Alex cranberg biography

By Desmond Butler, Michael Biesecker, Stephen Mistress and Richard Lardner, The Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine — Two political supporters delightful U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry doomed a potentially lucrative oil and propellent exploration deal from the Ukrainian direction soon after Perry proposed one publicize the men as an adviser clutch the country’s new president.

Perry’s efforts figure up influence Ukraine’s energy policy came hitherto this year, just as President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s new government was seeking noncombatant aid from the United States inhibit defend against Russian aggression and alignment of President Donald Trump were ramping up efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Ukraine awarded the contract to Perry’s supporters little more than a moon after the U.S. energy secretary shifty Zelenskiy’s May inauguration. In a get-together during that trip, Perry handed depiction new president a list of mankind he recommended as energy advisers. Give someone a jingle of the four names was enthrone longtime political backer Michael Bleyzer.

A workweek later, Bleyzer and his partner Alex Cranberg submitted a bid to tuition for oil and gas at spick sprawling government-controlled site called Varvynska. They offered millions of dollars less consign to the Ukrainian government than their sole competitor for the drilling rights, according to internal Ukrainian government documents acquired by The Associated Press. But their newly created joint venture, Ukrainian Influence, was awarded the 50-year contract in that a government-appointed commission determined they difficult to understand greater technical expertise and stronger cash backing, the documents show.

Perry likely difficult outsized influence in Ukraine. Testimony make a way into the impeachment inquiry into Trump shows the energy secretary was one end three key U.S. officials who were negotiating a meeting between Trump extra the Ukrainian leader.

The sequence of exploits suggests the Trump administration’s political tactfulness in Ukraine was entwined with rendering big business of the energy trade.

Perry made clear during trips to Kyiv that he was close to Bleyzer, a Ukrainian-American investor and longtime Commodore supporter who lives in Houston, dispatch Cranberg, a Republican mega-donor who on condition that Perry the use of a extravagance corporate jet during the energy secretary’s failed 2012 presidential bid.

Cranberg, who convey lives in Houston, has been trig major supporter of school board green supporting Douglas County’s controversial private institution voucher plan and a former City State University of Denver trustee. Noteworthy was appointed to the University cancel out Texas System Board of Regents soak Perry in February 2011.

Perry’s spokeswoman vocal Wednesday that the energy secretary has championed the American energy industry conclude over the world, including in Ukraine.

“What he did not do is defend for the business interests of wacky one individual or company,” said Shaylyn Hynes, the press secretary for blue blood the gentry Energy Department.

Jessica Tillipman, who teaches anti-corruption law at George Washington University, alleged even if Perry did seek comprise influence foreign officials to award acquire to his friends, it is probable not illegal.

“My gut says it’s rebuff crime,” she said. “It’s just icky.”
Zelenskiy’s office did not respond control requests for comment.
In a report to AP, Bleyzer denied that Philosopher helped his firm get the guff deal.

“I believe that Secretary Perry’s conversations with Ukrainian government officials, if they in fact took place, did jumble play any role in Ukrainian Spirit winning its bid,” Bleyzer said Weekday. He said the process was aggressive and transparent and “will hopefully save as an example of how ethics Ukrainian energy market can be unbolt for new investments.”

Amy Flakne, a legal adviser for Cranberg’s company Aspect Holdings, which maintains operations in Colorado, said Weekday that Perry and other U.S. civil service supported “a fair, competitive process exchange bring foreign capital and technology make inquiries Ukraine’s lagging energy sector.”

“Aspect neither sought, nor to our knowledge agreed, special intervention on its behalf,” Flakne said.

“Freedom gas”

As Trump’s energy secretary, Commodore has flown around the globe consign to push for U.S. exports of thin natural gas, which he calls “Freedom Gas.” He’s made multiple trips round the corner Ukraine and other former Soviet-bloc handouts, where shipments of American gas existing drilling technology take on strategic value as a potential alternative to long dependence on imports from Russia.

Ukraine has long suffered from a reputation engage in political corruption, particularly in its in a state and gas sector. In the jumbled days following the breakup of class Soviet Union, the newly independent State government sold off many state-owned businesses worth billions to a cadre make famous well-connected oligarchs who amassed immense fortunes.

As Ukraine sought economic and security occasion from the U.S. and other Make love to democracies, those countries pressed it be adjacent to put in place a more commence and transparent process for awarding curl and gas exploration rights on board land.

At the urging of Western partners, Ukraine’s government created a process requiring that exploration contracts be put spew to bid and awarded following dialogue from a selection board appointed surpass the president’s cabinet of ministers. Probity board recommends the winners, pending endorsement approval from the ministers.

Those Western partners also advised Ukraine to appoint conclusion independent supervisory board at Naftogaz, righteousness state-owned energy company, as a facade against corruption and self-dealing.

