Maksym Kozytskyi

Maksym Kozytskyi

Is an entrepreneur, politician, Head of Lviv Regional Military Administration, and a person involved in numerous corruption scandals.

Biography

Maksym Kozytskyi was born in 1981 in Lviv.
He graduated from Mykolaiv Secondary School No. 1 in Lviv oblast.
At Danylo Halytskyi Lviv National Medical University, he studied to become a surgeon and was an intern in surgery. He received a Master of Medicine degree in General Medicine. He received his second higher education by correspondence at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy as a Master of Organization Management and at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv as a specialist in accounting and auditing.
He worked as a deputy director of Ukrmedresurs LLC and as a methodologist at Lviv Regional Health Center.
Since September 2007, he served as a member of the Supervisory Board of Ukrnaftohazinvest LLC, and later as Deputy General Director for General Affairs.
Since December 2009, Maksym Kozytskyi worked as CEO and Deputy CEO of Prykarpattya Energy Company LLC.
From October 2016 to January 2020, he held the position of Director of Eko-Optima LLC.

Political activity

He ran for Lviv Regional Council from the Samopomich party, but was not elected to the regional council.

According to media reports, in 2019, he became a candidate for the head of Lviv Regional State Administration. On February 5, 2020, he was appointed Head of Lviv Regional Administration. He also heads the regional organization of the Servant of the People party. He was number one on the list of the Servant of the People party in the elections to Lviv Regional Council.

Scandals and allegations of corruption

Conflict of interest: companies of the Kozytskyi family won tenders worth UAH 7.5 billion

The Kozytsky family owns companies in renewable energy and oil and gas sectors, which are united in the Zakhidnadraservis group. According to the Chesno portal, after the Kozitskyi family became a sponsor of the Servant of the People party and after Kozitskyi was elected Head of the local branch of the Servant of the People party, the number of winning tenders by the family's companies increased dramatically. In total, oil and gas companies of the Kozytskyi family won tenders worth UAH 7.5 billion, with the state-owned Ukrnafta and Ukrhazvydobuvannia being the largest clients.

Finport Technologies Inc., whose beneficiary is Zynovii Kozytskyi, has been the main contractor of the Prosecutor's Office since 2019 for development and technical support of the websites of the Prosecutor General's Office, regional Prosecutor's offices, and the Unified State Register of NACP declarations. Since 2019, Finport Technologies Inc. has provided services to government agencies worth more than UAH 60 million. The High Anti-Corruption Court ordered the NABU to launch a pre-trial investigation of Finport Technologies Inc. In particular, the NABU should check for possible conflict of interest in connection with maintenance of Prosecutor's offices websites by the companies of Maksym Kozytskyi’s father.

Cooperation with Karel Komarek, a long-term partner of Gazprom

Czech billionaire Karel Komarek and Maksym Kozytskyi's father Zynovii Kozytskyi are partners in three Ukrainian companies: Horyzonty LLC, PEK LLC, and GBL LLC. In 2018, the SBU accused Horyzonty LLC of financing terrorism in the so-called DPR and LPR. But despite this fact, the Kozitskyi family has continued to work with Karel Komarek, a longtime partner of Gazprom, since 2014 and to this day.

In 2013, Komarek's company MND and the Russian Gazprom began cooperation. At that time, a joint venture Moravia Gas Storage a.s. (MSG) was established, in which Gazprom owned 50+% of the shares, and Karel Komarek's Czech MND owned a smaller share. The board of directors of Moravia Gas Storage a.s. included Gazprom's deputy head Oleksandr Medvediev and other Russian Gazprom managers, many of whom were identified by Russian opposition media as former or current employees of Russian special services. According to the British Guardian, Karel Komarek's business was financed by Russian state-owned banks VTB and Sberbank.

Also in 2011, Karel Komarek became the owner of the Samara oil terminal in Russia (the city of Oktiabrsk). In 2018, the SBU and the State Financial Monitoring Service recommended that the State Service of Geology and Mineral Resources not allow Komarek's Horyzonty company to obtain special mining permits because the company may be involved in the supply of oil products to the territory of the DPR and LPR. Although the Czech billionaire's official statement to MND says that the terminal was sold in 2022, journalists' investigations indicate that Karel Komarek retained control over the Samara terminal at least until the end of 2023. Currently, the owner of the terminal is listed as a fictitious person, so it is likely that the Czech billionaire still owns the asset.

On August 21, 2024, Shevchenkivskyi Court of Kyiv ordered the SBU to initiate criminal proceedings regarding legality of the Kozytskyi family's cooperation with Karel Komarek, a possible conflict of interest and corruption.

Building a road to the father's hotel at the expense of the state budget

Maksym Kozytskyi personally approved construction of a UAH 25 million road in the village of Skhidnytsia to the hotel built by his father, Zynovii Kozytskyi. Part of this road was built at the expense of the budget, and the other part was built by a private company. The largest amount of money was allocated for this work of all the roads repaired at the expense of the budget in Lviv oblast. The NABU opened criminal investigation into conflict of interest and abuse of office by Maksym Kozytskyi.

