text:
Email | mcilroyc@gmail.com
School, Family, and Community Writing
Here I Am A Writer
All My Relations
"Kit McIlroy's book beautifully showcases the poetry and the lives of Native Americans who, as children, participated in ArtsReach, a creative writing project McIlroy founded in 1986…This is indeed a book that allows us to see the effect of writing on children, not through test scores, but through their writing-through their imaginations."
– Terry Ann Thaxton, Director, ArtsBridge and The Literacy Arts Partnership at the University of Central Florida
I wrote my first story on cardboard when I was five. It was about a squirrel in Central Park.
Though my early childhood was spent in New York City, and I live in Tucson, a small city, I'm most settled when surrounded by the boundlessness of the Southwestern deserts, Montana's Big Sky, the biotic riot of Costa Rica and Ecuador, waters and oceans.
One of my early stories is titled "In a Landscape Animals Shrink to Nothing."
For over 35 years I've taught writing to all ages and backgrounds, from pre-school to undergraduate and graduate students, families, teachers, and the incarcerated. I co-founded ArtsReach, a non-profit, to tap the talents of Native American writers. I want as much for my students' writing as for my own—to be as large as it can be, to seize people and move them.
My services encompass writing residencies, workshops, and trainings, as well as editing and tutoring for any age or achievement level. I'm a writing coach.
After growing up six years in Manhattan's West Village, I was transplanted by my mother to Wickenburg, Arizona, the Dude Ranch Capital of the World, to relieve my chronic bronchitis, which it did.
I continued to spend summers at our rustic cottage overlooking the Long Island Sound, however, through age fourteen. Free to swim the Sound and comb the beach, to roam the surrounding woods, marshes, and potato and corn fields, I banked stores of happiness that carried me through later, (largely self-imposed) unhappy years.
A full-floor apartment a few blocks from Washington Square, a cottage on the bluff and our own private beach, all on my father's salary as a high school history teacher—that's how a family could live decades ago.
My mismatched parents eventually reached a conventionally dispiriting divorce, which convinced me for years that "family life" was a bitterly ironic epithet. Now, after 31 years of marriage, a daughter of my own and two from my wife Karen's first marriage, I have eight grandchildren. I was an only child.
In Wickenburg, my mother supported us and our horseback-riding habit on a first-grade teacher's salary. After moving us to Tucson, she became a reading specialist. With two parents as teachers, I never intended becoming one myself. Trained as a journalist and then ne'er-do-well, I canned salmon in Alaska, dug ditches in Tucson, and lugged hand trucks in NYC's garment district before becoming a photographer for a weekly newspaper. Karen was its circulation manager. We became a darkroom romance.
Eventually writing led me into the classroom after all, first through the Arizona Commission on the Arts, then the University of Arizona. Along with poet Mick Fedullo, Karen and I co-founded ArtsReach, a writing program for Native American communities.
For several years I've been author-in-residence for a Tucson school district. In retrospect, it was a (well-disguised) gift that funding for most of my school programs collapsed around 2010, along with the economy. I was forced to stray into unfamiliar livelihoods, such as editing and consulting with UNEQ, which supported research and development in unmanned systems (OK, call them "robots"), and At The Ready Magazine, an online publication devoted to rural first responders.
For a year and a half, I delved into the foundations of education itself as Coordinator for the Tohono O'odham Community of Practice, a professional development program for teachers of children age 0-5.
Karen, the oldest of nine in a blended family, always has worked. She consults for tribal and early childhood programs, as well as for Prescott College.
Our daughter Kelsey is a rigorous and generous person, a veteran of tae kwon do and high school stage crew, which are roughly equivalent experiences. Currently she is owner or part owner of two businesses (and the architect of this website makeover). When not at work she studies evolutionary genetics in her spare time. She is partial to big dogs.
Our family never has trekked across Siberia or followed the old Spice Road, but we flirt with adventure through whitewater rafting and scuba diving. I accompanied Kelsey skydiving for a Christmas present. How better to test my surgically reconstructed hip?
A writer shouldn't have a favorite book. It should be like asking a beach to single out a grain of sand, to choose among the innumerable. But I think I do—David Huddle's short story collection Only the Little Bone.
Copyright 2017 | Christopher McIlroy


text:
Witnessing Domestic Violence May Cause Children To Suffer Mentally for Decades
in Mental Health
by Malcolm Henry April 30, 2022, 3:24 pm 1 Comment
Witnessing violence between your parents is traumatic when it happens, but a new study finds that trauma can raise your risk of depression and other mental health problems.
The study included more than 17,700 Canadian adults who took part in a national survey on mental health. Of those respondents, 326 said they witnessed parental domestic violence more than 10 times before age 16, which was defined as chronic.
Among those who were exposed to chronic parental domestic violence during childhood, 22.5% had major depression at some point in their life, 15% had an anxiety disorder and nearly 27% had a substance abuse disorder. In comparison, the rates among people with no history of violence between their parents were 9%, 7% and 19%, respectively.
"Our findings underline the risk of long-term negative outcomes of chronic domestic violence for children, even when the children themselves are not abused," said study author Esme Fuller-Thomson, director of the Institute for Life Course and Aging, at the University of Toronto.
"Social workers and health professionals must work vigilantly to prevent domestic violence and to support both survivors of this abuse and their children," Fuller-Thomson added in a university news release.
According to study co-author Deirdre Ryan‑Morissette, a recent masters of social work graduate from the university's Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work, "Many children who are exposed to their parent's domestic violence remain constantly vigilant and perpetually anxious, fearful that any conflict may escalate into assault. Therefore, it is not surprising that decades later, when they are adults, those with a history of [parental domestic violence] have an elevated prevalence of anxiety disorders."
The findings were published April 12 in the Journal of Family Violence.
On the positive side, more than three in five adults who experienced chronic violence between their parents during childhood were in excellent mental health, happy/satisfied with their life and highly social, the researchers noted.
"We were encouraged to discover that so many adults overcame their exposure to this early adversity and are free of mental illness and thriving," said study co-author Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, a professor in the School of Social Work and Social Welfare at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in Israel.
"Our analysis indicated that social support was an important factor," she added. "Among those who had experienced [parental domestic violence], those who had more social support had much higher odds of being in excellent mental health."
The U.S. Office on Women's Health has more on the effects of domestic violence on children.
SOURCE: University of Toronto, news release, April 20, 2022
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Q: Unable to connet to SQL server using soci library I am beginner in c++,my problem on Linux for connecting to SQL Server with soci library, my code this but I have error and I don't found solution for my problem, my code this:
I have error:
[unixODBC][Driver Manager]Data source name not found, and no default driver specified (SQL state IM002)

Here is the code:
try{
      soci::session sql("odbc","DSN=ODBC;UID=sa;PWD=sa123; Connection Driver=TDS;Database=ReportServer; Server=192.168.1.52;Port=1433;");
    }
    catch(soci::odbc_soci_error const & e){
        cout<<"start error";
        cout<<e.odbc_error_code()<<endl;
        cout<<e.what();
    }

A: Your ODBC connection string in incorrect, your first parameter specifies a datasource called "ODBC", which you haven't configured in your operating system/odbc manager.
So either you should configure a data source with the given parameters like UID=sa;PWD=sa123; Connection Driver=TDS;Database=ReportServer; Server=192.168.1.52;Port=1433; with the corresponding ODBC data source manager/linux administration program, with a useable name like "local_test_db" and just use "DSN=local_test_db" as your connection string
or (exclusive or)
remove the "dsn=ODBC" part from your connection string and try it again with "UID=sa;PWD=sa123; Connection Driver=TDS;Database=ReportServer; Server=192.168.1.52;Port=1433;"

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
RELOCATE TO PORTUGAL
About Relocate To Portugal and our Partners
Click through each tab for more information.
Relocate to Portugal originated in 2015 with Gail Aguiar conducting private orientation tours of Porto by request. The focus was to provide practical information about life as a foreigner in Portugal.
In 2017, Gail formed Relocate to Portugal by developing administrative services, then selecting associated partners for law and real estate.
Relocate to Portugal grew to a team in 2019, expanding administrative support to other areas such as home search, assistance with registrations, lawyer contract reviews, and interpretation at appointments.
Relocate to Portugal's team expanded further to serve other areas in the country, such as Lisbon and the Algarve.
Services offered have grown to include custom research projects for vehicle importation, education, medical specialists, and Golden Visa inquiries.
