. His name also appears in the case of the murder of the former head of the Lviv Regional State Administration Stepan Senchuk, ZN.UA reports. Investigators linked it to the «struggle» for the enterprise «Lvivsilmash.»
In 2010, Taras Kozak became a deputy of the Lviv regional council, and in 2014 – a People’s Deputy from the «Opposition Bloc». In 2019, he sat in parliament, representing the OPZZh. In 2016, he participated in the scheme of selling anthracite from the occupied Donbass under the guise of coal from South Africa.
He was one of the initiators of the draft law on amendments to Article 1 of the Law of Ukraine «On the special order of local self-government in certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions.»
However, in general, his parliamentary activity was quite inconspicuous until 2018. Then he started buying Ukrainian TV channels: NewsOne, 112 Ukraine and ZIK. So he created the media holding «News», which became the main mouthpiece of Russian propaganda.
In 2019, Taras Kozak got into a scandal over the Russian business of his civilian wife. Investigators from Radio Liberty’s Schemes program have found that Natalia Lavrenyuk has a joint oil business in Russia with Oksana Marchenko and Viktor Medvedchuk. However, Taras Kozak in his declarations did not mention the income of the civilian wife, even her existence.
Taras Kozak became «famous» last year when he became the first Ukrainian politician against whom Ukraine imposed sanctions. The SBU accused him of financing terrorism. Recently, Bellingcat CEO Hristo Grozev said that Taras Kozak is a Russian agent.
Sanctions
The first personal sanctions against MP Taras Kozak and some of his companies, which owned licenses for 112 Ukraine, NewsOne and ZIK, were introduced by presidential decree on February 2 last year. After that, on May 11 of the same year, Taras Kozak was informed in absentia of suspicion of treason and attempted looting of national resources in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and was soon put on the wanted list. Journalists claim that Taras Kozak left Ukraine on February 24, 2021. And on January 20 this year, he was also sanctioned by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) for cooperating with FSB agents, including spreading Russian disinformation on television.
Millions of fortunes passed to the family?
From 1993 to 2010, Taras Kozak was in the civil service, in the tax and customs authorities, so he could not personally be the founder of the business at this time, it was dangerous. Even after his dismissal from the civil service, he very rarely appeared in the registers as the founder or ultimate beneficiary of Ukrainian companies. The situation began to change in 2014, especially when he began to assemble his own pool of news channels.
From 2013 to 2016 he was a co-founder of «Ukrsvis Legal Services» LLC (currently in a state of suspension). In addition, in 2012-2014 he stated that he is the chairman of the board of Private Chancellor, founded by Lviv residents: lawyer Mykita Poz and Yan Marchenko, Taras Kozak’s assistant in the Verkhovna Rada in 2014-2019.
According to the analytical system YouControl, Taras Kozak is still the ultimate beneficiary of six Ukrainian companies and the founder of eleven more ones. Some of them are registered in Lviv, most in Kyiv. And all these seventeen companies, which are now under the sanctions of the National Security and Defense Council, worked in the media sphere, and provided broadcasting of the blocked February 2021 channels «112 Ukraine», ZIK and Newsone. Therefore, they can not be considered as real business. Another «Dobrobut-Invest» LLC with a site in Crimea is still registered with the Cypriot company «Hakail Limited», which Kozak recognized as his in one of the declarations. As for other offshore companies, which he called his own or which were found by investigative journalists, no business was registered in Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Taras Kozak’s mother, Sofia Kozak, is running a successful business in Lviv. In addition to operating as a sole proprietorship, she has a share – 90% in the capital of LLC «Zustrich» («Meeting»). It is about the cafe «Zustrich» on the street Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, 83 in Lviv, opposite the Pidzamche railway station. The remaining 10% is recorded for her husband Roman Kozak, Taras’ father.
Sofia Kozak also has 75% in the capital of «Ozero» LLC. This is a hotel and recreation complex «Navariya Nova», registered in the village of Navariya near Lviv. Another 25% of this business belongs to Taras Kozak’s brother, Bohdan. Three plots in Navariya and three more plots in Sambir district are registered at «Ozero» LLC.
