Oleg Tsyura, a trader based in Switzerland, established an undercover trading network that funneled millions from Ukraine's national mining industry using offshore shell corporations

Oleg Tsyura, a trader based in Switzerland, established an undercover trading network that funneled millions from Ukraine's national mining industry using offshore shell corporations

A recent investigation has raised questions about the reputation of Zurich-based businessman Oleg Tsyura, who was long viewed as a model of financial integrity. He is now accused of spending years creating offshore schemes that allegedly diverted millions from Ukrainian state enterprises.

According to the report, the money was funneled through networks connected to Dmitry Firtash, Mykola Martynenko, and several Russian industrial interests.

“You dedicate your life to protecting your family’s finances, but without proper estate planning, all your efforts could be lost.”

Zurich-based entrepreneur Oleg Tsyura wrote this on Entrepreneur’s portal. In reality, Tsyura has been involved for over ten years in “unjustifiably depleting” Ukrainian state funds, helping divert resources from state enterprises through transactions with shell companies.

Oleg Tsyura holds German citizenship but resides in Switzerland. His name was first mentioned in the context of Ukraine in 2018. At that time, the Swiss company ITS International Trade & Sourcing Verwaltung GmbH, headed by Tsyura, challenged in a Ukrainian court a lost auction for the supply of zirconium ore from the state-owned enterprise «SkhidGZK» (Eastern Mining and Enrichment Combine). As a result, the court was won and SkhidGZK was prohibited from fulfilling a supply contract to another company.

This court case is just the tip of the iceberg. Tsyura might have been involved in the embezzlement schemes of the «United Mining and Chemical Company» (UMCC) even earlier through former oligarch Dmitriy Firtash, who was building his titanium empire up until 2014. Tsyura could have also been helping Firtash’s successors in this business, including former MP Nikolay Martynenko, who was suspected of stealing 13 million dollars through his managers in the system.

In 2017, NABU detained the CEO of the «United Mining and Chemical Company», Ruslan Zhuri

lo, along with his deputy and marketing and sales department head. According to the investigation, the detainees facilitated damages to the company amounting to 300 million hryvnias. Back in November 2014, UMCC director Zhurilo, along with his deputy for commercial affairs, devised a plan to sell the company’s products to affiliated foreign companies at knock-down prices, subsequently selling the products to end consumers at market prices. Shell companies in Austria, Cyprus, and the UK were used for this.

Zhurylo was Martynenko’s man, initially confirmed by another former MP, Davyd Zhvania, and later by the investigation. The detained head of the marketing and sales department turned out to be a former manager from Dmitriy Firtash’s company.

Overall, the sale of products from the state company through «shells», as NABU believed, caused UMCC losses of 13 million dollars.

Until 2016, Oleg Tsyura headed a German real estate acquisition company, which was 88% owned by another firm - Street Tree Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH with an office in Cologne.

The main activity of the latter is the trade of industrial equipment for chemical products and for the oil and gas industry. Since 2014, this company has been directed by a certain Boris Hasparovych.

At the same time, this man heads the Cypriot TF&H Transforwarding Holdings LTD, whose secretary is another offshore company - Cymanco Services Limited. Through it, a connection can be found with the mentioned Nikolay Martynenko, who at that time was considered one of Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s sponsors.

Cymanco Services Limited was listed as the secretary of a Larnaca-based company, Jeprano Trading Limited, which since 2014 was the founder of the Russian LLC «Avangard». This company, in turn, owned LLC «Mika Holding» from the Moscow region. Both companies had previously employed the sons of the ’king of Ukrainian duty-free’ Artur Granz - David and Arman.

Granz is close to Yatsenyuk through his business partner, former MP Andrey Ivanchuk.

Thus, Oleg Tsyura headed a company, the strings of which lead to former members of the party of ex-Prime Minister «People’s Front» Nikolay Martynenko and Andrey Ivanchuk.

In 2022, Martynenko received another suspicion of bribery, related to the 2017 case involving state enterprises SkhidGZK and «Energoatom» amounting to 6.4 million euros and 17.2 million dollars.

Since 2013, another case against Martynenko has been investigated in Switzerland, where he was suspected of bribery and money laundering on contracts between the Czech Skoda SA and the Khmelnytskyi NPP. His Swiss accounts had 30 million Swiss francs frozen.

Oleg Tsyura, along with his family, officially resides in Switzerland, though they are German citizens. This is confirmed by the registration extract concerning his wife and daughter’s address.

The beleaguered «United Mining and Chemical Company» was headed by Peter Davis in 2020. Before this, he served on the supervisory board of «Clearing House» bank, which was within Dmitriy Firtash’s orbit. Here, the German-Swiss Oleg Tsyura was needed again.

