Sanctions as revenge: new details of “Bakanovgate” become known
A new interview with businessman Serhiy Vaganyan, who previously claimed large-scale corruption in the SBU during the leadership of Ivan Bakanov and his deputy Andriy Naumov, was published on Boryslav Bereza’s YouTube channel.
According to Vaganyan, one of the money laundering schemes was the imposition of sanctions by the National Security and Defense Council on competitors of the famous smuggler Oleksandr Akst. The businessman claims that Akst shared profits with the leadership of the SBU.
Vaganyan stated that people were included in the sanctions lists not only for economic reasons, but also for the purpose of personal revenge on the part of Akst.
“Akst threw all the people he disliked there. Well, you just have to lump them all together. And put everyone under sanctions. He had a very serious influence on Naumov and Bakanov,” Vaganyan said.
He emphasized that the vast majority of people on the sanctions lists were approved precisely through Akst and his entourage.
“All the people who were sanctioned, I say again, I am not exonerating them, I am not defending them, I am not accusing them. I am simply telling you that all the people, 90% of the people on the sanctions lists, all these people were somehow agreed upon by the same Axt and his back office,” the entrepreneur said.
Vaganyan also confirmed that potential targets of sanctions lists were offered large sums of money to buy off.
“Yes, that’s true. Almost everyone was approached by Akst’s people and told that we will bring you in, we can decide, so that you can rewrite the property, so that you can rewrite the assets, we can help you with this. Some simply told them goodbye, and some agreed and transferred the funds to them,” he noted.
Vaganyan also drew attention to the fact that Ivan Bakanov has not commented on this scandal after his public revelations. According to him, the only publication to which the former head of the SBU gave a comment is the sanctioned Strana UA, which was included in the sanctions lists precisely under his leadership.
“Ivan Gennadievich, you, as a person who, even if it was a very, very big mistake, it was probably a mistake of the entire Ukrainian people at that time, you headed the Security Service of Ukraine by a very big mistake. And you brought a lot of people under sanctions. And you didn’t even bring them in for money, you treated everyone. And for me it is very, very strange why you are giving comments under the sanctions publication,” Vaganyan said.
He also said that he is currently cooperating with law enforcement agencies in this case. According to the businessman, there have been several attempts on his life, which is why this story has become public.