Bohdan Kozak, Taras Kozak’s brother, is engaged in construction, agricultural business, production of building materials both with partners and independently. From 2002 to 2006 he was an assistant on a voluntary basis of the Lviv People’s Deputy from the SDPU(o), Ihor Shurma. In 2019, he made a contribution to the election fund of the OPZZh for 1.6 million UAH, however, this amount was later returned to him.
In addition, Bohdan Kozak is the founder of «Atlantbud-Vsesvit Construction Company» LLC, the same company has a 72.38% share in the capital of «Transmonolitavto» LLC (the rest belongs to Bohdan Kozak personally). «Transmonolitavto» has a plot of land in the nearby village of Davydiv, as well as a whole fleet of trucks and construction vehicles (dump trucks, semi-trailers, concrete mixers).
In addition, Bohdan Kozak has a share of 66.7% in the capital of Kyiv’s «Exponent» LLC (the rest belongs to Viktor Medvedchuk’s brother Serhii Medvedchuk). Through «Exponent» LLC, Bohdan Kozak and Serhii Medvedchuk control «Kerambud» LLC, a manufacturer of ceramic bricks in Halychany near Horodok, and «Betonbud» LLC, a manufacturer of concrete mortars in Lviv with a separate fleet of concrete mixers.
According to the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, «Kerambud» LLC has a special subsoil use permit for clay mining – for its own production – near the village of Halychany. Kerambud LLC also has a subsidiary, «Aeneas», which produces clay at the same field near the village of Tuchany. At the same time, Kerambud LLC also produces sand at the Velykopilske (Stradchivske) deposit in the Yavoriv district for the production of bricks and concrete mortars. The situation with the special permit for sand mining in this field is unclear. Back in February 2008, the Prosecutor General’s Office in the cassation instance obtained the recognition of this permit as invalid by a decision of the Supreme Administrative Court, and there were no other decisions in the case. This was mentioned, in particular, by the IBO «Ecology-Law-Human» in an appeal to the profile commission of the Lviv Regional Council in 2020. However, the State Service of Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine for unclear reasons, at least until recently, indicated in its resources that this permit is valid.
The same LLC «Kerambud» is the founder of LLC «Capital Plaza», which leases a plot of communal property on the street Horodotska, 290 (on the way out of the city) and another nearby, just outside Lviv, in Zymna Voda. Capital Plaza LLC has registered a dovhobud [a long-term construction] on this land.
Bohdan Kozak is also involved in housing construction in Lviv: he is the founder of «Magnat-RR» LLC, which includes a 3.84-hectare plot on the street Horodotska, 367/2. This company was previously listed among the founders of Budimex Project LLC. This company leases a plot of land that is in communal ownership, on the street. A. Lincolna, 6A in Lviv, where the residential complex «Lincoln» was built. Bohdan Kozak’s partner in this project was Serhii Naprasnikov from Donetsk.
Bohdan Kozak also owns «Zelenyi Bir» LLC, which has a plot of land with an area of more than 5 hectares on the street Likarska in Bryukhovychi. No construction has been carried out on this site so far, this is the territory of the former Sosnovyi Bir prevention center. In March last year, this plot was put up for sale, but no one bought it.
Bohdan Kozak also has a 26% stake in PSP Oscar, where his partner is the businessman Vyacheslav Cherepanya. Vyacheslav Cherepanya once ran for the Verkhovna Rada from the SDPU (o), and was an assistant on a voluntary basis to People’s Deputy Nestor Shufrych.
PSP «Oscar» is a large agricultural company with a large fleet and land bank, consisting of plots mainly in Ivano-Frankivsk and Ternopil regions. Through it, Kozak, Cherepanya and Oksana Marchenko, Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife, control a number of other agricultural companies, also with a land bank, mostly in the same regions.
Bohdan Kozak is also affiliated with «Harmony Investment Company» LLC, which is under sanctions, and its founder is Oksana Marchenko, Viktor Medvedchuk’s wife.