Accusations of helping service evaders to travel abroad

According to media reports, the leadership of Lviv Regional Military Administration (RMA) helped pseudo-volunteers travel abroad through the Shliakh system. The RMA under the leadership of Maksym Kozytskyi issued more than 32,000 permits for members of 1,800 organizations to travel through the Shliakh system. Journalists also accuse the head of Lviv RMA of refusing to provide lists of people who were allowed to travel abroad by the administration for a long time.

Cooperation with the key partner Rosneft through the Ukrainian Association

In February 2024, the NACP recognized Weatherford International as an international war sponsor. In 2022 alone, Weatherford paid more than $15 million in taxes to the Russian budget. The company is also a key contractor of Russia's largest oil company, Rosneft. Weatherford International, according to the registers, is one of the co-founders of the Oil and Gas of Ukraine Association. Until 2021, the beneficiary of the Oil and Gas of Ukraine Association was Maksym Kozytskyi, Head of Lviv Regional State Administration and now it is his father Zynovii Kozytskyi. It is likely that cooperation between the sanctioned company and the Kozytsky family continues within the framework of the Association.

Offshore business of the Kozytskyi family

In early November 2024, Hennadii Sikalov, former Head of Poltavaneftehazheolohiia and Head of the Last Bastion public union, published reports of Cypriot offshore companies through which the Kozytskyi family's green energy business operates. The documents show that the companies of the family of the head of Lviv RMA evade taxes for hundreds of millions of hryvnias and are lent by state-owned banks. The guarantor of the loans is, among others, Maksym Kozytskyi, who holds the position of Head of Lviv Regional Military Administration. For example, the report indicates that Maksym Kozytskyi is a related party of an offshore company. The declaration of the Head of Lviv Regional Military Administration does not mention any affiliation with Cypriot companies or any debt to him. Although this is indicated in the published reports of Cypriot offshore companies.

Lending to the Kozytskyi’s family companies by state-owned banks

According to reports, the Kozytskyi family's energy business received loan financing from Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank. The assets and guarantees of the Kozytskyi family's Cyprus-based offshore companies, as well as personal guarantees of the Kozytskyi family, including the current head of Lviv RMA, Maksym Kozytskyi, were used as collateral and surety for loans worth tens of millions of euros. For example, the offshore company IVENA LIMITED acted as a guarantor for loans to other companies of the Kozytskyi family. In order to take out a EUR 42 million loan from Ukreximbank, IVENA LIMITED pledged shares in Orivska Wind Farm LLC and Sambir Solar Station LLC. For two more loans from Ukreximbank and Ukrgasbank, IVENA LIMITED acted as a guarantor for loans worth almost EUR 15 million.

Tax evasion schemes worth tens of millions of euros

Hennadii Sikalov, Head of the Last Bastion NGO, believes that the overall structure of the Kozytsky family's green business was deliberately designed to evade paying taxes to the budget. Through a scheme involving loans and internal borrowings, a significant portion of the profits of Ukrainian companies owned by the family of Lviv RMA Head Maksym Kozytskyi was transferred to Cypriot companies to be taxed at low offshore rates. According to the reports, the Kozytskyi family’s companies could have evaded taxes worth tens of millions of euros. In particular, the accounts of the Cyprus-based IVENA LIMITED received payments from Ukrainian companies (both green business and oil and gas). From the accounts of IVENA LIMITED, payments were transferred to the accounts of other Cypriot companies of the Kozytskyi family, and ‘loans’ were provided to Ukrainian companies, which, accordingly, also belong to this family. In this way, ‘excess’ income was withdrawn from the balance sheets of the companies from taxation, which was used to finance other Kozytskyi’s projects. In subsequent years, the companies allegedly repaid loans from their income to the Cyprus-based IVENA LIMITED, reducing the profits from which they had to pay taxes in Ukraine. According to reports, in 2020-2022, at least EUR 20 million ‘passed’ through IVENA LIMITED alone. This is the minimum approximate amount that the Kozytskyi family managed to evade from Ukrainian taxation for three years thanks to the work of one Cyprus offshore company.

Conflict of interest: Lviv RMA Head acted as a guarantor for a loan from state-owned banks

According to published reports, one of the guarantors of the EUR 5.1 million loan from IVENA LIMITED, which was provided by the state-owned Ukrgasbank, was the current Head of Lviv RMA, Maksym Kozytskyi. Hennadii Sikalov believes that an important argument in favour of obtaining the loan was the very fact that Maksym Kozytskyi was in office. Such actions contain signs of conflict of interest and corruption. According to the law, officials cannot be involved in asset management.

Maksym Kozytskyi failed to declare offshore business

In the reports of the Kozytsky family's Cyprus company DARVEST LIMITED, the section “Liabilities to Related Parties” contains information that the Cyprus company is a debtor of Maksym Kozytsky. Accordingly, the head of Lviv Regional Military Administration is a related party of DARVEST LIMITED, and the debt should be disclosed in Maksym Kozytskyi's declaration. However, Maksym Kozytskyi's declaration does not mention any affiliation with Cypriot companies, nor does it mention any debt owed by DARVEST LIMITED to him.

Links: