Mykola Lahun: The Ukrainian Oligarch’s Returns Schemes

The former owner of “Delta Bank” Mykola Lahun, may have re-registered companies to nominal owners, but he appears to have no intention of closing them.

Mykola Lahun, a former Ukrainian banker and ex-owner of one of Ukraine’s largest banks, “Delta Bank”, which went bankrupt in 2015, quite probably plans to return to active business.

Possibly for this purpose, he initiated his own bankruptcy procedure as an individual in Kyiv to write off a significant part of his debts to state banks and other creditors.

However, the entrepreneur does not plan to leave the business completely: at least half a dozen of his Cypriot companies have now been transferred to a close nominal holder. This will make it possible to activate them at any convenient moment and continue the operation of old schemes.

Offshore Master:

The former Ukrainian banker has been living in Vienna for a long time, where he is is reportedly hiding from Ukrainian justice.

In his homeland, he is accused of causing multi-billion losses to the National Bank, the state-owned Ukreximbank, Oschadbank, and the Deposit Guarantee Fund. Through one of the largest retail private banks at the time, “Delta Bank,”

Lahun and his associates funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars into controlled offshore jurisdictions—Cyprus, Belize, the British Virgin Islands, and others. Most of these episodes have been included in criminal cases in Ukraine.

However, a significant part of them has stalled midway. The reason is the overly complex schemes, which are not always easy to unravel.

Only recently, in October 2023, he was declared wanted in connection with the embezzlement of over $76 million through shell companies.

Before this, for nearly eight years after the bankruptcy of “Delta Bank,” Lahun could travel freely worldwide despite numerous property and asset seizures.

He took advantage of this in June 2022, relocating to Vienna. From there, he initiated his own bankruptcy procedure—a relatively new mechanism for Ukraine designed to help low-income citizens escape excessive debt.

Instead, the billionaire decided to emerge unscathed from a debt swamp worth hundreds of millions and looked likely start a new life in the European Union.

According to an investigation by “K2 Intelligence”, one of the leading detective agencies available to the editorial office, one example of the intricate schemes employed by Lahun involves the company Silisten Trading Limited, registered in the British Virgin Islands.

Investigators investigating the U.S. bankruptcy court claim that over $1 billion was Funneled through questionable transactions to more than 50 companies in Cyprus, Hong Kong, Panama, the Seychelles, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine.

Many of these companies had beneficiaries, directors, or accountants clearly linked to “Delta Bank”. For example, part of the funds was funnelled to a Ukrainian company with the telling name “Bonnie and Clyde.” At the same time, several borrowers also had outstanding debt obligations amounting to several hundred million dollars to Silisten Trading itself.

A Reserve for the Future

Typically, companies involved in shady operations are liquidated to avoid any liability for participating in such schemes.

However, this is not the case with Lahun.

It is quite possible that he plans to resume his business activities, if not entirely, then at least by utilising the existing infrastructure.

This appears to involve a number of Cypriot companies that Lahun is in no hurry to write off.

These are “old” businesses, registered under European Union law, which do not raise significant concerns with financial monitoring authorities, and are sufficiently protected from hostile takeovers by competitors.

According to the Cypriot registry, Lahun transferred his Cypriot companies to nominal holders— Yelizaveta Dryomina, Irakli Dzhikia, and BSM Nominees.

For example, Dryomina became not only the nominal director of dozens of Cypriot firms but also a series of Ukrainian companies owned by Lahun and his sister Antonina. These include companies such as “Pivdennoberezhny Holding” and “Pivdennoberezhny Holding-1.

” The first owns “Residential Complex Sonyachny,” and the second owns “U Nikitskykh Vorot” (a restaurant complex), both of which are companies located in Yalta, occupied Crimea.

These companies have “mirrors” in the Russian registry. Additionally, according to media reports, Lahun owns, through proxies, the agricultural production cooperative “Chernorechye” in Crimea and about 1,000 hectares of land, which he leases to the agricultural enterprise “Sevastopolsky.”

Among Dryomina’s Cypriot assets is Christex Enterprises Limited, which until recently was the majority shareholder of Yalta-based “Zodiac-Center” and “Titan-Energo-Yug,” companies that own part of the beach infrastructure in Yalta.

Before 2014, these were companies registered in Ukrainian Crimea and controlled by Lahun, but after Russia’s invasion of Donbas and the annexation of Crimea, the ex-banker re-registered the business under Russian law, thereby recognising the jurisdiction of the aggressor country and grossly violating Ukrainian law.

Previously, Lahun’s and his sister Antonina’s offshore companies owned several businesses in Russia and Belarus. However, all these Russian and Belarusian companies are now closed, while their Cypriot owners are not. All of them have been re-registered to nominees connected to Lahun.