Relocate to Portugal moved from near Porto City Hall to the current location in Boavista, next to Casa da Música metro station.
Relocate to Portugal, Lda.
Avenida de França, 256 – 8º Piso (Edifício Capitólio)
https://goo.gl/maps/LCE7yEbTz71yhwiAA
Relocate to Portugal provides:
Guidance through the processes of establishing residency in Portugal;
Due diligence in ever-evolving immigration procedures and public policy;
Curated partnerships for legal representation, real estate, and accountancy.
A team of multilingual administrative assistants to reduce the stress of navigating procedures in a foreign country, in a foreign language.
A network of resources for day-to-day life.
References for our work are provided upon request.
Gail Aguiar, Consultant
Gail Aguiar is a lifelong immigrant who moved with her family to Canada at the age of two, then moved by herself the next four times starting at age 19. A former resident of five Canadian provinces and six countries on four continents, migration has been her way of life. Besides expatriation, she has also repatriated twice in the past three decades. Her travels have taken her to 41 countries thus far, mostly solo, and she is passionate about travel for personal growth.
Gail is an outlier, part of a minority of expats who did not move for work, study, retirement, or as an accompanying partner. Of her four international moves, three were without the aid of a lawyer.
Prior to moving to Portugal in 2013, Gail worked in economic research, equity research, marketing research, human resources, and the Canadian public service (Ministry of the Attorney General of Ontario). Due diligence has always been part of her work ethic and ingrained sense of responsibility. If a move to Portugal is inadvisable under the circumstances, she will be forthcoming about why.
Gail was a weekly solo volunteer in a migrant detention centre in Portugal from 2015-2020 (when COVID struck, volunteering was suspended twice). Although the objective was to help others, the experience also deepened her knowledge of immigration law and its impact on the lives of a wide demographic of migrants.
During her academic studies in Anthropology, Gail started a personal blog in 2002 which features a large catalogue of photography and information, with the spotlight on Portugal from 2011. She's written more than 6,110 posts to date.
A professional photographer since 2008, Gail's website has imagery from her travels in all 18 districts of Continental Portugal, Madeira (including Porto Santo), and five Azorean islands: São Miguel (where she got married in 2013), Terceira, Faial, Corvo, and Flores, with four to go. All the images in RTP's website and social media accounts were taken by Gail.
Gail's knowledge of Portugal has led to interviews in the Financial Times and Toronto Star, in addition to Portuguese media (newspaper, radio). She's written articles and licensed her photographs of Portugal for Expedia, AirTransat, Lonely Planet, and other travel-related companies. Her latest commissioned work is several chapters of the book "Experience Portugal" by Lonely Planet, for release in March 2022.
Gail lives in the Porto metro area with her Portuguese husband and rescue dog from Guimarães.
Our core admin team is a mix of junior and senior assistants based in Porto, focusing on post-arrival admin tasks and housing searches.
Junior assistants help schedule SEF appointments and appointments in other offices, set up utilities, and assist with basic admin tasks.
Senior assistants help with residency processes for EU citizens (CRUE certificates), residence permit processes, housing searches, school searches and enrollment, accompanying clients to appointments as interpreters (eg. deed signings, civil marriage ceremonies, etc.), shipping-related admin, and management of larger responsibilities in the relocation project.
Our research team is commissioned for custom research such as medical specialist searches, vehicle importation cost analysis, and more. Fees start at 30€/hr or by quote.
Office meetings are by appointment only. Our office address:
Avenida de França, 256 – 8º Piso
We have other team members in Central and South Portugal, and associates around the country.
Our assistants are fluent in Portuguese, French, and English.
We have a lawyer on retainer and work with law partners in three different firms serving Porto, Lisbon, Setúbal, and the Algarve.
Specialty areas: property, immigration, tax, contracts, and Golden Visa.
Our contract lawyer in Porto will review your lease or employment contract to ensure it is not only legal but fair. Fee: €75/contract + tax.
We always try to find a good match between clients and our service partners. Sometimes it's a matter of geography, availability, or other criteria. We do not work for commission. We are paid by our clients, not by referrals.
We only refer service partners who we know and trust
We have a lawyer in Porto with a contract review service to ensure your lease or employment contract is not only legal but fair. Fee: €75/contract + tax.
We work with licensed agents across different agencies for long-term leases or purchasing property. We choose them based on competencies and feedback from their clients, we do not seek commissions from agents.
We have assistants on our team (independent of agents) to screen your choice of rental listings and make appointments for viewings. If you are not in Portugal, the assistant will video conference home viewings and communicate with landlords.
Accountants & Tax Experts
We work with accountants in different parts of Portugal.
As of 2021 we work with a tax advisor offering consultations by appointment.
We work with private insurance brokers around Portugal who translate policies into English and will assist foreign clients with making insurance claims.
As we are continuously adding to our list of referrals:
Let us know your needs and we will be happy to connect you with the partners most suitable to your situation.
Did you have a superb experience and want to refer a service provider to us? Feel free to send us their details.
WE WORK WITH CLIENTS RELOCATING TO ALL PARTS OF PORTUGAL
Relocate to Portugal is based in Porto, but electronic communication has made it possible for us to assist you, wherever you are. If you need assistance in person outside of the Porto area, we'll refer you to our partners closer to where you'll land.
We have associates in the Lisbon area and Algarve.
We're here to answer your questions, help you do your research, and guide you through the next steps.
Relocate to Portugal, Lda
Edifício Capitólio
Avenida de França, 256 - 8º PISO
copyright © 2017-2022 Relocate to Portugal, Lda


have a happy happy day.
howdy! i'm taylor~a fun lover, art maker and happy camper.
Being Prepared /// A Stefan Surfing Story.
one of the best inventions...ever.
Change + Custom FUN !
My 30th - West Texas - Friends - A Surprise !!


text:
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Da Poste Italiane nuova strategia per l'innovazione
Bollo auto, sconti e novità per il 2020!
Unilever chiude le gelaterie Grom e punta sui supermercati
Lavoratori Conad Auchan, attivata la procedura di licenziamento collettivo
InterOcean Capital LLC Buys 33174 Shares of Cisco Systems, Inc. (CSCO)
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text:
The Red Cross Ousted an Executive Over Sexual Harassment—Then Got Him a Job at Save the Children
The charity's now-general counsel David Meltzer praised him on his way out for "leadership" and "dedication."
Justin Elliott
Ariana Tobin
Chuck Myers/ZUMA
This story was originally published by ProPublica.
When Save the Children hired Gerald Anderson in 2013, the global charity believed it was hiring a veteran humanitarian executive with a sterling resume. Anderson had spent more than 15 years working around the world for the American Red Cross, rising through the ranks to lead the group's massive relief effort after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. After that, the Red Cross made him head of its half-billion-dollar response to the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
Perhaps most crucially, the Red Cross gave him "very positive references," including from a senior official, Save the Children said.
But the Red Cross didn't tell its counterparts at Save the Children an important fact about Anderson's work history: He had just been forced to resign from his job after the charity concluded he sexually harassed at least one subordinate.
The Red Cross' handling of the Anderson case, coming to light as the nation wrestles more broadly with its treatment of sexual misconduct allegations, sheds light on the unsettling way many employers have dealt with such allegations against high-ranking male executives. Even when employers take action, their investigations are often cursory, and accusers can be left feeling abandoned when the executives are quietly dismissed and land plum new jobs. While many employers make a practice of giving neutral recommendations, or simply dates of service, the Red Cross gave Anderson a good review, with no hint of concern.
At the Red Cross, two young women came forward in September 2012 to accuse Anderson. One, who worked under Anderson, cited disturbing emails he sent to her work account insisting they should have a romantic relationship. A Red Cross attorney subsequently acknowledged to her that investigators had found her account to have merit.
The second woman, Eliza Paul, a program assistant who met him at an after-work happy hour, lodged even more serious allegations against Anderson. She told Red Cross officials she had woken up naked in his bed without knowing how she had gotten there and had gone to the hospital for a rape kit exam.
Anderson's lawyer declined to answer specific questions but said in a statement: "Mr. Anderson has not engaged in any sexual misconduct."
The Red Cross launched an internal investigation of the women's allegations in 2012, but several staffers interviewed told ProPublica that officials seemed more concerned with protecting the institution than getting to the truth. Investigators did not interview multiple people who had been referred as witnesses. They asked few follow-up questions. They did not seek copies of Paul's medical exam.
