Burisma Holdings

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Burisma Holdings

logo
legal form Limited
founding 2002
Seat Limassol , Cyprus
management
  • Leonid Petuchow ( CEO )
  • Alan Apter (Chairman of the Board)
Branch Natural gas industry
Website www.burisma.com

Burisma Holdings is a group headquartered in Limassol , Cyprus , developing and exploiting Ukrainian natural gas reserves .

To the public, Burisma is represented by the consulting and PR company "Bell Pottinger Private" by Timothy Bell, Baron Bell based in London .

Gas and oil production

According to its own information, Burisma achieved a daily production of approx. 11,600 BOE or 1.8 million m³ at the end of 2013 . This corresponds to around nine percent of the current gas production in Ukraine.

Burisma holds a portfolio of exploration licenses for shale gas and oil fields in all three key Ukrainian regions : the western Ukrainian Carpathian Basin , the Dnieper and Donets Basin and the eastern Ukrainian Azov Basin of Kuban . The fields are in close proximity to the major gas pipelines in Ukraine and have been fully connected to them.

history

Burisma was founded in 2002 by the entrepreneur and later Ukrainian environment minister Mykola Slotschewskyj and Mykola Lissin ( Микола Павлович Лісін ; 1964-2011). The holding cooperated with state-owned companies to enter the gas business in Ukraine. Both founders were MPs for the Verkhovna Rada for the Party of Regions . The companies LLC Esco-Pivnich and LLC Pari acquired their first own exploration licenses in 2004; our own gas production started in 2005.

In 2006 the holding company Burisma Holdings was founded in Cyprus, which later acquired further investments. Burisma Holdings is owned by the Cypriot Brociti Investments Limited , which is controlled by Slotschewskyi.

From 2009 to 2013, the Group's production volume grew at a rapid pace.

Burisma's ownership was at times unclear. The General Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation into Burisma after Slachevskyi, when he was Minister of Natural Resources of Ukraine, was suspected of having exploited his ties to the state and granted his own companies exploration licenses. After the resignation of the Prosecutor General Viktor Schokin and the appointment of Yuriy Lutsenko as Prosecutor General, all proceedings against Burisma were closed.

At the beginning of the Ukraine crisis in 2013, Burisma stepped up lobbying in Washington. Two close associates were hired by US Secretary of State John Kerry to lobby for Burisma. In 2013, Burisma Holdings started a major management restructuring, which is intended to usher in a "new growth period". In the course of this, the US investment banker Alan Apter was hired as chairman of the board with the task of improving the company's corporate governance and attracting foreign capital. Apter has extensive professional experience from activities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

On May 12, 2014, Burisma announced that an additional seat had been created for Hunter Biden , the son of US Vice President Joe Biden , on the Board of Directors .

In connection with the Maidan revolution, welcomed by the USA and the EU, and the war with Russia from 2014 ( crisis in Ukraine 2014 ), this sparked international media coverage and sparked allegations of entanglement of interests, corruption and nepotism . Vice President Biden said there was no conflict of interest and that he did not endorse any particular company in the country. White House press secretary Jay Carney , under the presidency of Barack Obama , declined to comment on the grounds that "Hunter Biden and other members of the family are obviously private citizens." Attention also turned to ex-Polish President Aleksander Kwaśniewski , Devon Archer, former campaign manager of then US Secretary of State John Kerry, and David J. Leiter, former Senate Chief of Staff to John Kerry. Kwaśniewski and Archer had also recently joined Burisma's board of directors (Kwaśniewski in January 2014, Archer in April 2014). In February 2016, Joseph Cofer Black, director of the CIA Counterterrorist Center (CTC) in the George W. Bush administration from 1999 to 2002, joined the Burisma board of directors. According to media reports, Burisma paid a total of $ 3.4 million USD to Rosemont Seneca Bohai LLC in 2014 and 2015, which Hunter Biden paid up to USD 50,000 per month. Hunter Biden was with Christopher Heinz, the stepson of John Kerry, co-owner of Rosemont Seneca Partners, and Archer was also a partner there. Heinz subsequently distanced himself from Rosemont Seneca Partners and, as he explained to The Washington Examiner , had no longer had a stake in this company since 2015. Biden stepped down from Burisma's board of directors in 2019 before his father ran for the U.S. presidency.

On June 2, 2016, Burisma and Prince Albert II of Monaco organized the “International Forum on Energy Security in Europe” at the Monte Carlo Yacht Club. The event included: Aleksander Kwaśniewski (President of Poland 1995–2005), Joschka Fischer (Vice Chancellor of Germany 1998–2005) and Andris Piebalgs (EU Energy Commissioner 2004–2009), TJ Glauthier (US Vice Minister for Energy 1999 –2001, President of TJG Energy Associates), Hunter Biden (Independent Director of Burisma), Ireneusz Bil (Director of the Aleksander Kwasniewski Foundation "Amicus Europae"), Jean-Arnold Vinois (Representative of the European Commission for Energy Policy).

In early 2018, former US Vice President Biden announced in an interview with " Voice of America " that the resignation of Attorney General Schokin was a condition for loan guarantees to Ukraine amounting to one billion dollars. During a panel discussion of the Council on Foreign Relations , Biden told how he got the then President Poroshenko and the then Prime Minister Yatsenyuk to fire the Prosecutor General Shokin. Biden gave Poroshenko and Yatsenyuk an ultimatum of only six hours, if Prosecutor General Schokin wasn't fired in that time, they would not get a billion dollars: "... son, he was fired. And they put someone in his place who was solid at the time . "

In September 2019, a whistleblower announced that US President Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelenskyi on July 25, 2019 to initiate an investigation into Biden, which led to the " Ukraine Affair ". Trump accused Biden of pressuring the Ukrainian leadership and obtaining the resignation of the attorney general who was investigating Burisma.

