Interview with Mr.
Yuri Sidorenko, founder of the International Group TRUSTCOR and Chairman of the
EDAPS Consortium Advisory Council.
Bagnet has
announced your interview after the publication about crimes involving personal
information of Ukrainian citizens including yours. What is your take on this
situation? Could you say how the investigation of this crime has progressed?
Certainly. I can say that to date the investigation has practically
identified all persons involved in this crime. The mechanism of the crime has
been completely revealed. The chief government officials of
Please, explain.
When the EDAPS Consortium began cooperating with INTERPOL we were amazed
that INTERPOL database lists 75 thousand stolen Ukrainian old type travel
passports with a pasted in photo. This figure just shocked us. It instantly
showed that fraud that was at the heart of the actions taken by the persons who
fought and are still fighting with the EDAPS Consortium. I will name them a
little later. As soon as Mr. Yekhanurov became Prime-Ministerhe signed a
Resolution No 398-r (of September 14, 2005, see photo of the document –Editor)by which he demanded
immediate manufacture of blanks of travel passports with pasted in photos and
their further transfer to the Embassy of Ukraine in Moldova. I don’t know if
Mr. Yekhanurov knew exactly what he was signing but those involved in this
resolution deliberately tried to bring those passports out of legal document
circulation. Among them were Mr. Nikolai Maymeskul (official of the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs); Mr. Sergei Silkin (former member of the Cabinet of Ministers
of Ukraine, member of the Parliament administration at the moment the crime was
committed), who prepared the resolution; Mr. Sergei Kiyanichenko (former
director of the State Enterprise Print Works UKRAINA and a “social activist”
who managed to be part of all leading political parties of Ukraine) who
followed up all these processes.
Please, specify why supplying
the Embassy of
According to
Yekhanurov’s resolution 50 thousand old passport blanks were shipped to the
Ukrainian Embassy. It was supposed that the documents would be issued to
Ukrainian citizens permanently residing in
What happens with
the so called “extra” passports? Afterwards, they are declaredlost and in fact they
disappear from databases of both the Ministries of Internal and Foreign
Affairs. The information concerning the loss of these passports is immediately
handed to INTERPOL. In the meantime, according to mass media anyone could buy
an old type Ukrainian travel passport in
Do you think this is the way how a person travelling
around the world and committing crimes under your name appeared?
I think, yes. It
doesn’t matter where this person could get a fake passport. What really matters
is that Ukrainian officials intentionally or unintentionally allowed the sale
of passport documents. Further on, some criminal received my personal data with
documents. The information was precisely copied: place of birth, name and
patronymic, surname, month of birth. The only difference is the year of birth:
mine is 1961 and the criminal’s (buying the passport with my name) was 1969. As
you can see the first three digits “
Do you believe your personal information was stolen
with far-reaching purposes?
Let’s compare
events with facts. Mr. Sergei Lyovochkin puts together a team involving an
incompetent scientist Kovalenko (director
of a controversial State
But there were attempts to forge excise stamps with
HSE before. The reports of the Ministry of Internal Affairs featured news on
withdrawal of counterfeited excise stamps.
The information
concerning the technology of the manufacture and protection of Ukrainian excise
stamps was declassified by Mr. Kiyanichenko when he occupied the position of
the director of Print Works UKRAINA. After this the underground business of
manufacturing counterfeited excise stamps was launched in
Today we can say
that these stamps were handed to Sobolev by Durdinets, even though he denies
this fact. Everyone in
You are talking about inadequate actions of those
officials and politicians who as a rule are considered opponents of Mrs.
Tymoshenko. We may suppose you defend Tymoshenko’s interests…
Not at all. Any
wise person analyzing the activity of the EDAPS Consortium will see that we are
always accused of something: of cooperating with Kuchma, Yanukovich,
Pustovoitenko, Kinah; again with Tymoshenko, and again with Yanukovich. This is
nonsense. We execute state orders. Very often the Consortium demonstrates
actions that are to the benefit of the state more so than does the officialdom.