This is done either when someone wants to “bury” a company without worrying too much about reporting checks during closure or when they want to “hold on” to it for better times, when they can again use the “old business with a history” in schemes but under the names of formally new owners. It is evident that in Lahun’s case, the latter scenario applies.

Assets in Ukraine

Lahun continues to control several Ukrainian businesses. Despite the ex-banker’s claims that his income came exclusively from “Delta Bank,” in reality, Lahun invested in a number of other companies.

Besides numerous land plots and shares in agricultural enterprises, he still remains a co-owner of a company providing thermal utility services in his native Chernihiv region. Through “Woodrest LLC,” the Sky Capital Management company, and his partner Vadym Serhiyenko, Lahun can influence the heating situation in the small town of Nizhyn.

“Woodrest” also remains a shareholder in the “First All-Ukrainian Credit Bureau,” allowing Lahun or his management access to hundreds of thousands of credit histories of Ukrainian citizens and potentially enabling him to reopen a financial institution (albeit, most likely, not under his own name).

He also may influence “Chernihgrad” and “Borodyaninvestments,” companies involved in leasing their own real estate. Their combined authorised capital exceeds 80 million UAH. Additionally, Lahun is reported to personally retain control over shares of the construction companies “Bilgrad LLC” and “Bilhorodvodokanal LLC,” which provide utility services in the village of Bilohorodka near Kyiv.

Hanna Gutsalyuk, via Telegram.

Lahun allegedly controls other businesses through his close associate, lawyer Hanna Hutsalyuk, who, according to media reports, resides in London and has her own law firm in Ukraine.

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs registries, she and Lahun use a number of shared vehicles. The key company controlled by Hutsalyuk is Cypriot PE Investments Limited. According to Ukrainian court decisions, this firm is the legal successor to Rempton Holdings Limited (Belize).

According to K2 Intelligence, Lahun attempted to use Rempton to execute a deal to sell 50% of the Illichivsk Grain Company (the “Olyr Resources” transhipment terminal), which could have been part of a corrupt deal between him and the entourage of then-President Petro Poroshenko.

PE Investments Limited now owns “Agro Green Management LLC” (45151539), which Hutsalyuk founded last year together with Denys Tarasyuk, the former head of the legal department at “Delta Bank.” In the same tandem, they founded “Be Right Advocacy LLC,” a law firm whose lawyers represent Lahun and his companies in court disputes in Ukraine.

Hutsalyuk is also listed as the owner of several other agricultural companies—”All Green LLC” (44910517) and “Agrien
LLC” (45077686)—both through the Cypriot Ecovel Limited.

This Cypriot company founded “Reeds LLC” (42879774) in Ukraine. Another agricultural venture of Hutsalyuk is with “Ferrara- Agro LLC” and “Ferrara Group LLC,” companies associated with the father of her child, Oleksandr Romanovskyi. These agricultural assets may be Lahun’s businesses re-registered in Hutsalyuk’s name.

Tarasyuk is possibly the only one who has not left Ukraine, despite being a witness in criminal cases related to Lahun’s abuses.

Mykola Lahun, Credit: Komentarii

Until recently, PE Investments Limited, according to K2 Intelligence, was also connected to assets in Austria. It co-owned OMS Immobilien GmbH, a real estate rental business with assets exceeding 3 million euros.

OMS Immobilien is the registered owner of a 1,252 m2 plot of land at Gadaunererstrasse 30, Bad Hofgastein, 5630, since April 17, 2007. The company purchased the land from OMS Overseas Metal Service for 606,800 euros. The plot includes two large buildings that appear to be residential. Experts estimate that the land’s value has likely increased significantly since OMS Immobilien acquired it.

OMS Immobilien is now owned by another Austrian firm, XASTERIA Holding, associated with Andriy Parafiyinik. This individual was previously an assistant to the former Party of Regions deputy Yuriy Miroshnychenko.

Before this, OMS Immobilien GmbH was related to the group OMS Overseas Metal Service GmbH, owned by Irina and Andriy Lunyov (likely Russians residing in Spain).

According to the website of the Russian LLC “Ruspolymet,” Lunyov is an affiliate of the company, having founded its German trading subsidiary.

It is evident that Mykola Lahun does not plan to fully retire and wind down his business activities. Therefore, his current personal bankruptcy procedure should be viewed purely as an attempt to restore his reputation and begin rebuilding his business activity in Ukraine.

The legal system in Austria provides comfort in implementing this plan for the fugitive from Ukrainian justice. At the same time, reliable nominal asset holders in his homeland are ready to carry out all the entrepreneur’s business management wishes at any moment.

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