If you are a woman sitting in this room, and you have ever been harassed by Jerry Anderson, you've just heard from the VP that he does not believe you or support you."
Anderson's accusers were dismayed when a top Red Cross official praised Anderson in an October 2012 email announcing his departure. David Meltzer, then senior vice president for international services, wrote that he regretted to announce Anderson had "decided to make a change." Meltzer said he was "grateful" to Anderson for his "leadership," lauded him for "two decades of dedication and hard work in furthering the international mission of ARC," and wished him well in his "future endeavors." Meltzer and Anderson are personal friends, according to five people.
A few days later, at a staff meeting, Meltzer, who is now the Red Cross' general counsel, went further. He said he was upset Anderson was leaving and that if it were up to him, Anderson would continue working at the Red Cross, according to three attendees. "It was flabbergasting. If you are a woman sitting in this room, and you have ever been harassed by Jerry Anderson, you've just heard from the VP that he does not believe you or support you," said Amy Gaver, then an official at the Red Cross, who attended the meeting and knew about the allegations.
The Red Cross said in a statement this week that its investigation was a "complete and thorough review of all allegations reported and we found that Mr. Anderson's actions were in direct violation of Red Cross policies and principles. We informed Mr. Anderson that he needed to leave the Red Cross, and he resigned."
But the charity conceded that the "laudatory language used in association with Mr. Anderson's departure was inappropriate and regrettable, given the circumstances." The Red Cross said it recently learned "that a verbal reference given to Save the Children may also have contained similar language. As a result, we are taking appropriate disciplinary action." The Red Cross didn't respond to questions about who was disciplined or how.
The Red Cross said it had apologized to Save the Children. "In the future, we are committed to greater due diligence with regard to these types of communications," the charity wrote in the statement.
Connecticut-based Save the Children said it learned of the circumstances surrounding Anderson's departure from the Red Cross only last week when contacted by ProPublica. The group said in a statement it has placed Anderson on administrative leave while it looks into the situation. It added there have been no allegations of misconduct against Anderson during his time at Save the Children.
Meltzer said he was "grateful" to Anderson for his "leadership," lauded him for "two decades of dedication and hard work in furthering the international mission of ARC," and wished him well in his "future endeavors."
Moved by the stories of sexual misconduct dominating the news late last year, Paul reached out to ProPublica. In an interview in the living room of her small house outside downtown Asheville, North Carolina, Paul unflinchingly told her story over the course of three hours. The Red Cross' handling of her case, she said, had left her disillusioned. "Their mission was to help the most vulnerable," she said. "The whole experience felt like they were so busy covering their asses they didn't have any concern about me."
In 2009, Camille Herland, then 23, moved to Washington, D.C., after graduating from Dartmouth College and joined the Red Cross as Anderson's assistant. Anderson, then 44 and head of the tsunami program, was a veteran globe-trotting Red Crosser, single and known to be approachable by younger staff.
Herland says he tested the bounds of their relationship from the start — asking to meet at his apartment and complaining about his dating life.
The situation escalated in August 2010 when several Red Cross employees, including Herland and Anderson, attended a colleague's wedding one weekend in New York City. Herland had just accepted a longed-for new position in a different part of the Red Cross' international department, but at the time of the wedding she was still Anderson's subordinate.
"He had been drinking. At some point during the dancing, he came and forcibly cut into the dance and backed me into a corner, and told me he had feelings for me. He took credit for having gotten me this new job, and said it was so we could be together," Herland recalled to ProPublica recently. "He was very insistent that I needed to go to his hotel room with him so we could talk about our relationship in private."
Herland declined in "no uncertain terms." He gave her his hotel room number. Then he started to cry, she said. Herland was shaken.
The next morning he started to send text messages. He told her she was breaking his heart. He begged her to "give their relationship a chance."
When the workweek began again, Anderson was not in the office. As Herland listened to her coworkers wonder where Anderson was, she was receiving a stream of texts and emails from him to both her work and personal accounts. He demanded to know if she had slept with other people at the wedding. "The end goal was always that I come to his apartment so we could talk about it," she said.
She repeatedly told Anderson she wasn't interested. She said she later deleted the messages because they were upsetting and, according to a contemporaneous email reviewed by ProPublica, Anderson asked her to.
He begged her to "give their relationship a chance."
Herland didn't report Anderson to Red Cross management because she feared she would lose her job. "I was trying to live in D.C. with no savings account and student loans and I was getting these emails on my work account from my boss who was suggesting I was a slut and asking all these inappropriate questions."
Eventually the emails stopped. But a year later, she received a surprise package to her home, saying she had received a fully paid membership to the Smithsonian. She called to ask where it had come from. The museum told her Gerald Anderson.
"That was very upsetting to me because I didn't remember having given him my address," she said. She tried to return the envelope to him. He became emotional and refused to take it back. "I said 'I can't have you buying me expensive gifts,' and he said he thought this was an activity we could do together."
She continued to talk with him a little bit after that. She asked him to provide a letter of recommendation for graduate school because he had been her highest-ranking boss. She wrote it herself and he signed.
Then her friend and Red Cross colleague Eliza Paul told her a story about an incident involving an unnamed "bad guy" at the charity. Herland guessed the identity of the man involved. Paul, surprised, confirmed it: Jerry Anderson.
Eliza Paul had moved to Washington in 2008 after studying international affairs at Lewis and Clark College in Oregon. At 23, she was hired for a temporary position at the Red Cross as part of the surge after the Haiti earthquake, and was eventually promoted to a permanent program assistant role at the charity's headquarters.
Paul had seen Anderson around the office but the two had never formally met. That changed on Thursday, Dec. 16, 2010. That day after work, a few dozen Red Cross staffers went to happy hour at the Black Rooster Pub, an unpretentious place nearby. Paul started talking with Anderson as the group dwindled down. She was drinking whiskey and remembers him laughing at her jokes and thinking, "That's so cool — maybe this is a good thing for my career."
Paul recalls being tipsy and planning to take a cab home. She went to the bathroom and checked her phone; it was 8:30 p.m.
The next thing Paul remembers is waking up early in the morning, naked, in an unfamiliar bed. Anderson, she says, was on top of her.
"I saw he didn't have a condom, and all I could think to say was, 'No, you don't have a condom.' He stopped and he laughed and he said, 'It didn't bother you last night,'" Paul said.
Paul asked if they had had sex. "He said, 'Yeah, you were really into it. It was all your idea. We left the bar and you pushed me into a cab and said, 'I'm coming home with you.'"
She was drinking whiskey and remembers him laughing at her jokes and thinking, "That's so cool — maybe this is a good thing for my career."
Feeling fuzzy, Paul stumbled out of bed, bumping into what she remembers as a coffee table. She put her clothes on. Anderson drove her home to Washington from what turned out to be northern Virginia.
"I was in total shock so I just believed him," Paul said.
She took a shower and got dressed. "I was just on autopilot," she said. "I went to work and was totally numb."
That morning at the office, she took a break and went to the pharmacy around the corner and got the morning-after pill. She told her friend and coworker Alicia Fairfield what had happened. Fairfield confirmed the account to ProPublica.
Paul says she got an email on her work account from Anderson that day saying he had a great time and couldn't wait to do it again. "I was horrified. I [said], 'Last night was a huge mistake. It shouldn't have happened. I'm sorry. I don't want to talk about this again.'"
The next day, Saturday, Paul spoke on the phone to her mother, who recommended she call the local rape crisis center. They directed her to MedStar Washington Hospital Center, near where Paul lived in Mount Pleasant. Paul and a former roommate, who confirmed the account to ProPublica, went to the hospital together. Both said Paul had no history of blacking out from drinking.
The medical records of Paul's exam, which an independent expert reviewed at ProPublica's request, are consistent with her account. The exam indicates there was sex, but rape kits cannot prove whether there was consent. According to the records, Paul told the nurse, "I never found this guy attractive, I never flirted with him or considered engaging physically with him, and then the next thing I remember it was early morning, I was in bed."
Paul suspected she had been drugged. But when she told the hospital she did not want to report the episode to the police, they told her that only the police would test for date-rape drugs. So Paul still doesn't know for sure what explains her roughly 10-hour memory gap. The doctor did prescribe a 30-day course of drugs for HIV prevention. The side effects, including nausea and temporary vision blackouts, were "brutal," Paul said.
