Dmytro Firtash

Dmytro Vasylovych Firtash ( uk, Дмитро́ Васи́льович Фі́рташ; born 2 May 1965) is a Ukrainian businessman who heads the board of directors of Group DF. He was highly influential during the Yuschenko administration and the Yanukovych administration. As a middleman for the Russian natural gas giant Gazprom and with connections to the Kremlin, Firtash funneled money into the campaigns of pro-Russia politicians in Ukraine. Firtash obtained his position with the agreement of Russian president Vladimir Putin and, according to Firtash, Russian organized crime boss Semion Mogilevich.

His many roles during the Yuschenko administration included: presidency of the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU), an interest association of industrial enterprises that he chairs; chairmanship of the National Tripartite Social and Economic Council (NTSEC); co-chairmanship of Domestic and Foreign Investors Advisory Council under the Ministry of Education, Science, Youth and Sports of Ukraine; and membership in the Committee for Economic Reforms under the President of Ukraine.

The United States Justice Department has characterized Firtash as an "upper-echelon ssociateof Russian organized crime." He was arrested by Austrian authorities in March 2014 and has since been in Vienna fighting extradition to the United States, where he is under federal indictment for an alleged bribery scheme. American attorneys Joe diGenova and Victoria Toensing, associates of then-president Donald Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, were hired by Firtash in July 2019 to fight his extradition, as Giuliani sought information in Ukraine to damage Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.

Early life

Firtash was born on 2 May 1965 in Bohdanivka, Zalishchiky Raion (Ternopil Oblast), Ukraine, Soviet Union. His father Vasyl ( uk, Василь) was a driver and his mother Mariya Hryhorivna ( uk, Марія Григорівна) had two degrees (economics and veterinary medicine) and worked at a livestock farm and then a sugar mill as an accountant. Since the 1990s, the village has been called Synkiv.

Business career and assets

Firtash began his business career almost immediately after completing his military service. He founded a trading company in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, eventually moving to Moscow in the early 1990s.

In 2007, a private international group of companies, Group DF ("the Firtash group of companies") was formed to consolidate Firtash's business assets in different sectors. Presently, Group DF incorporates assets in the chemical industry, energy sector and real estate, and this consolidation effort is still underway.

In 2008, Firtash was involved with a firm owned by Paul Manafort in a $895 million project to redevelop the Drake Hotel in New York City into a spa and luxury mall to be called Bulgari Tower. According to court records, Firtash's firm had planned to invest $100 million in the project. The deal was never finalized.

In 2010, Firtash launched an effort towards consolidation of the Ukrainian nitrogen business. From September 2010 to September 2011, Firtash acquired ownership in 'Concern STIROL' (Horlivka), 'Severodonetsk Production Association Azot' and 'Cherkassy Azot'. In just over a year, the joint marketing strategy of the four fertilizer manufacturers owned by Firtash substantially strengthened its domestic market position.

Firtash is co-owner of RosUkrEnergo and controls much of the Ukrainian titanium industry. He gained control of former state-owned titanium assets across Ukraine in 2004 and also owns several chemical plants under his Group DF which he formed in 2007. In May 2011, Firtash took over Nadra Bank (at the time Ukraine's 11th largest bank). Nadra Bank had gone into default in 2009, but it has since restructured its foreign debt with significant write-offs.

Firtash became one of the leading investors in the power sector and chemical industry in Central and Eastern Europe. His plants and companies are present in Ukraine, Germany, Italy, Cyprus, Tajikistan, Switzerland, Hungary, Austria and Estonia.

Firtash was elected President of the Joint Representative Body, a joint representative agency of employers at the national level, on 29 November 2011.

Firtash bought back 100 percent of InterInter Media Group Limited on 1 February 2013, for his GDF Media Limited and thus Cambridge Analytica through various shell companies, by the U.S. documentary ''Active Measures'', in its breakdown of the Russian–U.S. relationship before and after the 2016 election.

In April 2014, Firtash stated that despite the difficult conditions of doing business during Ukraine's political crisis, Ostchem enterprises, part of Ostchem Holding The investments directed to the development and modernization of Ostchem enterprises allowed significant increases in the production capacities of Rivne Azot, Stirol Concern, and Crimea soda plant in the first quarter of 2014.

In February 2014, the British Ministry of Defence sold the disused Brompton Road tube station to Firtash, who planned to convert the site into residential flats. the property remained undeveloped because (according to his lawyer) Firtash "could not travel from Vienna to London due to a U.S. extradition request."

On 18 June 2021 the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions against Firtash because allegedly his titanium business aided the " military-industrial complex of the Russian Federation."

On 4 August 2021 the previously Firtash-owned Zaporizhya Titanium-Magnesium Plant was returned to state ownership. The Commercial Court of Zaporizhzhia Oblast ruled that Firtash had not fulfilled its 2013 obligations to the State Property Fund of Ukraine to invest 110 million US dollars in the modernization of the plant.Zaporizhzhya Titanium and Magnesium Plant was confiscated from Firtash
Ukrayinska Pravda (4 August 2021)

At the end of May 2022 26 Ukrainian regional natural gas distribution companies, most of which were controlled by Firtash, were transferred to the management of a daughter company of Naftogaz. (Prior to this transfer) Firtash's regional distribution companies delivered 70% of natural gas to its customers in Ukraine.Firtash's gas business is all, Naftogaz got the monopoly. What this means for the population and the market
Ekonomichna Pravda (20 December 2022)

Business development initiatives

Firtash unified the employers' organizations of Ukraine into a single powerful association, the Federation of Employers of Ukraine (FEU), which he presided over from November 2011 to September 2016. The FEU membership includes companies and enterprises collectively generating 70 percent of Ukraine's GDP. It represents employers' interests in the economic, social and labor relations with the government and trade unions at the national level.Interfax. "Federation of Employers of Ukraine proposes electing Firtash as head of federation's council"
Interfax.com.ua (21 November 2011). Retrieved on 30 May 2014.

In 2012, Firtash initiated the establishment of a venture investment fund, Bukovina, aimed at supporting small enterprises. It has become Ukraine's first investment fund offering preferential lending support to small businesses in all sectors of the economy.

In October 2013, Firtash was introduced into the state commission of cooperation with the World Trade Organization by the President of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych.

Politics

In spring 2002, Firtash ran for parliament as a member of the all-Ukrainian political association Women for the Future, under the patronage of Lyudmila Kuchma, a wife of Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. The party won 2.11% of the vote, below the 3% threshold required for representation in the Ukrainian parliament. In 2010, Firtash was involved in financing Viktor Yanukovych's presidential campaign. Firtash stated that he sincerely believed that Yanukovych would learn from the events of 2003–2004 and adopt different policies. Since 2011, they have been at odds on questions of public policy. In 2011, Firtash said that Yushchenko had planned good reforms, but Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko

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