And it absolutely does not matter who is in power. Ministers come and go. And
the Consortium stays and keeps on working for the benefit of the country. We
are constantly accused of being monopolists. But show us at least one
enterprise capable of manufacturing high quality security product as does the
EDAPS Consortium. There are none in
If you have so many inspections you might as well get
used to them. Why are you ganging up against Baloga, Lyovochkin and Sobolev?
I just could not
stand the cynicism of the campaign Baloga and Lyovochkin set out against the
Consortium… I am an experienced businessman; I have been doing business since
1989 when Lyovochkin was not yet dry behind his ears. I am fine with twists and
turns of business. Yet, what these “activists” did went beyond the lines of
arrogance and permissiveness. They put at stake not only individuals or some
separate business, but also the income producing programs for the whole
country! They did not simply try to destroy the Consortium. They wanted to
deplete contributions into the state budget undermining excise taxes on alcohol
and tobacco products by means of contraband. All this paralleled the financial
fraud of refinancing when the real scenario of Hryvnia devaluation was played
through the pumping of dubious credits in “Nadra Bank”.
There are lots of discussions around “Nadra Bank”. As
a banker, could you comment the situation?
Let’s look at this
fraud from the point of view of the common people. Let’s not use specialized
terms like “refinancing”, “stabilization loan”, “devaluation”, or “emission”,
but rather those which anyone could understand. All of a sudden the bank whose
ownership is not clear (it belongs either to Mr. Firtash or some people in
And how important!
All of sudden, it
receives around 8 billion UAH without any loans, I emphasize, not any loans!
The question is: What sort of business should this bank be involved in to take
an 8 billion UAH loan for a year with 15 % per annum and return this money in a
year. How does the bank guarantee the return of this money to the state?
Mortgage and loans, they explain. Where are these mortgages then? Where are
those citizens who took the mortgages and never returned them? Why aren’t there
any lawsuits against negligent loaners? It is all because everything was a lie.
There are even claims of people who were totally unaware of receiving a loan.
Alongside with transferring billions of Hryvnias of refinancing to “Nadra
Bank”, the Hryvnia exchange rates drop drastically. It is obvious! This is the
only way they could return the money.
You mentioned that many people who are among the
so-called debtors of “Nadra Bank” were unaware of the fact that they took
loans. What evidence do you have?
This testifies to
the theft of identification data of Ukrainian citizens. To fill in credit
agreements with a real person’s data, unknown to this person, you either have
to steal their passport, or get their information from some database.
What
is the way to solve this problem?
The way out is very simple. It has been
recognized globally. It is an automated system called a demographic register.
We need to continue developing international technologies. Another question is
why these technologies are hindered here? Why are Mr. Azarov and Mr.
Lavrinovich so against them? Why every time when we raise the question of the
establishment of the national demographic register for which Ukraine is ready
scientifically, technologically and industrially, there always are Azarov,
Lavrinovich or Lyapina and others who go for broke not to let the law on the
demographic register be adopted. The matter is that should this law appear in
So you think that the Consortium is opposed by some
individual officials and politicians as the initiator of the implementation of
state-of-the-art developments in the area of ID manufacture because these
developments ruin the plans of all corrupt officials?
Presently, the
Consortium has 300 international projects. The Consortium is recognized by the
most renowned organizations of the world, such as ICAO, OSCE, the European
Union, INTERPOL, etc. One of the famous world-class companies De Beers also
cooperates with the Consortium.
The Consortium
offers the best technologies in the world. And of course this doesn’t quite
settle with the above-mentioned Lyapina, Silkin, Azarov or Lavrinovich. This
doesn’t settle with Baloga who created a whole military complex called State
Security Service of Ukraine. With the help of the Prosecutor’s Office of
Zakarpatye Oblast and antiterrorist branches “Alpha” he utilized the State
Security Service to solve his personal problems. Who did he think he was? The
King?