Paul decided not to report anything to her bosses at the Red Cross. "I just got this permanent job. I'm going to have this great career," she recalled thinking. "I was positive that if I said anything the repercussions for me would be very great and for him it was non-existent." She worried she wouldn't be believed and regretted sending Anderson an email she thought could be used against her.
Paul and Anderson had little further interaction until several weeks later, in late January or early February of 2011 when she wrote a letter to him and left it on his desk. She no longer has a copy of the letter but recalls it saying something to the effect of, "What happened was absolutely not consensual. I suspect you drugged me. My only hope is that you'll read this and understand what you've taken from me and choose not to do it again to someone else."
She never got a response. She tried to avoid Anderson at work. She signed up for a martial arts self-defense class in Washington and sought therapy.
"I was positive that if I said anything the repercussions for me would be very great and for him it was non-existent."
Beyond saying that Anderson has not engaged in sexual misconduct, Anderson's attorney declined multiple requests to answer detailed questions about Herland's and Paul's allegations.
About 18 months later, the leadership of the Red Cross received reports of the allegations against Anderson. Paul, who had recently left the charity to go to graduate school at Tufts' Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, called another young female staffer considering taking a job under Anderson and told her what had happened. The staffer told a boss, and Paul and Herland decided to speak with investigators. As Herland put it in a Sept. 22, 2012, email to Red Cross management, they were concerned "that his behavior follows a dangerous pattern."
The matter ended up in the charity's Office of General Counsel. Top officials brought in Jeffrey Larroca, an attorney at the firm Eckert Seamans who regularly represents the Red Cross when it is sued in employment cases.
Over the course of several weeks, Larroca interviewed Paul, Herland and at least two others. Four people familiar with the investigation told ProPublica they regarded the inquiry as shallow. Larroca did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
"I was surprised that the investigation didn't go further—they didn't dig deeper," said Fairfield, Paul's then-coworker. When Fairfield was interviewed, "They didn't ask me about any experiences I'd had with Jerry Anderson," she said.
"It was very clear that his objective when conducting those interviews was about protecting the interests of the Red Cross," said Herland. "It was clear he was trying to poke holes in the story."
In Paul's case, the investigators did not seek to get the records from the rape kit, didn't contact her friend who accompanied her to the hospital, and didn't reach out to a Red Cross employee who she had told about what happened.
Another Red Cross employee who did participate was told by an in-house attorney that the charity was not keeping records associated with the investigation, according to a September 2012 email obtained by ProPublica. "They are not making any records, not using email, only discussing in person w/ pen and paper and then destroying those notes after every discussion," the email said.
In a statement, the Red Cross denied this. "Records were maintained for this investigation, but they remain confidential to protect the privacy of the parties involved," the charity said.
Standing by its investigation, the charity said: "The American Red Cross has zero tolerance for sexual harassment and has policies in place to enforce that, as evidenced by the corrective actions we took resulting in the resignation of Jerry Anderson more than 5 years ago."
"It was very clear that his objective when conducting those interviews was about protecting the interests of the Red Cross."
Several experts on workplace harassment said that investigations by employers are often beset by conflicts of interest.
"Having a slipshod investigation is very common," said James M. Cooney, a professor at Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations who teaches employment law. "It's critical that the investigator be as impartial as possible. It would be problematic for an employer to use its regular defense attorney because of the potential conflict."
When the investigation was over, Herland got an Oct. 23, 2012, email from an in-house Red Cross attorney saying, "We found merit to your complaint." When Paul didn't hear anything, she called the same attorney, Mary Elizabeth Cisneros, who told Paul, "Your statement was helpful," according to contemporaneous emails.
Meltzer, who was senior vice president for international services, then sent out the email announcing Anderson's departure and praising him.
When Herland saw the email praising Anderson, she said, "It made me physically sick to read. I was incredibly angry. It was a clear slap in the face to those of us who put ourselves out there."
A few days after the email, Meltzer convened the staff meeting in which he also praised Anderson and said he wished Anderson were staying.
Eight days after Meltzer sent the email praising Anderson, the Red Cross announced Meltzer was being promoted to general counsel of the entire organization. In that position, which he still holds, he oversees the charity's handling of misconduct cases and is directly responsible for the Red Cross' Office of Investigations, Compliance & Ethics. In a statement, the Red Cross said Meltzer's promotion had long been in the works and was unrelated to his handling of the Anderson case.
In February 2013, Anderson was hired as a senior director for humanitarian response at Save the Children, where his direct boss was Robert Laprade.
Laprade himself had previously worked for years at the Red Cross, where he worked closely with Anderson on the relief effort after the Indian Ocean tsunami. According to several current and former staffers, the two are personal friends. Laprade told ProPublica in a statement that he only learned last week about why Anderson left the Red Cross in 2012. "I never had any reason to think there were problems as I worked with him for five years and my observation was that he was professional," Laprade said.
Save the Children has a reputation in the industry for in-depth background checks. The group said its recruiter conducted interviews and background checks on Anderson, as well as receiving the positive reference from the Red Cross.
Save the Children said there have been no allegations of misconduct about Anderson during his time there. Anderson has since been promoted and is now associate vice president of humanitarian response.
For many years, the aid industry has been beset by scandals in which workers committed sexual abuse against vulnerable people in war and disaster zones. But it wasn't until recently that the industry began to look inward at the problem of harassment and violence by staffers against other staffers.
Reuters reported in November that aid groups, including Save the Children International, had fired dozens of staffers for harassment in the past year. Save the Children US told ProPublica it has received three reports in the past year of sexual harassment.
A 2017 report on harassment by a task force that includes the international Red Cross federation found that "good practices are not widespread" and there "is little capacity to identify and address repeat offenders" or share information between organizations.
In the U.S., organizations are generally not legally required to reveal misconduct when a prospective employer calls for a reference, according to Janice Bellace, a professor of business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. Many have a policy of not disclosing why an employee left, partly because of a fear of lawsuits. "There are real cases where a person sues for defamation," she said.
Aid industry observers say the failure to share information between organizations can perpetuate problems involving sexual misconduct.
Christine Williamson, an expert who consults with aid organizations on human resources issues, said, "I have seen people move around who have gone through the disciplinary process, come out with a confidentiality agreement, and move on to another organization without really paying the price."
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You are here: Home / Exclusive Asian / Leonardo Aguilar
About Leonardo Aguilar
Leonardo Aguilar is the grandson of two great legends of Mexican music, Don Antonio Aguilar and Dona Flor Silvestre. He's the son of Pepe Aguilar, who owns a surname that generates a great responsibility, but also supports him to continue with a legacy of great artists. Since he was very young, his family saw in Leonardo an artistic dowry that can rarely be seen in a child, supporting him since then to fulfill his great dream, to stand on stage and sing before an audience that welcomes him by his great voice, simplicity, charisma and talent.
Born in Mexico City on August 15, 1999, Leonardo has grown up surrounded by the tradition that his family generates. That is why, before planning a musical release, he was prepared to offer people a young artist like him that for many years does not surprise the music industry and that without fear of being wrong, LEONARDO can be that talent that achieves great successes and occupy that place in the heart and taste of people.
With the total influence of his father, Leonardo likes to play guitar and is a fan of Mexican music. He mainly enjoys the songs of his grandfather, Joan Sebastian and of course Pepe Aguilar. He dreams one day he can emulate those equestrian shows made his family.
Invited in the music band, Leonardo Aguilar presents us with his new EP. Under the production of Pepe Aguilar, it contrasts the brave music of the authentic band. With a young and fresh voice that result in a perfect combination for his fans.
New Latin Music
With the release of the single "Tu Rey León" by Cristina Abaroa, Leonardo offers people their musical proposal and soon it will be on sale in all record stores in Mexico and the United States. It will also be on sale in digital formats. Coming from the same production that also seeks to help the most needy and make people aware of supporting others through music. Leonardo together with his sister Angela recently became ambassadors of Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. They pledged to donate a dollar from the sale of each album to help the most needy children in the hospital.
Regardless of his young age, Leonardo is not afraid of the big stages or a large audience. A few years ago he was part of the farewell tour of his grandfather Antonio Aguilar. In one part of the show he sang a song next to him of his cousins and siblings and even had the opportunity to also accompany his father in some of his presentations. He simply takes over the microphone in a creamy way ripping the applause of the people.
Although Leonardo Aguilar is just beginning his career, he already has a distinction that other singers in a lifetime of trajectory do not achieve. He was the 1st to sing the American national anthem last summer in a gala celebrated in the house of the actor Antonio Banderas in front of none other than President Barack Obama.
