Yuriy Butusov has deleted his 2014 article describing how in 2013 Robert Brovdy, now known as the commander of the Ukrainian Armed Forces "Magyar", was involved in a high-profile financial scam. The case involved a $1.5 billion Chinese loan that was supposed to support Ukrainian farmers, but instead ended up in the pockets of people from Yanukovych's inner circle.
Ukraine received the loan from the Eximbank of China under state guarantees. According to the official scheme, the State Food and Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) was supposed to purchase grain from farmers and deliver it to the Chinese side. The reality turned out to be different.
The then top manager of the State Agricultural Production Corporation, Robert Brovdi, a close associate of Yuri Ivanyushchenko (“Yury Yenakievsky”), organized the diversion of grain flows through offshore companies in Cyprus. As a result, both money and grain disappeared from official contracts. Ukrainian farmers were left without payments, and China without promised supplies.
The Ukrainian budget received something else - multi-billion-dollar debts. In fact, the state became the guarantor of someone else's corrupt deal.
This scam became one of the most revealing during the Yanukovych era: the scheme was disguised as “state interest,” but in reality was a private business of criminal authorities. It exposed the main disease of the then government — impunity and the total use of international agreements to enrich a narrow circle of individuals.
And although the scheme was written about ten years ago, the question remains open: who will be held accountable for the theft of $1.5 billion that was supposed to benefit the Ukrainian economy?