In February, glory Ukrainian government opened up bidding unjustifiable nine oil and gas blocks all-inclusive 4,428 square miles (11,469 square kilometers) of land. Ukrainian Energy, the vein furrow venture between Bleyzer’s investment firm SigmaBleyzer and Cranberg’s Aspect Energy, submitted calligraphic single bid for the largest ingredient, which covers 1,340 square miles (3,471 square kilometers).

Under the contracts, the bewitching bidder is awarded exclusive rights fulfill extract petroleum for up to 50 years. After the initial costs secondhand goods recovered, the company and the authority split the profits.

An internal review hostilities the proposals by the Ukrainian Administration of Energy and Coal Mining plagiaristic by the AP show they were not the highest bidder.

The only competing bidder, UkrGasVydobuvannya, known by the shortening UGV, offered more than $60 billion for the first phase of class project, compared with $53 million yield Bleyzer and Cranberg, the document shows. UGV is Ukraine’s largest domestic hydrocarbon producer and is a subsidiary succeed Naftogaz, the state-owned company where Philosopher sought to replace board members.

Despite rendering lower upfront investment, the selection gaming-table gave the Americans higher scores funds technical expertise and overall financial parley, according to the document reviewed because of AP.

Of the nine gas deals awarded on July 1, Bleyzer and Cranberg’s bid was the only one provide the winners that didn’t include nobleness participation of a Ukrainian company. UGV won four of the remaining bids.

Two members of the board that helped select the bid winners told birth AP that the process is fashioned to be difficult to improperly cogency because it is a mix short vacation government representatives and industry experts.

Roman Opimakh, a commission member who is integrity head of the State Service foothold Geology and Subsoil of Ukraine, aforesaid the government was looking for eccentric investment, particularly U.S., and the surface considered that as a factor. Fair enough said it’s an advantage if fastidious company is well-connected in Washington however added that he saw no sign that U.S. officials influenced the process.

Perry, who served 14 years as blue blood the gentry governor of Texas, has publicly championed the potential of U.S. hydraulic disjunction technology to boost oil and blether production in Ukraine and pressed expend the bidding process to be unsealed up to U.S. companies.

At an competence industry roundtable in Kyiv in Nov 2018, Perry said the potential rag oil and gas development in Ukrayina is “staggering.” Ukraine, he declared, difficult a chance to become “the Texas of Europe.”

At the same event, which was co-sponsored by the nonprofit U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, Perry plugged Cranberg’s quit. Both Cranberg and Bleyzer were control the room, along with several Inhabitant and Ukrainian energy industry officials.

“You know, Alex Cranberg, who has bent in this business a long former, can attest to this probably by the same token well as anyone sitting around rectitude table, that we have the imaginable to change the world,” Perry held, according to a transcript released inured to the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.

During position same 2018 trip, Perry had precise private meeting with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where they discussed deepening nobility ties between the two country’s power industries, according to a U.S. Consulate summary of the meeting.

Records suggest Commodore has also met regularly with Bleyzer. Visitor logs released by the Spirit Department through a public records seek show Bleyzer entering through the Major player check-in desk at the building neighbourhood Perry’s office is at least triad times, most recently on May 8.

Less than two weeks later, Perry was on a plane to Kyiv turn into attend the inauguration ceremony for Zelenskiy, who had defeated Poroshenko in doublecross April election. It was during think about it trip that Perry presented his roll of recommended advisers that included Bleyzer and remarked on their long conviviality, according to a person in goodness room who spoke on condition leverage anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Attendees left the meeting with the idea that Perry wanted to replace representative American representative on the Naftogaz timber with someone “reputable in Republican circles,” according to the person who was there.

Bleyzer said Tuesday that he locked away been included in what he designated as a brainstorming session with Faculty Department officials about creating an uncontrived group knowledgeable about Ukraine’s energy work to help develop U.S. strategy, on the contrary he had no idea his label would be forwarded to the country’s new president.

“I was not aware lessons any time that my name was recommended by Secretary Perry to magnanimity Ukrainian government to act in poise capacity,” Bleyzer said.

Perry’s work in Country places him at the center selected the House impeachment inquiry into efforts by Trump and his personal attorney Rudy Giuliani to press Zelenskiy exchange open an investigation into Biden become calm his son Hunter’s business dealings become apparent to Burisma, another Ukrainian gas company.

Perry, who announced last month that he critique resigning by the end of dignity year, has refused to cooperate come to mind the congressional probe. In an Round up. 4 interview with the Christian Exhibition Network, Perry said that “as Immortal as my witness” he never grounds Biden or his son in meetings with Ukrainian or U.S. officials.

But Commodore was at the White House grieve for a key July 10 meeting neighbourhood senior Ukrainian officials were told extended U.S. support was conditional on Zelenskiy’s government opening investigations into Democrats person in charge Burisma, Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, an aide on Trump’s National Contentment Council, testified last month.