Angela Aguilar Pepe Aguilar


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Category Archives: Tatarstan
Privat making moves in Ukraine's oil sphere
Note: I started writing this on Monday but my computer crashed on Tuesday and I have been struggling to get it working again since then. I'll follow up this post with one covering the further developments (including the reappearance of some figures from the past — Igor Makarov and Itera along with scandal-ridden Igor Bakai) in the on-going gas negotiations.
Much attention is still focused on Ukraine's evolving "gas war" with Gazprom (Igor Didenko walked out of negotiations over Naftogaz's debt to UkrGazEnergo, though follow-up meetings showed progress; Yulia Tymoshenko reiterated her pledge to remove middlemen even as her counter-point Raisa Bohatyryovna is in Moscow to pass along Yushchenko's promise of stability; gangster Semyon Mogilevich's arrest fueled speculation on imminent shakeups, while Dimitry Firtash once again denied any connection between the two within the gas sphere), despite calls by Naftogaz to de-politicize the ongoing and oft-contentious negotiations.
Honoring Naftogaz's request (kind of), I'll turn to some recent developments in Ukraine's oil sphere.
Late December 2007, Igor Kolomoisky, one of the major owners of the Privat Group, bought a 12.6% stake in British firm JKX Oil & Gas. The deal, valued at over $150 million based on stock price, makes Kolomoisky the second largest shareholder in the company behind only Alexander Zhukov. JKX's presence in Ukraine is an 80% holding in the country's largest private oil producer Poltava Petroleum Company (PPC). With production levels of about 800 tons of oil and 1 million cubic meters of natural gas per day, PPC trails only Ukrnafta (50%+1 owned by Naftogaz, 42% owned by Privat) in output for Ukraine.
Following the sale, Kolomoisky's Privat partner Gennadiy Bogolyubov announced the possibility that the powerful financial group would divest from its 42% holding in Ukrnafta. Besides facing a 25% increase in oil extraction rental rates that severely limits profitability, firms with significant state ownership are also obliged to sell natural gas production to Naftogaz at the fixed rate of $53 per thousand cubic meters–well below market value. This provision, Decree 31 from the previous Yanukovich-led government, already forced out independent producer Cardinal Resources and appears to be pushing Privat into the private sector.
However, some analysts consider Privat's statements on selling out of Ukrnafta as only a threat, as the group attempts to wrangle a better tax situation within the hydrocarbon sector from a government seen to be sympathetic to Kolomoisky. Indeed, Naftogaz today announced the possibility of raising the price for domestic (non-industrial) consumers at the end of the current heating season, recognizing the detrimental effect the depressed rate has on Ukrainian gas production sphere (which is tasked to supply the regulated market). It is unclear if these moves are related, but reform of the tax and fee structure surrounding Ukrainian hydrocarbon extraction is a key step in boosting domestic production figures, insuring adequate upkeep and attracting foreign investment.
Naftogaz and Privat are also apparently sparring over Ukrnafta's profit allocations for 2006, with the government calling for 50% of the $480 million net profit to be distributed as dividends. The minority shareholders (including Privat), on the other hand, felt that number was too high and that more should be re-invested into production capabilities. The shareholders were set to vote on the issue in May 2007, but it was tabled until a shareholders meeting last week. However, neither Privat nor state representatives attended the meeting, leading to the absence of a quorum. The new leadership of Naftogaz apparently has to reach an agreement (.doc) on the fate of the profits, and the issue has been pushed back to a later (undetermined) meeting.
Meanwhile, Privat is making moves concerning its refineries, as well. Given Kremenchuk's supply issues, the two smaller Privat-controlled refineries in Western Ukraine (Galichina and Neftekhimik Prikarpatia) have been forced to shut down production and undergo modernization repairs. Recently, however, the management of the refineries sent a letter to the government asking about the possibility of reversing the Odessa-Brody pipeline and sending Caspian crude north. Some would then be exported into Europe while the two refineries committed to processing 5 million tons per year. Responding to the letter, Fuel and Energy Minister Yuri Prodan instructed Ukrtransnafta to study the possibility of reversing the flow and including the two refineries in planned shipments.
Refining Caspian crude, which is a higher quality than Ukrainian or Russian varieties, would prevent Privat from having to invest in long-delayed upgrades to the Galichina and Neftekhimik Prikarpatia refineries. Newly-enacted government regulations on the quality of diesel fuel for Ukraine would have likely forced the refineries to close for repairs anyway, regardless of the availability of supply. Tapping into Caspian crude, however, would allow them to reopen without the costly improvements.
Ukraine's President Yushchenko met with his Azeri counterpart Ilham Aliyev in Davos last week to discuss energy issues. A couple days later in a meeting with Prodan, Azerbaijan's ambassador to Ukraine said they are willing to provide 5 million tons of Azeri crude per year should the pipeline reverse direction. However, there was talk of sending the crude (via the Druzhba pipeline) to a Czech refinery, or even building a new Azeri-sponsored plant within Ukraine.
TNK-BP has been coordinating the shipment of Russian crude southward through the line and managed to increase volumes in 2007 by 160% to 9 million tons for the year. Much of this increase was due to an agreement between Russia's pipeline operator Transneft and Ukraine's Ukrtransnafta to lower tariffs on Russian crude so long as the total volume exceeded 9 million tons for the year. However, this provision expired on December 31st and Transneft promptly increased tariff levels by 38 percent. While TNK-BP is working on reaching a similar deal, in all likelihood this year's volumes will be down significantly due to the less attractive economic situation.
This should open the door for Ukraine to push through its reversal plans, presuming it can get all the players on board. The 5 million tons requested by the Privat-controlled refineries is considered to be overly ambitious for their production capabilities, and was likely meant to try to dissuade the construction of a new refinery (leading to more domestic competition) to handle the crude. While Prodan asked Ukrtansnafta to examine the scenario, it is unclear how strongly he would lobby for Privat's interests. Privat, while perhaps not playing a central role through its refineries, would be key due to its strong position at the Odessa oil port. Of course, this is even assuming that the government decides (and manages to) actually reverse the pipeline.
In the meantime, despite the closing of its two Western Ukraine refineries, Privat maintains a strong position within Ukraine's refined products sphere due to its alleged control over Ukrtatnafta and the Kremenchuk refinery. Indeed, the halting of production at Galichina and Neftekhimik Prikarpatia–predicted due to the change in fuel regulations–has been suggested as an impetus for Privat to take control of Kremenchug, thus ensuring a market for its domestically produced crude (via Ukrnafta) and a continued presence in the refined products sphere. While Pavel Ovcharenko ascended to the top of the company pledging to remove shadowy middlemen from Ukrtatnafta's supply chain and resurrect the firm's financial status, nearly all of the refinery's products are apparently sold via Privat-controlled Optima Oil or even Ukrnafta itself.
Ukraine's vice prime minister Alexander Turchinov has stated that the Cabinet of Ministers will work to resolve the issue for the benefit of all parties (though he is also quoted as saying "for the benefit of Tatneft"), which is at least a welcome change from the silence the conflict had been generating from the government before. There is no word on exactly how this will happen, and Tatneft and Naftogaz (the two major shareholders fighting for control, despite Privat apparently pulling the strings) didn't respond to my requests for a comment. However, Ukrtatnafta is apparently on a list of firms drawn up by PM Yulia Tymoshenko's office for privatization (working on confirming this), and the government may attempt to structure any future sale in a manner that would create some form of resolution.
Even as Turchinov stressed the possibility of ending the conflict, though, Yuri Prodan ensured that an underlying source of tension–also involving Privat–will continue. The Privat-controlled financial company Ukrneftegaz is in charge of managing the shareholder registers for energy firms that have significant Ukrainian state ownership–including Ukrtatnafta. Tatneft accused Ukrneftegaz of manipulating the list for Ukraine's benefit, leading to the eventual management dispute. Ukrneftegaz has also been accused of lobbying for the interests of Privat in energy deals and using its powers to dictate shareholder meetings. Prodan recently defended Ukrneftegaz's performance, and said the state plans on continuing to use the financial company's services.
