Hidden partner of Yuri Ivanyushchenko Lev Goldberg robbed the banking system of Ukraine together with the Russians

In the spring of 2022, when the Armed Forces of Ukraine drove the occupiers out of the Kyiv region, the whole world was shocked by how much the region was mutilated. One of the towns that suffered greatly from the actions of the Russian invaders was Makariv.

But, as a journalistic investigation showed, not everyone in the Makariv district was against the Russian world. The owner of 46 plots of land in the village of Gavronshchyna, on which an elite golf club is located, Lev Goldberg is closely associated with businessman Yuriy Ivanyushchenko, close to the fugitive President Yanukovych, and does not refuse to cooperate with citizens of the aggressor country.

Lev Goldberg is known for being the founder of the now bankrupt Green Bank and Artem Bank. Both structures were associated with former people’s deputy and businessman Yuriy Ivanyushchenko during Yanukovych’s rule. The first bank was created back in 1992 and was called Olympic Ukraine. Since 2008, one of the founders of Green Bank has been the Investment Construction Company Artem, which will later become the developer of the territory of the defense plant Artem.

Artem Bank was established in 2002. Among its founders were the State Joint-Stock Holding Company Artem, PJSC Plant Universal-A, PJSC Aura and OOO Paradigma. Since 2003, Lev Goldberg and his business partners Arkady Kozerovsky and Valery Kozyrenko have appeared among the founders. The latter will be quickly removed from the bank’s management, and at the end of the article it will become clear why.

Since 2008, when related businesses such as construction began to appear around Artem Bank, a scheme was carried out in the aforementioned territory of the Makarovsky District involving 30 close associates to obtain land plots of 50 hectares. The construction of the elite GolfStream golf club began on this territory, where international competitions and even diplomatic tournaments were held until the full-scale invasion. Even the criminal case opened on the fact of illegal acquisition of the right to own land did not prevent them from being held.

The ideologist of the construction of the GolfStream golf club was the same founder of Artem Bank, Lev Goldberg. But it is unlikely that he can be considered an independent figure. And the registers prove his connection with the aforementioned Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and Russian money at the same time.

One of the founders of the Investment and Construction Company Artem LLC, which, in particular, was engaged in the construction business related to Artem Bank, was the limited liability company Almagama. Its registered address coincides with the main office of Artem Bank on Sichovykh Striltsiv Street, 103. This same premises, by the way, are still owned by Lev Goldberg.


Subsequently, one of the founders of "Almagama" was Brenda Patricia Cocksedge from South Africa (she was a resident of the UK, and now lives in Dubai). Her name is mentioned, among other things, in the leaked information from the Panama Papers, and the woman was also one of the managers of the British company Fitzalan Limited.



In 2015, a Cypriot woman, Christina Palala, worked in this company, with whose help in 2014-2015 Yuriy Ivanyushchenko received a significant stake in one of the largest markets in Ukraine, "7th kilometer".


Christina Palala worked in another British company - Addison Alliance Limited, which through a fairly long chain of connections leads to the company Rolexa Limited. According to the reporting published in March 2015, the owners of the company were Irina and Diana Ivanyushchenko. They are the wife and daughter of the former deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Yuriy Ivanyushchenko.


If the connection between golf enthusiast Lev Goldberg and Ivanyushchenko is too obvious, then with the Russians it is a little more complicated. For example, the aforementioned Brenda Patricia Cocksedge was once in the management of a huge number of companies with Russian capital. To check this, it is enough to write a search query in Google with this name in combination with Russia.



At the same time, Golf and Country Club LLC, which is now managed by Goldberg’s wife Lyudmila, was managed by a resident of Liverpool, Kelly Stephen John. He was one of the founders of Boily Systems Limited, together with a Russian citizen who became part of the high-profile Magnitsky case.

Well, the most important thing that connects Lev Goldberg with the Russians is the same Artem Bank. In the February 2023 court decision on the criminal case, which the Ukrainian law enforcement agencies are conducting on the fact of seizure of the bank’s funds, a scheme is described in which, with the help of controlled companies, the structure issued loans for the purchase of land. The prices of the companies were inflated several times. According to the conclusion of the State Audit Service of Ukraine from November 2021, Artem-Bank’s losses were established in the amount of UAH 181,696,274.20.

The same decision mentions the following: "During the pre-trial investigation, it was established that the former actual owner of Artem-Bank, who made key decisions regarding the bank’s activities, including the issuance of significant amounts of credit funds by the bank, was involved in the commission of the said criminal offenses. ... It was established that his business partner, a citizen of the Russian Federation, who, in particular, is a co-founder of S-Vklad LLC, as well as the director and co-founder of the Kyiv Golf Club GolfStream NGO and the Kyiv Golf Club NGO, was involved in the commission of the said criminal offenses.

The only person who is a co-founder of all three of these companies is Lev Goldberg’s business partner Valery Kozyrenko, mentioned at the beginning of this material.

On January 27, 2023, based on the ruling of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv, a search was conducted at the place of residence of a person with Russian citizenship. As a result of the search, among other things, "documents and items were found and seized that directly indicate the latter’s relationship with the activities of Artem-Bank JSC, in particular, agreements on opening bank deposits, cash and items made of precious metals, as well as other documents and items of evidentiary value in criminal proceedings."


Recently, information appeared in the media that Lev Goldberg allegedly sheltered the occupiers on the territory of a golf club during the Russian army’s advance into the Kyiv region. No confirmation of this could be found, and the club itself is not yet operating, collecting funds for restoration to the account of the created charitable foundation. But even if Goldberg did not help the Russians in the winter-spring of 2022, his long-standing connection with the citizens of this country and with the former plunderers of the state during the time of Yanukovych could be traced without a doubt.