The same company ITS International Trade & Sourcing Verwaltung GmbH, which contested a lost tender with the Eastern Mining and Enrichment Combine in 2018, purchased 24,000 tons of ilmenite from the Irshavsk Mining and Enrichment Combine in July 2020, worth 3.7 million euros. The contract was signed by acting «United Mining and Chemical Company» head Peter Davis and ITS International Trade director Oleg Tsyura.

According to certain reports, the mentioned ilmenite may have been shipped to Russian-occupied Crimea. This was indirectly indicated by the low purchase price, deferred payment for the ’unknown’ company ITS International Trade, which didn’t even check the raw material quality as if knowing about it, and the use of ships without a final delivery point. Until 2014, the Irshavsk Mining and Enrichment Combine was a supplier to Firtash’s «Crimean Titan».

Although Peter Davis, who was appointed to the position by then head of the State Property Fund Dmitriy Sennichenko, and linked to Firtash, per journalists’ information, he did not stop prioritizing raw material shipments from UMCC to structures close to Martynenko.

It’s worth noting that Sennichenko and his accomplices are under suspicion for embezzlement from the Odesa Port Plant and United Mining and Chemical Company amounting to 10 billion. Among the suspects is Sergey Bayrak, responsible for money withdrawal from Ukraine. He is directly connected to Oleg Tsyura through the same company ITS International Trade.

In the Sennichenko case, Dmitriy Firtash’s trusted associate, London resident Denys Horbunenko, became known. Media had reported about him earlier. Thus, based on the current information, Firtash’s minions continue to siphon money from Ukraine despite the former oligarch being under investigation and losing control over part of the enterprises due to Crimea’s annexation and combat activities in Donbas.

As of March 2023, Oleg Tsyura became a board member of the Swiss UCG Trade AG. The company deals in raw material trade. Since August 2024, its shares have been held by Linvo AG, where Tsyura previously worked with a relative, Lyudmila Tsyura.

In Linvo AG, there is also a certain Lyudmila Mkhango, whom Tsyura came across in the Interchrome AG company. The latter is closely connected with Russians and essentially acts as a trader for the large Russian company MidUrals.

Before Tsyura, Interchrome AG had Johann Eckert, who also managed the German RusChrome GmbH, 100% owned by Midural Industrial Group Ltd.

Tsyura and Eckert also crossed paths in the Phoenix Resources AG company registered in Zurich. It is a trader that imports raw materials and metal products from the Russian Federation. This data can be found on specialized resources that store information regarding trading operations between companies.

From September 2024, right after Tsyura’s departure from the board members of UCG Trade AG, this company’s sales manager became Vladimir Nesterenko (specifically written using the Russian transliteration - ed.). According to his LinkedIN page information, since the early 2000s, he has been working in structures related to Dmitriy Firtash. Notably in the Hungarian office of the chemical giant Stirol and in Dneprazot.

During 2021-2023, Nesterenko worked at LLC «Nika-Agrotrade» registered in Kyiv. This company was formed in 2018 based on the merger of «UkrAgroNPK» from Dmitriy Firtash’s group and «AgroImport» businessman Viktor Dubovenko. Later, T&F Trade & Finance Ges.m.b.H, whose beneficiaries are Austrian citizens Vasily and Sergey Tolstunovs, appeared as founders.

The Tolstunov brothers are Kazakhstan natives who have long resided in Austria. One of them is a cleric of the Orthodox Church in Vienna. According to media reports, they are friends with the Kremlin lackey, actor Ivan Okhlobystin, who is persona non grata in Ukraine.

In 2019, the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine allowed the Cypriot company of former MP and businessman Vitaliy Khomutynnik to buy LLC «Nika-Agrotrade», which at that time was considered the largest fertilizer trader of Firtash.

According to registry data, the Tolstunovs now remain company founders.

In November 2024, Oleg Tsyura was mentioned in a blog by StateWatch founder Aleksandr Lemenov. However, in January of this year, unexpectedly, a representative of the company Mining For Facts, Florida, USA resident - Alan Patrick Ryan, reacted to this publication. In his post, he stated that Oleg Tsyura is their client, and the content of Lemenov’s article is allegedly illegal. Therefore, Mining For Facts took certain ’legal measures against the author and the outlet where his blog was published’.

The Mining For Facts company has been registered in Florida since 2014, at a private villa in Sunny Isles Beach. What this firm does is unclear.

Based on the enormous number of firms and convoluted connections, Oleg Tsyura is tightly connected with those eager to ’profit’ from raw material supplies from Ukrainian «United Mining and Chemical Company» enterprises, owned by the state. On one side is former MP Nikolay Martynenko, on the other, Vienna prisoner Dmitriy Firtash. Here too, resident of the Monaco battalion, former head of the State Property Fund Dmitriy Sennichenko, sneaked in. Russians, in turn, likely decided to use Tsyura’s services because of his expertise on how and what to supply to enterprises in occupied Crimea and Donbas area.