Bohdan Kozak has another share 20% in «MBK Agrotechnika» LLC in Ivano-Frankivsk region together with Cherepanya and Marchenko (through Harmony Investment Company) and Kyiv residents Pavel Kostenko and Andrii Borshchevskyi. Bohdan Kozak is also credited with the «Dniester» farm in Mykolayiv, Lviv region.
Bohdan Kozak has 50% of the capital of «Halytske Perekhrestya» LLC, which leases communally owned plots in Lviv to house the market of the same name.
Natalia Lavrenyuk, Taras Kozak’s actual wife, has also been under NSDC sanctions since February last year. In Ukraine, it owns Lviv’s PE «Lilia», which currently does not carry out any activities, and 10 more plots of land around Kyiv, in Obukhiv and Vyshhorod districts.
Journalists and analysts from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project believe that Taras Kozak also has a fictitious person, to whom part of his business in Russia and Ukraine is registered through offshore companies. It is about Oleksandr Kysil (now a citizen of Hungary), a former citizen of Ukraine who lived in Kyiv. Kysil (or Kissel) is listed in the Ukrainian USR as the ultimate beneficiary of the Cypriot Pilawer Limited. This company has a 50% stake in Kyiv’s Academ-Club LLC, which leases two communally owned plots in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv with an area of 40.24 hectares for complex construction and improvement of the territory with resettlement of residents, arrangement of water supply landscape zone and park for public needs «. We will add that the signatory in «Academic club» is Yan Marchenko, the former assistant of Taras Kozak.
Pilawer Limited also has a 50% stake in Kyiv’s Osokorky-7 LLC (the rest belongs to Kyiv entrepreneurs Oleksandr Konstantinovsky and Valery Mishchenko). Osokorky-7 LLC is the founder of PE Firm Victoria, which leases 4.5 hectares of communal land in the Darnytskyi district of Kyiv «for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a social and public shopping and entertainment center with parking.» In addition, this company is also the founder of PE «Orest», which leases 3.96 hectares of communal land, also in Darnytskyi district of Kyiv, for the construction, operation, and maintenance of recreation areas (entertainment complex, cafe-bar-restaurant, tennis courts, landscaped area)».
Of course, these are not all companies registered to Taras Kozak and people close to him in Ukraine. We do not mention them because there are no indications that they are operating or have significant assets. It should be added that Taras Kozak’s adult children do not have any business.
Can the property of a person accused of treason be confiscated?
On April 7, Kyiv’s Pechersk District Court arrested Taras Kozak, who had been on the international wanted list, in absentia. The court chose a measure of restraint in the form of detention without bail.
However, lawyers explain that property related to Taras Kozak and his family is extremely difficult to confiscate in favor of the state, primarily because it has several owners, and these businesses are not directly related to him.
Lawyer Oleh Mytsyk says that only the property of the person where he is the titular owner can be confiscated, and in the case of a conviction if the property has been seized and its owner has not changed.
«If the property has been seized and its owner has not been changed so far, then in case the owner is convicted of treason, the property can be confiscated, unless there are people who claim their rights to this property. It can be a wife. There may be some more mortgages, and other combinations. He will save his property. Let’s remember 2014. How much property of Azarov and Yanukovych could be returned to the state?» – Oleh Mytsyk explains.
Only an active boycott of the Kozak family business and pressure on their business partners can be effective in this case.
Earlier, the Security Service of Ukraine conducted a special operation to detain a People’s Deputy from the banned Opposition Platform for Life party and Putin’s ‘kum’ Viktor Medvedchuk. The President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi offered to exchange him for Ukrainians who were taken prisoner by the Russians.
By Dmytro Borysov and Victoria Savitska, translated by Kateryna Bortniak
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Lviv Now is an English-language website for Lviv, Ukraine’s «tech-friendly cultural hub.» It is produced by Tvoe Misto («Your City») media-hub, which also hosts regular problem-solving public forums to benefit the city and its people.