In October 2019, the Ukrainian judiciary announced that it would start investigations into suspected corruption in connection with Burisma. It is about business in which Slotschewsky and the Ukrainian businessman Sergei Kurchenko, among others, could be involved, but it is not about Biden.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Board of Directors ( Memento of 14 May 2014 Internet Archive ) on burisma.com, accessed on May 15, 2014
  2. ↑ Contact details on the company website ( Memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / burisma.com
  3. ↑ Who is behind "Burisma"? , Deutsche Welle , May 16, 2014, accessed on May 17, 2014
  4. ↑ a b Hunter Biden joins the team of Burisma Holdings ( July 8, 2014 memento on the Internet Archive ) on burisma.com, May 12, 2014, accessed May 16, 2014.
  5. ↑ Ukraine wants to change its energy supply ( memento of the original from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Germany Trade & Invest, May 9, 2014, accessed on May 16, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gtai.de
  6. ↑ Our Business ( Memento of May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on burisma.com, accessed on May 16, 2014.
  7. ↑ Cathrin Kahlweit: Son of US Vice President Biden joins Ukrainian gas company , sueddeutsche.de, May 15, 2014.
  8. ↑ Jens Berger: The winners of the Ukraine crisis (Part II) , NachDenkSeiten , accessdate: October 31, 2016
  9. ^ A b History of our Group ( Memento from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), burisma.com, accessed on May 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Компания Burisma Holdings Limited подбила итоги работы (Russian), ru.tsn.ua, March 24, 2013, accessed May 16, 2014.
  11. ↑ a b c Michael Scherer: Ukrainian Employer of Joe Biden's Son Hires a DC Lobbyist , July 7, 2014
  12. ^ Deutsche Welle (www.dw.com): Who is behind "Burisma"? | DW | 05/16/2014. Retrieved on September 21, 2019 (German).
  13. ↑ Markus Ackeret: The Biden family's opaque Ukraine connection | NZZ . September 21, 2019, ISSN  0376-6829 ( nzz.ch [accessed on September 21, 2019]).
  14. ↑ https://www.dw.com/de/wie-die-ukraine-in-einen-streit-mit-den-usa-verwickelt-wird-und-was-das-mit-joe-biden-zu-tun -hat / a-48749898
  15. ↑ Prosecutors put Zlochevsky, multimillionaire ex-ecology minister, on wanted list
  16. ↑ Activists cry foul as courts, prosecutors clear Zlochevsky
  17. ↑ Yanukovych's ex-ecology minister regains luxurious properties, Rolls Royce after court ruling
  18. ↑ Burisma Holdings announces strategic appointments herald new phase of growth ( Memento from May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), www.oilvoice.com, October 21, 2013, May 17, 2014.
  19. ↑ a b Biden's Son, Kerry Family Friend Join Ukrainian Gas Producer's Board , wsj.com, May 13, 2014, accessed May 16, 2014.
  20. ↑ Mollie Hemingway: 9 Questions To Ask About Biden's Work With A Gas Company In Ukraine . In: The Federalist , May 13, 2014. Retrieved June 3, 2014.
  21. ↑ https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/09/world/europe/corruption-ukraine-joe-biden-son-hunter-biden-ties.html
  22. ↑ Son of US Vice President Biden hires at Ukrainian gas company , zeit.de, May 14, 2014, accessed on May 16, 2014.
  23. ↑ Gerhard Gnauck: Hunter Biden and Burisma: The role of an opaque company in world politics. In: FAZ. September 26, 2019, accessed September 27, 2019 .
  24. ↑ https://www.dw.com/de/wei%C3%9Fes-haus-nnahm-biden-in-schutz/a-17640019
  25. ↑ Biden's son enters the Ukrainian gas business , welt.de, May 15, 2015, accessed on May 16, 2014.
  26. ↑ US financier Devon Archer joins the Board of Directors of Burisma Holdings ( Memento of May 17, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), burisma.com, April 22, 2014, accessed May 16, 2014
  27. ↑ Toby Nwazor: Former CIA Director Joins Burisma, and It Is Good News. In: Huffingtonpost. February 22, 2017. Retrieved August 28, 2018 .
  28. ^ Alana Goodman: John Kerry's son cut business ties with Hunter Biden over Ukrainian oil deal. In: www.washingtonexaminer.com. September 27, 2019, accessed on September 28, 2019 .
  29. ^ Albert II Prince of Monaco and Burisma held the first International Forum on Energy Security in Europe. In: KyivPost. June 7, 2016, accessed October 31, 2016 .
  30. ↑ https://www.energy.gov/labcommission/contributors/tj-glauthier
  31. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20160328193228/http://warsawsecurityforum.org/people/ireneusz-bil/
  32. ↑ https://institutdelors.eu/tous-les-contributeurs/jean-arnold-vinois/
  33. ↑ How Ukraine's President Fooled Joe Biden
  34. ^ Foreign Affairs Issue Launch With Joe Biden , Council on Foreign Relations YouTube channel , January 23, 2018
  35. ↑ How Ukraine gets embroiled in a dispute in the US
  36. ↑ The judiciary examines business transactions with a connection to Biden-Sohn. In: www.zeit.de. October 4, 2019, accessed October 5, 2019 .

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