Investigative article
Fedir Zakusylo, founder and CEO of Vorex USA. Photo: official Vorex USA website.
Source: Vorex USA — https://www.usavorex.com/our-team/staff-member/fedor-zakusilo
Vorex and Kurchenko: a photo that speaks louder than documents
Our editorial team has obtained a photograph showing Vorex head Fedir Zakusylo pictured together with Sergey Kurchenko. Kurchenko is one of the most notorious Ukrainian fugitives who fled to Russia after the fall of the Yanukovych regime and is subject to OFAC sanctions under the UKRAINE-EO13660 program (https://sanctionssearch.ofac.treas.gov/Details.aspx?id=18323). This joint photo confirms what has long been rumored in the industry: OOO Master Vektor, based in Saint Petersburg, is a company within Kurchenko’s orbit.
Master Vektor is not just any Russian company. According to Russian corporate databases, its key counterparties include OOO Gazprom Komplektatsiya, AO Transneft-Sibir, and AO Transneft-Privolga. In other words, Master Vektor is a link in Russia’s oil and gas complex, working directly with Gazprom. And it is precisely with this company that Vorex signed contracts No. USA 0705 dated 07.05.2020 and No. USA 0107 dated 01.07.2020, which Vorex itself submitted as proof of experience in a Ukrainian public tender.
The photo of Zakusylo with Kurchenko, Vorex’s contracts with Kurchenko’s company Master Vektor, and the fact that this cooperation has never been terminated all paint a single picture: Vorex continues to work through shell entities with this and other companies in Russia, supporting the business interests of Sergey Kurchenko. The American signboard is merely a shell hiding the wallet of a Ukrainian fugitive servicing Russian gas infrastructure.
The Russian trail that Vorex itself brought into Prozorro
The most damning fact in this story is not rumors about trips or backroom deals, but documents that, according to Glavcom, Vorex itself used in a tender for the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine. In 2021, during a procurement of gas pressure regulators with an expected value of UAH 165,703,920, Vorex submitted «analogous contracts,» which included contracts No. USA 0705 dated 07.05.2020 and No. USA 0107 dated 01.07.2020 with OOO Master Vektor, Saint Petersburg, as the end recipient. Source: https://glavcom.ua/ru/news/voyna-ili-biznes-postavshchik-ukrainskogo-operatora-gts-pohvastalsya-uspeshnymi-postavkami-v-rossiyu-795457.html
A company bidding for Ukrainian gas transmission system funds used deliveries to a Russian supply chain linked to the aggressor state’s gas infrastructure as proof of its experience. Telegraf reported an additional episode: in 2021, Vorex allegedly supplied Russian safety valves to Ukrgazvydobuvannya and won a tender in the interests of the Russian company OOO Truboprovodnaya Armatura. Source: https://telegraf.com.ua/jekonomika-i-finansy/2023-07-10/5799219-dilo-truba-yak-partneri-rosiyskogo-gazpromu-u-rozpal-viyni-vigrayut-derzhavni-tenderi-v-ukraini
Chinese pipes, Russian buyers, and Ukrainian billions
In 2023, Telegraf reported that Vorex won 9 tenders from Ukrgazvydobuvannya and the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine worth over UAH 2.6 billion, promoting products from Chinese manufacturers Tianjin Pipe Corporation and Hengyang Valin Steel Tube. According to the same report, after the full-scale invasion began, these manufacturers made 26 shipments of pipe products to Russia in 2022. Source: https://telegraf.com.ua/jekonomika-i-finansy/2023-07-10/5799219-dilo-truba-yak-partneri-rosiyskogo-gazpromu-u-rozpal-viyni-vigrayut-derzhavni-tenderi-v-ukraini
Among the Russian recipients and partners mentioned in the report are Torgovyi Dom Seversnab, Vyksa Steel Works, Energogazservis, as well as supply chains leading to Gazprom, Lukoil, and TNK. Ukrainian state funds were channeled through an American intermediary to manufacturers simultaneously serving the Russian market. For a country at war, this alone is sufficient to flag a high compliance risk.