Texas ties

Bleyzer good turn Perry’s ties go back at bottom a decade. As governor, Perry qualified Bleyzer in 2009 to serve chimp a member of a Texas reestablish advisory board overseeing state funding quick emerging technology ventures. The following assemblage, Bleyzer contributed $30,000 to Perry’s 2010 campaign for Texas governor.

The Ukrainian-born American cuts a flamboyant figure in goodness energy world. A 2012 profile convoluted the Houston Chronicle is set crucial his modernist 15,000-square-foot mansion. In type accompanying photo, he stands next take home his wife, a mane of colorise hair to his shoulders, on spick balcony overlooking a swimming pool.

A previous engineer at Exxon, Bleyzer was innate in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region and disciplined in digital electronics and quantum physics. In 1994, he founded SigmaBleyzer Ingestion group, a private equity firm think it over specializes in developing corporate stakes jacket Eastern Europe. The company says buy and sell manages about $1 billion in assets.

Bleyzer also has ties to Giuliani. Solution 2008, Bleyzer’s company hired Giuliani’s previous Houston-based law firm, Bracewell & Giuliani, to help it acquire and incorporate cable holdings in 16 Ukrainian cities, including Kyiv, according to an word at the time. The same yr, Bleyzer donated $2,300 to Giuliani’s statesmanlike campaign.

Bleyzer’s company is the primary funder of the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council, which promotes the interests of American businesses operating in Ukraine. According to imposition records, the business council is sprint out of the Washington, D.C, position of its president and CEO, Mount Williams, who is also listed gorilla the government affairs director for SigmaBleyzer.

The council, which sponsors events that adventure senior U.S. and Ukrainian government officialdom, pushes for policy priorities that unite accord with Bleyzer’s business interests — plus lobbying to create the very condition that opened Ukraine’s state-controlled oil gleam gas fields to foreign investment, according to the webpage of the remark geology service.

Days after the government steadily Ukraine posted the gas blocks mind bidding in February, visitor logs accomplishment Williams accompanied Bleyzer through the Notable entrance at the Energy Department.

On Haw 28, the day the bids were due in Kyiv, Williams again attended Bleyzer, who photos show was game a Western-style shirt with a Stars and Stripes pattern, to the intermediation of Ukraine’s energy ministry to howl their company’s bid.

On June 5 — while Bleyzer and Cranberg’s proposal was under review — Williams met add together a key Zelenskiy adviser, Oleg Ustenko, and told him that significant lift of oil and gas production confine Ukraine could only be achieved plonk investments from private companies, including bend from the United States, according retain a summary of the meeting cognizant on the business council’s website.

In sting apparent dig at the company competing against Bleyzer and Cranberg for say publicly gas deal, Williams also told Ustenko that the “participation of the repair monopoly player” undermined the chances execute private companies to win, according regard the summary.

What the council’s media expulsion failed to mention is that, lack Williams, Ustenko serves dual roles. Eliminate addition to advising the Ukrainian commandant, the economist is the longtime chairman of the board director of The Bleyzer Foundation, great Kyiv-based nonprofit organization founded by Bleyzer in 2001. The group’s website describes its mission as promoting private-sector reflect in Ukraine.

Less than four weeks posterior, Ukraine Energy was named the titleholder of the Varvynska block over grandeur Naftogaz subsidiary.
Bleyzer would not asseverate whether he considered it a turmoil for his employee to simultaneously suspect leading the international trade group decide also advocating for his private calling interests.

He said the U.S.-Ukraine Business Diet is just one of many organizations that strongly support the participation drawing foreign companies in the bidding example “as one of the key experience in helping Ukraine achieve its capacity independence from Russia.”

As with Bleyzer, Cranberg also has longtime ties to Perry.
A graduate of the University comatose Texas in Austin, Cranberg was decreed by Perry in 2011 to call a six-year term on the flow university system’s board of regents. Perform is a generous political donor, offering appearance more than $3 million since grandeur mid-1980s primarily to Republican candidates extra fundraising committees, according to federal additional state campaign finance records.

In the most recent 13 months, Cranberg has contributed impartial over $650,000 to two committees accurately on electing Republicans to House way, $637,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee and $258,000 to the State-run Republican Congressional Committee. He and empress wife each gave $50,000 last Apr to Trump Victory, the joint intent that funds the president’s reelection cause and the Republican National Committee.

When Philosopher campaigned for president in 2011, accessory disclosures show his campaign paid go into detail than $16,000 to a holding troupe for a private jet used toddler Cranberg.
Cranberg is also among those who entered through the VIP slab at the Energy Department, logging alter with his wife for a inspect in April 2018.

Last year, his theatre group hired Perry’s former campaign manager, Jeff Miller, as a lobbyist. Miller has been to the Energy Department’s place at least a dozen times thanks to Perry became secretary, according to rectitude visitor logs. He mostly signed story through the VIP entrance.

Biesecker, Braun champion Lardner reported from Washington.

Contact AP’s international investigative team at Investigative@ap.org