Or does he think
that no one knows about his role in persecution of unwanted politicians,
manufacturers?
Speaking of “Alpha” do you mean the March seizure of
“Naftogaz of
Not only that. I
will give you another example which shows that these people have completely
lost their mind. In January 2009 at the invitation of the Chairman of the
Parliament and the government Mr. Ronald Noble, Secretary General of INTERPOL
arrived in
Do you think the
General Secretariat requested the names of the EDAPS Consortium leadership?
They did. Do you think they inspected the officials before the visit? They did.
Highly professional specialists of INTERPOL personally inspected all the
production facilities of the EDAPS Consortium. As a result of the visit
INTERPOL concluded a Memorandum to create the prototype e-passport for this
Organization.
However, Baloga,
Durdinets and Lyovochkin think that they are uncrowned kings of this country.
They don’t care about the image of
So, who are the
criminals then? Baloga thinks that he and Durdinets are the cleverest. No one
knows where he gets the money to fly his own airplane with his sidekicks and
spend time at expensive resorts. What has he done for
Many
politicians and businesspeople in
Because the
impudence, recklessness and cynicism of these people have exceeded all limits!
These are the people who don’t manufacture anything; they haven’t created any
jobs in
What is really
scary is that these people who are unable to manage plants and who can only
carve up contraband stimulate this very contraband with their own actions. Now
What is
contraband? It is not only missing contributions into the state budget. The
worst thing is that because of Chinese, Taiwanese or any other dubious
products, our plants, garment and textile factories, and small-size
manufactures of foodstuffs will stop. Ukrainians are likely to lose their jobs
and the country will turn into a big flea market.
But the country is going through crisis – no wonder
that contraband flourishes…
What crisis? I
said it in October last year and I will say it again: there is no crisis!
People keep working. Production goes on. We hear cries about the crisis every
day. And one and the same group of people is trying to impose their living
standards – Lyovochkin, Azarov. Which of them hasanexperience in
working in any real sector of the economy, Geologist Azarov or intriguer
Lyovochkin?
Mind you that
first Lyovochkin plays the role of a shadow chairman of the National Bank. Then
suddenly Azarov, as a member of the coalition, claimsforthe position
of the chairman of the National Bank of
How long shall we
keep silent about the machinations of these two and how long shall the people
suffer?! Today the whole country is talking about the nightmare which happened
during the talks between the Bloc of Yulia Tymoshenko and the Party of Regions.
If Yanukovich claims that he didn’t want to join the coalition then why will no
one say where it all started? Only Lyovochkin knew about this at
You mentioned Raisa Bogatyriova previously. What was
the specific role of the Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council
in this company?
Hardly had
Bogatyriova occupied the post when she phoned us and enquired what Jeep we
would buy her or what services we would cover. When suddenly the National
Security and Defense Council began to inspect the Consortium she says she has
nothing to do with it. But she has. Otherwise, who would instigate the
smugglers?
I am always at
peace with twists and turns of business. However, the interests of the nation
are at stake now. Bogatyriova shouldn’t be called Secretary of the National
Security and Defense Council but rather Secretary of a brigandish group of
terrorists-smugglers. And if she thinks that she can manipulate situations
using the personal data of individuals, and use this information on a national
level, then in my opinion, she should go to prison. It was she who signed the
resolution of the National Security and Defense Council which should be a
subject of the lawsuit.
What is the situation with inspections of the
Consortium by fiscal agencies? According to the resolution of the National
Security and Defense Council the Consortium was faced with some serious
accusations. Are the chief executives of the state involved in the process?
The Consortium
already has a special department for working with inspectors as we see them
almost every two days.
Note thattherepresentatives of all international organizations regularly visit the
Consortium to see Ukrainian security printing technologies. Ukrainian
officials, however, claim that they haven’t seen those technologies.
