Author Archives: RomanInUkraine

Kyiv Fraud Factory Firms Traced to Penniless Proxies

But all three of these struggling Swedish citizens own companies registered at a prime address in Tallinn, Estonia’s capital city. Even more improbably, they bought these Estonian companies through other firms they own in the tiny Caribbean nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

They are part of a larger network of firms registered in the same distinctive way: Estonian companies owned by shell companies in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, largely owned by down-on-their-luck Swedes.

The reason for this unusual ownership pattern becomes clearer after a look at what these companies were used for: hawking get-rich-quick investment schemes online.

Many are tied to a Ukraine-based call center exposed in a series of articles by OCCRP and Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN) in March. The center allegedly defrauded people across the world by convincing them they were making investments in stocks, bitcoins, and foreign currencies through legitimate financial firms. The scheme is currently under investigation in Sweden.

https://www.occrp.org/en/fraud-factory/fraud-factory-firms-traced-to-penniless-proxies

Related: http://romaninukraine.com/swedens-foreign-minister-calls-for-action-on-milton-group-fraud/

AUDIO Released of JOE BIDEN and Ukrainian President Poroshenko Discussing FIRING VIKTOR SHOKIN Who Was Investigating His Son — FOR IMF LOAN!!

An audio tape was released by Creative Destruction Media where Joe Biden is pressuring former Ukrainian President Poroshenko to fire former Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

The men discuss the firing of then Prosecutor Shokin for corrupt reasons, in order to prevent an investigation into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and other criminal actions.

Victor Shokin was investigating Joe Biden’s son Hunter at the time.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2020/05/breaking-audio-released-joe-biden-pressuring-ukrainian-president-poroshenko-fire-viktor-shokin-investigating-son/

Playing Outside

Last weekend, I couldn’t get over the enormity of a very common place act. I looked out the window to see how my son was getting on with the neighbor kids. My four-year-old was the youngest. There were two other boys and two girls. They had bicycles, plastic motorcycles, and one electric-motored car.

I believe the poet Yeats reflected on such things, though I can’t find the quote. It was something like: “Innocence and beauty lie in the habits and rituals of ordinary people.”

SBU names number of Ukrainians held captive in occupied Donbas

As of April 30, 2020, a total of 214 persons remain in captivity, the latest data say, RFE/RL reported referring to the SBU. “The list of persons the Ukrainian side is searching for as those illegally deprived of liberty in the temporarily occupied territories is compiled based on appeals from families and relatives of victims, reports by non-government organizations, mass media, as well as information exchange between entities involved in the implementation of relevant tasks,” the SBU said.

Read more on UNIAN: https://www.unian.info/war/sbu-names-number-of-ukrainians-held-captive-in-occupied-donbas-10985513.html

Ukraine Police Raid Clinic Allegedly Selling Babies to Chinese ‘Single Men of Certain Orientation’

The National Police of Ukraine last week raided a private reproductive clinic in Kiev that has allegedly been “selling newborns” to China for “a long time,” according to a government official.

The deputy head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, Anton Herashchenko, published details of the raid in a Facebook post on Sunday, saying that police “stopped the criminal activity of an international, transnational group” that is now charged with human trafficking.

Herashchenko described the criminal operation—which was allegedly led by the head of the clinic, her son, two Ukrainians, and three Chinese nationals—as “a supermarket for the sale of newborns.”

Members of the criminal group found women in Ukraine to register “fictitious marriages with foreigners and participate in surrogacy programs” in order to facilitate the trafficking of the newborns abroad, Herashchenko said.

“For a monetary reward, the criminals provided services to solve organizational and legal issues related to the processes of fertilization, childbirth, paperwork, and legalization of the export of children outside Ukraine,” he wrote. “In other words, they sold children born to Ukrainian women to China for money.”

Newborns were sold for a price of roughly $50,000, which covered the cost of artificial insemination, organization of sham marriages, as well as legal support, according to the official. After the birth of the children, birth certificates were allegedly reissued to the names of the “buyers” and their fictitious wives—the surrogate mothers.

The National Police of Ukraine said in a statement on Facebook that law enforcement officers stopped the “illegal activities” of a group “engaged in the sale of babies abroad.”

“For a long time, abusers, under the guise of surrogate motherhood and through fictitious marriages with foreigners, transported newborn children not only throughout Ukraine but also to other countries.”

According to Herashchenko, the majority of the group’s clients were “Chinese citizens—single men of a certain orientation.” An investigation is underway into at least 140 Chinese citizens suspected of involvement in the purchasing of newborns in Ukraine, he said.

He added that it is not yet clear how many babies born in Ukraine have been smuggled out of the country.

“The police will make every effort to prevent this from happening again,” Herashchenko wrote.

The National Police of Ukraine reportedly conducted 11 raids in total, including at the homes of the suspects, their offices, clinic, as well as searches of their cars. Investigators found five newborns aged 2 to 6 weeks in private apartments across Kiev, which they believe were about to be trafficked, and took them to children’s hospitals.

https://www.theepochtimes.com/ukraine-police-raid-clinic-allegedly-selling-babies-to-chinese-single-men-of-certain-orientation_3328280.html

A Walk in the Rain

Yesterday, a good steady rain fell all day.  I vetoed my wife, and allowed Danylo to go outside.  I went with him.  He had a jacket and hood on, and rubber boots – the kind perfect for stomping through puddles.  I took an umbrella and did a pretty poor job covering either of us.

The outdoors during a rain was a first for four-year-old Danylo, and for me – it was a great reminder how rich and exhilarating the outdoors can be.  As we meandered down toward the big river which is dammed up into a lake, we saw two gigantic worms, a man digging in his garden, some grazing cows and goats, and many streams of water carving through the dirt roads.  Not a single one was spared from the stomping of Danylo’s rubber boots.

Danylo choose to take a narrow path which cuts between houses, between ponds, and beside a little wood.  There was a duck in one of the ponds, and a frog jumped away as we approached.

At the woods, I asked Danylo to choose the path toward the lake, or the path into the woods.  He considered both, and concluded the woods were better because they had more puddles.  However just a few minutes into the woods, he changed his mind, and we went back the other way.

This area north of the river, among the ponds has many artificial little mounds and pits.  I’m pretty sure they are the shadows of old fighting positions from the early parts first Battle of Kiev, from July, 1941.  All of them face west.

There’s a muddy area, in which small streams form when it rains.  We crossed one stream via a bouncy plank – both of us exhilarated by the adventure.  In another spot, I walked across some branches while while Dalyno talked through the mud along side.  I asked him to go slowly.

The mud grabbed one of his boots and he fell face first into the mud.   I pulled him out right away, and put him on his feet so that I could retrieve the boot.  He tried to balance on one leg, and I told him it was okay to stand on his sock. 

This pretty much took all the spirit out of him.  But I think my laughter and quick action restored some of his resolve.  Both his boots were filled with mud.  I drained them.  He wanted to go onto my shoulders and I obliged.  I crossed the branches carefully, and a little later we were up on the damn by the lake, and I made a brisk walk home, in about 15 minutes. 

We talked about rain and adventure.  He was too uncomfortable to move, and was happy to have his parents undress him, and place him in a warm bath.  He talked about the adventure all evening, and the next day too.