[2] Nowadays Kurchenko lives in Moscow and handles from there his businesses in Russian occupied regions of Donbas and Crimea under the auspices of the FSB.

Per his official biography he advanced to deputy commercial director, by reorganizing the wholesale of liquefied gas within two years.

[10] The group's main activity is the sale of petroleum products, implementation of liquefied gas[clarification needed] and public procurement.

According to Yuriy Syrotyuk, the deputy of Svoboda party, Gaz Ukraine 2009 monopolized the Ukrainian liquefied gas market and smuggled gasoline with interrupted transit and fake exports schemes in 2009.

[citation needed] The sale appeared hurried and was realized against the background of the conflict between the government of Kharkiv and the former co-owner of the Metalist stadium.

On 21 June 2013, VETEK group announced the purchase of Ukrainian Media Holding (UMH group) which manages more than 50 media brands in Ukraine, including Forbes, Vogue, Reporter,[clarification needed] Focus (Ukrainian magazine), Telenedelya (TV week), i.ua, bigmir.net (Ukrainian web portal), football.ua, Retro FM, radio, Europa Plus, AvtoRadio, Arguments and Facts, Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine and others, with 4,000 employees in 42 offices in Russia and Ukraine at a 2011 revenue of $138 million.

[15] Although the founder of UMH, Boris Lozhkin, declared that the transaction was of a commercial nature, some commentators suggested that the information field for 2015 would be cleared for the benefit of the VETEK group.

The chief editor of Forbes Ukraine, Vladimir Fedorin, suspected that the sale of Forbes Ukraine would end it in its current form and that the buyer intended to silence journalists before the presidential election, to whitewash his own reputation, or use the edition to resolve the issues that do not have anything to do with the media business.

[20] In December 2017 Kyiv's Pechersky District Court seized corporate and intellectual rights along with part of the real estate owned by UMH holding.

[21] According to court the assets are related to the crimes committed by former president Viktor Yanukovych and are involved in misappropriation of property or embezzlement via abuse of office by an organized group, as well as money laundering.

[citation needed] According to investigative journalists, Kurchenko's achievements in the trade of liquefied natural gas, oil products and products for the oil and gas industry resulted from his connections to high-ranking officials in the government of Ukraine, namely Artem Pshonka, the son of former Prosecutor General of Ukraine and Party of regions MP Viktor Pshonka and Oleksandr Yanukovych, the eldest son of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

[26] Following the 22 February 2014 impeachment[27] of former president Viktor Yanukovych, Kurchenko and 17 other individuals like relatives, prominent businessmen and former senior officials considered close to Yanukovich became subject of a European Union asset freeze effective 6 March 2014.

[3][4] Kurchenko had left Ukraine the previous month and moved to Russia;[1] his press spokesman released a statement to the Financial Times saying, "I am an honest Ukrainian businessman.

[26] He is also accused of buying liquefied gas at specialized auctions at a discounted price (allegedly to provide for the needs of the public).

[6] In December 2017 the National Police of Ukraine arrested Mikheil Saakashvili accusing him of being financed by a "criminal group" linked to Yanukovych and Kurchenko.

He took active participation in "Committee for the Rescue of Ukraine" and met regularly former pro-Russian deputies of the Verkhovna Rada Elena Bondarenko and Vladimir Saldo, who in 2022 became the civilian leader of Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast.

He runs business in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, including Crimea where he deals with various commodities like oil products.