All those people I
mentioned before make sure that the President, the Prime Minister or anyone
else won’t come to the Consortium and wouldn’t see that
The same happened
during the presidency of Leonid Kuchma. The officials did their best for four
months to keep the President from visiting the production facilities of the
Consortium.
For four years the
officialdom takes pains making things up to keep President Yushchenko away from
the Consortium. The same situation is with Prime Minister Tymoshenko. The
Consortium and its specialists are threatened and attacked. The information is
constantly falsified.
And then the state
people begin to complain and ask when
Until the
automated demographic register is created in the country, until electronic
(biometric) documents are implemented and a clear-cut reliable documents
circulation system is established, no one will ever open the borders for
Ukrainians.
At the same time
the National Security and Defense Council takes very good care of a very
controversial enterprise, together with its director Kovalenko, who utters some
professional words which no one understands except for him. He shouts
everywhere that he will benefit the country and the Consortium means absolutely
nothing.
As far as the introduction of a clear-cut and reliable
documents circulation is concerned, everyone knows that in Ukraine a
centralized execution and manufacture of the new travel passport have been launched
based on the Consortium technologies. How did it facilitate bringing order to
the area of issue of travel passports?
This has changed
the situation drastically. To date, there are no counterfeited new travel
passports. Note, as soon as Mr. Maymeskul left the Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
it stopped fling applications for the issue of new passports. Did Ukrainian
residents abroad return home? Previously, when the old passports with a pasted
in photo were issued, the Ministry required around 100 thousand blanks of such
passports annually. Now it’s almost two years that they haven’t asked for
passports.
Moreover, the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs doesn’t introduce application centers for receiving
travel passports abroad(program-technical
centers with the help of which centralized manufacture and issue of travel
passports in the state information system is carried out –Editor). Where have all the people gone? What about 50 thousand
Ukrainian Moldavians annually demanding passports?
Some People’s Deputies,
namely Lyapina, keep on accusing the Consortium of robbing the country. Where
is robbery? For example, a person flying to the
Now let’s look
what is going on in the immigration policy. Quite a lot of immigrants have
arrived intohire Ukrainians when there are plenty of people prepared to work
for 1 US dollar instead of 100.
What should the state do to change the situation in
this area?
First of all it
should protect the interests of its citizens. Once the attempts have been made
to improve the situation in the immigration systems by means of introducing
corresponding IDs and automated databases, the government begins to complain
demanding cheap documents. It is obvious as it will be easier for the officials
to make money on cheap documents. It is easier to make a document and pay, say,
3 UA hryvnias and later sell it for 100 UA hryvnias. You don’t need plants to
make such documents. All you need is a printer where you print off the paper,
stamp it and the documents is ready.
This is what
happens when you need to obtain a police clearance. It is a really successful
business for officials. They sell this simple stamped piece of paper for 70 UA
hryvnias. Only in 2009 the company controlled by the interests of some Mr.
Shvachko received more than 25 million UA hryvnias having used
But the officials
of the National Security and Defense Council never talk about it. The business
involves people supported by Lyapina and Burzhinsky(Head of IT Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of
They consider the
EDAPS Consortium to be a criminal organization. The difference isthoughthat no one works with thosedenying
their guilt.The Consortium partners with the world elite. EDAPS is
represented in all global ratings; it is part of any professional top secret
laboratory related to personal identification issues. Until this problem is
solved at the governmental level, until there is the awareness of dignity and
worth, it is useless to discuss even the probability of any prosperity.
Those
who you have mentioned would probably wish to contradict your words.
I see no problem with that. I want to address
all the people I have mentioned. I am ready to have a discussion with Mr.
Bedrikivsky, Mrs. Bogatiryova, Mr. Baloga, Mr. Lyovochkin and Mr. Azarov in the
form of an open live link-up. I therefore ask Bagnet to pass my request to each
of those persons, particularly to Mr. Lyovochkin and Mrs. Bogatiryova.
FromBagnet
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