Given these examples, it is clear that Privat–that is, Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov–are major players in Ukraine's energy sphere, particularly within the oil market. While the rise to power of Industrial Union of Donbass-connected officials within Yulia Tymoshenko's government may somewhat temper this involvement (IUD is a rival business conglomerate from Donetsk), Privat is still seen to be close to various factions within the ruling coalition. While Privat recently failed at its attempt to block Rinat Akhmetov's deal with Dneproenergo, most observers are expecting the business group to use its political connections to launch another attempt at halting the transaction and increasing its presence within Ukraine's energy market.
Posted in Naftogaz, Pipelines, Privat, Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
Ukrtatnafta supply issues reverberate across Ukraine's oil sphere
Despite expectations of boosted production in December, the Ukrtatnafta-owned Kremenchuk oil refinery is still facing problems in securing oil supplies, even as its efforts to buy domestic crude have forced two smaller Ukrainian refineries to shut down.
Both the Drogobych (Galichina) and Nadvornyansk (Neftekhimik Prikarpatiya) refineries in western Ukraine have ceased production for the month, apparently unable to buy any Ukrainian crude on the market. Ukrtatnafta, facing halted supplies from previous partner Tatneft stemming from a "management dispute," bought what was available in Ukraine and routed it to its Kremenchuk refinery.
Both of these smaller refineries are linked to the powerful Ukrainian conglomerate Privat, which is believed to have engineered the move that installed Ukraine-friendly Pavel Ovcharenko atop Ukrtatnafta in October. This move, which forcibly removed the Tatneft-aligned Sergei Glushko, angered Tatarstan shareholders. In response, Tatneft shut off direct supplies to Kremenchuk and pressured other Russian oil firms from providing shipments. Ukrtatnafta dropped production well below capacity and turned to Ukraine's relatively-small domestic crude market to make up the difference while searching for new sources of Russian crude.
According to Argus FSUE, quoting local traders, Ukrtatnafta was able to purchase nearly 170,000 tons of Ukrainian crude for December at about $103 per barrel. This is similar to volumes that were domestically purchased for November. Drogobych and Nadvonyansk together had been averaging about 140,000 tons a month (see chart), so the increased presence of Ukrtatnafta in the domestic market–buying more than their combined delivery–has forced them out of production. Western Ukraine is facing an increase of 10-20 kopeks (2-4 cents) per liter of gasoline due to the halting of the two refineries, at least in the short term until boosted exports from Belarus enter the market.
Tatneft has also been relatively successful in pressuring other Russian suppliers from making a deal with Ukrtatnafta. According to industry sources, last month Privat-controlled companies approached Lukoil and TNK-BP about supplying the Drogobych refinery, but both Russian companies refused over worries that the deliveries would be re-routed to Kremenchuk. Ukrtatnafta was able to purchase two deliveries from Rosneft through the trader Gunvor, to be sent via tanker through Odessa. However, stormy Black Sea weather delayed the first (82,000 ton) shipment, which pushed back the loading of the second (80,000 ton) shipment, leading to the delivery of only 132,000 tons of Russian crude for the month of November.
The refinery had been hoping to process 300,000 tons a month (and is predicting 360,000 tons for December), and this extra 30,000 tons of Russian crude to that was delayed from the November shipment may be incorporated in the prediction for boosted production. A source with Tatneft said the supplemental Russian crude deliveries were purchased at around $105 per barrel, pricing Ukrtatnafta's supplies higher than the average for Urals-blend, which closed at $90.55 / barrel at the end of November.
Privat also moved to increase its control over the trading division of Ukrtatnafta that supplies the Ukrainian regions of Poltava, Cherkasy and Sumy with the firm's refined oil products. The Privat-controlled company Vato bought an additional 25% of the trading firm's shares, mainly from the insurance company Oniks (of which Vato owns a quarter), boosting its holding to 89%.
This appears to be a solidification of Privat within the supply chain, from the oil port services firm Sintez at Odessa to the Kremenchuk factory to the sales division. Upon re-taking control over the refinery, one of Ovcharenko's main complaints centered on the use of Tatneft-aligned intermediaries on either side of Kremenchuk's operations unnecessarily bumping up prices and decreasing margins for the refinery while simultaneously lining the pockets of management figures. It looks like Privat is either looking to end this relationship — or reinforce it with entities of its own choosing.
Of course, this won't do the firm any good if it can't secure the delivery of Russian crude. Privat seems to be willing to let its other two refinery assets — which are less technically advanced than Kremenchuk — dwindle while flexing its presence within Ukraine's domestic oil market (it controls Ukrnafta, as well) in order to support its plans for Ukrtatnafta.
Tatneft crude, meanwhile, has been rerouted through alternative export channels to compensate for the cessation of deliveries to Kremenchuk. However, given the heavier nature of the crude produced in Tatarstan versus other Russian sources, this has affected the makeup of some Russian crude oil exports. As a result, a denser mix of crude has been flowing through the southern leg of the major Druzhba oil pipeline and at Black Sea ports that serve as destinations for Russian crude (i.e. Novorossiysk and Pivdenne). This denser mix could potentially lessen the attractiveness for traders of Urals-blend from these sources, and is likely producing pressure from other Russian oil exporters for Tatneft to resume its standard export regime to Kremenchuk. The refinery is more suited to dealing with the heavy blend, and Ural export density would then return to its previous, more attractive, level.
While a shareholders meeting for Ukrtatnafta is scheduled for Dec. 17th, it is unlikely to be held due to the continued boycott of Tatarstan-allied owners (accounting for about 40%). Not only is this protracted dispute affecting the performance of both sides — as well as the oil market around Ukraine and Russian in general — it also is a continued example of a lack of respect for the rule of law and the "raiders" culture of strong-armed business tactics. While the incoming Ukrainian government has questioned the previous privatization of of Ukrtatnafta (lending credence to the Ovcharenko's placement atop the firm), the circumstances upon which the current management rose to power and the inability between the sides to reach any form of civil agreement or business cooperation cry for the involvement of an impartial and lawful intervention by Ukrainian state forces for the development of a mutually acceptable settlement.
Posted in Privat, Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
Ukrtatnafta apparently secures future crude deliveries, predicting upped production at Kremenchuk
Posted on December 1, 2007 | 1 comment
According to an Ukrtatnafta press release, the oil products company is predicting a 20% increase in production at the Kremenchuk refinery for December, bringing the monthly total to 360,000 tons. However, this is still below the plant's typical monthly average of between 500,000 and 600,000 tons, before the current "management dispute" led to a cessation of crude supplies from Tatneft.
The company's plan has several refining assets that had been shut-down brought back on-line to account for the increased production figures.
Given the company's confidence in its ability to boost the production rate, it would suggest that Ukrtatnafta has succeeded in securing future crude supplies, at least for this next month. It had been surviving at a limited production rate through deliveries of Russian crude via Odessa and supplies purchased on Ukraine's domestic oil market.
These crude supplies are more expensive than what it had been getting from Tatneft via pipeline originating at the oil fields in Tatarstan. One Tatneft executive was quoted as saying that Ukrtatnafta was now paying about $105 per barrel but this may not be a reliable source, as Tatneft has an interest in making the affairs of Ukrtatnafta look as badly out of order as possible.
However, the plant's output of refined products does reflect a higher base price. From Reuters:
Analysts said also on Thursday that prices for Kremenchug's refined products had also risen — $1,095 for a tonne of diesel from $1,059, 92 octane petrol rose to $1,139 per tonne from $1,109 and "super" 95 octane rose to $1,168 from $1,129.
Kremenchuk (Kremenchug is the transliteration in Russian) produces around a third of Ukraine's refined oil products and represents a vital economic asset as well. Bringing the production figures back up to pre-disruption numbers may also help slow rising gasoline prices in Ukraine, which have now hit the psychological mark of $1 / liter. However, the driving factor for gasoline's price increase has been spiking prices in the world oil market, rather than problems at Kremenchuk–Ukraine still has one of the cheapest rates for gasoline in Europe.
Posted in Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
Update on Privat's role in the Ukrtatnafta affair as Glushko dismissal hearings begin
Hearings on the dismissal of former Ukrtatnafta head Sergei Glushko began yesterday in Kyiv, but I am still working on trying to gain access to them. In the meantime, the Ukrainian news magazine Kommentarii (Comments) ran an article in this week's edition attempting to shed some light on the recent supplementary oil shipments routed to the refinery. The article alleges that Gennadiy Timchenko, a former KGB colleague of Russian President Vladimir Putin, is connected to the crude shipments, and is doing so in collusion with the Ukrainian firm Privat. From Kommentarii (my translation):
According to Kommentarii's source, the supply chain of oil to Ukrtatnafta appears as follows: Rosneft — Gunvor — Rixo (a Turkish company, trading in mazut [low quality fuel oil] for thermal power plants). The key element in the chain is the transfer at the Odessa oil harbor of oil into railroad tankers to Kremenchuk for Ukrtatnafta. [see below]
According to Russian experts, the conductor of this operation is none other than the former colleague and friend of President Putin, Gennadiy Timchenko — 50% owner of the Swiss firm Gunvor. Through the firm are sent the majority of exports for Rosneft and Gazprom (its oil exports). As a result of the bankruptcy of Yukos, the assets of this company [Yukos] were obtained by Rosneft, and its exports–by Guvnor.
The article details the connection between Putin and Timchenko as beginning during a shared stint in the KGB's foreign intelligence division, and reinforced through belonging to the same judo gym in St. Petersburg. Timchenko entered the oil trade in 1988 with the firm Kineks which grew to reach turnover of around $2 billion a couple years later. He later moved on to form Gunvor in 1997 with a Swedish partner Torborn Tornquist. In 2001, the firm moved its headquarters to a swanky banking district in Geneva, and business began to take off.
By 2006, Gunvor was exporting 60 million tons of oil and petroleum products, worth about $30 billion. That figure is expected to jump to $43 billion for 2007. According to Russian press, the growth of Gunvor's oil trading activities corresponds to Putin's ascension to power, as the firm was able draw upon its political connections to win beneficial contracts with state energy giants.
The Kommentarii article goes on to identify three possible reasons why the Russian government (via Putin's links to Timchenko's Gunvor) would help out Ukratatnafta — or at least, not prevent this assistance — despite harsh condemnations of the corporate raid:
This is an attempt by the federal government to lower the influence of Tatarstan President Mintimer Shaymievym.
This represents a desire by Putin to further entrench his agents within Ukraine's energy sphere; similar to the introduction of Yurii Boyko and Igor Voronin in the RosUkrEnergo scheme, this would allegedly put a key Ukrainian energy asset at the whims of a close Kremlin ally.
This is the result of cooperation between the Kremlin and the powerful Privat Group (led by Igor Kolomoisky), which has been lobbying for increased control in Ukraine's oil market.
Here is a translation of the deeper explanation given for the involvement of Privat, which apparently stems from its efforts to entrench its recently-acquired holding Sintez Oil into the transferring and services sector at the Odessa oil port. (I am including the entire section — again, my translation — to try to give a fuller explanation of this theory.)
Implementing deliveries by tanker is practically impossible without interested partners who possess the necessary infrastructure and are interested in the conflict at the Kremenchuk refinery. Privat, whose representatives openly declared the firm's participation in the conflict, is such a partner for the Kremlin. It shouldn't be forgotten that this group controls the above-mentioned Odessa oil port.
The possibility of the collection of barter tariff payments (rather than monetary) for the services of port trans-shipment and loading of oil is one of the most attractive sides of the operation of the oil terminal at the port. Sintez Oil, the Cypriot International Petroleum Company [unclear…] and [Sintez's partner] OAO Eximnefteproduct sell the whole spectrum of transit services: trans-shipment of cisterns [tankers] and their steam cleaning, use of the reservoir park for the loading of tankers, direct transfer of oil, along with services for the cleaning ballast water from the tankers.
The cost of this port service is high, since the market for the supply of large quantities of oil by pipeline and railway to Ukraine is extremely monopolized. It is dominated by two or three players. Control of the port would allow favored investors to enter into this market, escaping the risk of investing into refineries.
Only those that invest money into factories earn money on the import of oil in Ukraine. The circle of such investors is primarily narrow. At the same time, control of the port gives a peculiar free pass into the entrance of this club: who would argue about the importance of transit?
By receiving oil in payment for transit services, the managers of the oil port were able to avoid threats from major players in the market and enter into reprocessing at the Odessa refinery and into Ukrtatnafta, which are connected to the port by pipelines. From recent times, thanks to the new Zhulin-Nadrovnaya bridge, among these clients has appeared the Nadrovnyanskiy refinery of the group Privat.
Thanks to the inclusion of Nadrovornaya into the pipeline network, the firm received the opportunity to take from the Russian exports "natural payment" for the transit not in Odessa itself but, for example, in Brody or Mozyr. In fact, the scheme "transit in place of delivery" allows Privat to economize on the purchase of expensive imported oil.
Earlier, this economy allowed the former co-owners of Sintez Oil, Alexander Zhukov and Andrei Derkach to play a noticeable role in the Ukrainian oil products market. Their attempts to create an oil empire on the basis of control over the deliveries to the Kherson refinery and over the system of sales by Ukrnaftoprodukt came to an end in complete failure. Experts called the causes of the failure the weak connection with the owners of the Kherson and Odessa refineries.
Neither Lukoil nor the Bazhaev brothers from Alians [who controlled the refineries] trusted Zhukov or Derkach. It is unlikely that Privat will repeat the mistakes of its predecessors. After all, in the group [Privat] are two of its own smaller refineries, and not long ago Ukrtatnafta entered the orbit of the firm.
In sum, control over the last [presumably meaning Ukrtatnafta], along with control over the port, would allow Sintez to create a fully vertically integrated oil complex, which includes all technical chains "from the tanker and well to the filling station." Over such a business stake in the large oil game that is now flaring up between Moscow and Kyiv, the Dnepropetrovsk-based Privat is fully capable of becoming the victor.
Apparently Privat is lobbying the Kremlin to allow these supplemental deliveries in order to cement both the role of Sinitez in the oil services sphere, as well as its newly-acquired influence over Ukrtatnafta. This combination would apparently bump up Privat's stake in the regional oil market significantly. Where Moscow benefits — besides gaining a business partner (trustworthy or not) — is unclear.
Kommentarii's source (backed up here) also says that 80,000 tons of crude from Rosneft was scheduled to be shipped from Novorossisk to Odessa aboard the SeaBravery tanker, but the shipment was delayed by last weekend's storm. At the press time of the magazine (November 15th, or so), the ship had yet to leave port. By this point, it is still unclear if it has left yet. The prevention of further shipments from Novorossisk due to the storm's aftermath may throw a wrench into Privat's plans (if, indeed, this is all part of its grand plan), as it would presumably be forced to look beyond its sphere of influence for additional shipments to feed the Kremenchuk refinery. Undoubtedly, however, the group will develop a new scheme…
I'm still working on wrapping my head around these ideas, and am looking into some of the players. If anyone has further insight, feel free to add your own comments or send me an email.
Posted in Gunvor, Privat, Rosneft, Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
"Oil and Gas 2007″ roundup and Kremenchuk update
Last week Ukraine's Ministry of Fuel and Energy sponsored its annual "Oil and Gas" conference in Kyiv, a part of its larger "Energy and Power" exhibition. While mainly serving as a product exposition for companies within the oil and gas industry (think valves, pipes, compressors, gauges, drills, etc.), there were also a few majors there such as Shell, E.ON Ruhrgas and TNK. I took the opportunity to talk with various company representatives about their work in Ukraine, and what they saw for the future.
The conference was opened with a speech by Fuel and Energy minister Yurii Boyko, before he left for natural gas negotiations with Russia (which I will be writing on shortly). At the exhibition, he touched on the upcoming negotiations, saying transit tariffs for gas through Ukraine would reach "market" levels in 3-5 years. This seemed to be a reminder of the leverage Ukraine holds over Russia on the eve of their price negotiations, but still falls in line with previous statements regarding the gradual rise in both transit costs and delivery price. Sure enough, later that week Gazprom announced that the two sides would be paying "market" prices for gas deliveries and transit by 2011. The headline from that statement, however, tended only to emphasize Gazprom's commitment to charging Ukraine higher gas prices, and ignored the obligation for Gazprom to pay higher transit costs. (No word on bumping up storage costs to market levels, either.)
Anyway, back to the conference.
Nearly everyone there was optimistic, with most citing expected growth within Ukraine, particularly within the natural gas industry. This was true for firms like Shell, as well as the smaller service providers like Smith Ukraine and Weatherford who would look to capitalize on greater involvement by the majors. Ukraine still holds fairly significant hydrocarbon reserves (principally natural gas), especially within the Donbas, pre-Carpathian and Black Sea shelf regions. Developing these reserves is a key part of the Ukrainian government's lofty Energy Strategy to 2030, though problems with financing at Naftogaz Ukrainy and unclear licensing and exploration laws have hindered much progress.
I swung by the Ukrtatnafta booth to see what they had going on there, but things were quiet. (For those of you not following the dispute between Tatneft and Ukraine over the Kremenchuk oil refinery, check out the rundown in the EDM.) The women upfront were mum, addressing any questions I had (specifically about the recent "management dispute") to contact information on the back of the brochure they were handing out. Eventually, however, I was able to figure a few things out. In general, things at the company are proceeding as normal, despite the interruption by corporate raiders. While things were a bit up in the air, they are now continuing to receive oil shipments and are essentially going about their work. The new oil shipments will be more expensive from what they had been getting before, but they are continuing to pump out their products from the Kremenchuk refinery. Indeed, news reports have the the plant receiving oil via Odessa, despite the threats of an international lawsuit by the Tatar shareholders.
Meanwhile, the November 15th shareholders meeting that I had thought perhaps might facilitate a resolution to the conflict appears unlikely to do so now, as the Tatar shareholders stated that they will not be attending. This will prevent a quorum at the meeting, blocking any legitimizing motions from being passed. At this point, it's appearing unlikely that Ovcharenko will be ousted from his current position atop the leadership, at least not without direct intervention from the top of Ukraine's political ladder. The sense also seems that Tatneft will likely resume shipments of oil to the refinery due to the convenience of the natural conditions and in-place infrastructure, but at "less profitable terms for Ukrtatnafta."
Posted in Exploration, Gazprom, Naftogaz, Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
An Oil Special — Kremenchuk, Ukrtatneft, Naftogaz, Gazprom Neft…(and Privat?)
Sergei Ivanov, Russia's powerful first deputy prime minister, weighed in on Friday about the ongoing conflict surrounding the Kremenchuk oil refinery, escalating the issue by further publicizing the opinions of the Russian government besides the previous condemnations from Tatarstan. From RIA Novosti:
"I consider the incident unacceptable, and we cannot ignore it, because the protection of Russian business interests has long been and is likely to remain a national priority," Sergei Ivanov told a session of the government commission for industry, technology and transport development.
Ivanov said the incident, already denounced by authorities in Tatarstan and the Russian government, had also dealt "an obvious and considerable blow to relations between Russian investors and their Ukrainian counterparts."
Ivanov does not believe the Ukrainian government is doing enough to resolve the issue, and while acknowledging the current transition period due to recent parliamentary elections, he says it's no excuse for "anarchy." Ukraine's Ministry of Fuel and Energy had attempted to call a meeting of Ukrtatnafta's supervisory board, but this was rejected by Tatarstan, which said it wouldn't be sufficient to end the dispute. There is a shareholders meeting for Ukrtatnafta scheduled for November 15th, and a resolution may not come before then.
In the past, Yurii Lutsenko (former Interior Minister and current People's Self-Defense headliner) has stated that he agrees that the refinery should be in state (i.e. Naftogaz) control, citing the shady privatization deals that led to the dispute over an 18% stake in the firm that precipitated the current conflict. Naftogaz recently appointed a new head, a representative from the Bloc of Yulia Tymoschenko. Lutsenko and Tymoschenko's parties are expected to form the ruling coalition for Ukraine's new government, propelling Tymoschenko to premiership.
A report by Tatarstan's trade representative in Kyiv has cited major Ukrainian financial firm Privat as a driving force behind the current conflict:
"I am not saying that the raid was performed by Kolomoisky [a Privat co-owner], an entire conglomerate of interests is involved there. Others, quite powerful in Ukraine, who have certain influence in Russia, are also behind it," [trade rep. Rostislav] Vakhitov said without specifying their names.
Privat, through it's affiliated company Korsan, owns a 1.2% stake in Ukrtatnafta. Igor Kolomisky is sometimes accused of close ties the Orange camp and to Tymoschenko (which she denies), and he may have seen the turnover in government as a opportunity to push for the move against Ukrtatnafta. The last time Tymoschenko was Prime Minister, she spearheaded a re-privatization campaign for the large Krivorozhstal steel works, and she has not ruled out further re-privatization moves. The incoming administration, then, may be sympathetic to the refinery's new ownership given the economic rationale being stressed by the current head.
Pavel Ovcharenko took over the factory claiming he was doing so in the best interests of the company, asserting that it had been driven into near ruin by the previous head. Indeed, the firm struggled financially in the past year, apparently losing about $25 million over the past 9 months after profits of nearly $30 million for the same period in 2006. Ovcharenko stuck by that economic message in a letter he sent to the Poltava SBU outlining signs of apparent financial ruin nearly brought upon the company, along with large amounts of unpaid back taxes owed to the Ukrainian government. This echoes a similar letter from Ovcharenko sent to President Yushchenko and other government representatives.
At the heart of the company's financial problems, asserts Ovcharenko, is the use of middlemen in buying the crude and selling the products at unreasonable prices, rather than a system in line with market principals. President Yushchenko recently wrote an open letter to PM Yanukovich that called for government intervention into the oil trading sector, citing schemes that are taking advantage of tax loopholes and costing Ukraine's government significant amounts of money while negatively affecting market conditions:
"Это, в свою очередь, предопределяет нарушение конкурентных условий во время осуществления субъектами ведения хозяйства предпринимательской деятельности, в том числе на рынке нефти и нефтепродукто."
"This, in turn, predetermines the violation of the competitive environment during firms' implementation of business conduct by management, including in the market for oil and oil products."
This viewpoint was reinforced by the deputy director of Ukrnaftokhimpererabotka (Ukraine's state oil and chemical refinery division) Vitaliy Daviy, who cited a shift in May of this year from direct shipments of Russian crude to the Kremenchuk refinery to the use of middlemen within the trading system. Previous to a March 2005 law that changed the tax regime imposed on oil importers, the use of intermediaries to skirt tax laws was widespread. However, that law:
"created a level playing field for all refineries, though this became the main reason for the halting of several refineries, exposing their uncompetitiveness in regard to their technical backwardness."
Recent lax enforcement of the law has apparently led to a ressurgence in the previously employed schemes and an uneven market, which Daviy believes is costing the government around $100 million per month.
Another letter by Ovcharenko implicates some of Ukrtatnafta's leadership in these schemes, including deposed head Glushko and deputy director Nail Maganov, who has been vocally critical of the actions and is forecasting economic ruin for the company stemming from current slashed production levels.
Tatarstan-controled Tatneft halted the flow of oil to the refinery following Ovcharenko's takeover, drastically cutting the plant's production. Tatarstan is now attempting to lead a protest against any Russian oil being sent in as a replacement, hoping to "starve" out the entrenched head.
"Today, I think not a single Russian company in this complicated situation will provide oil when even the recipient is unclear," the Ukraine-based [Tatarstan trade] representative, Rostislav Vakhitov, told a news conference [on Thursday].
However, one major Russian oil company is preparing to step up its ties to Ukraine — Gazprom Neft recently announced that it is planning on exporting about 3 million tons of oil to Ukraine in 2008. According to an article by Svetlana Dolinchuk in Oct. 31st's Ekonomicheskie Izvestiya, the Russian company is prepared to supply Naftogaz with 200,000-250,000 tons of crude per month starting at the beginning of the year. That is about half of Kremenchug's monthly capacity, but represents about 17% of Gazprom Neft's total exports for 2006.
According to the article, this announcement led to rumors on the possibility of Fuel and Energy minister Yurii Boyko (expected to be replaced by the incoming Ukrainian government) being invited to become Gazprom Neft's vice president in charge of foreign activities and oil export. However, according to the article, a source close to the former leadership of Gazprom Neft called these rumors unsound, saying that "foreign top managers can engage in the leadership of companies only in extreme circumstances. Such circumstances are not foreseen for the future." The press service for the ministry also denied the rumored move, saying that Boyko "is not planning to transfer to a job with a private firm neither in Ukraine nor beyond its borders."
Boyko is now working on settling with Russia on next year's gas deal, which he was tasked to finish within about a week. All in all, it's proving to be a very busy end of his term as minister. It will be interesting to see if his future position in any way relates to these experiences…
Posted in Gazprom, Gazprom Neft, Naftogaz, Tatarstan, Ukraine, Ukrtatnafta
Update on problems at Kremenchug
Last Wednesday, ousted head of Ukrtatnafta Sergei Glushko attempted to regain his former position in the Kremenchug refinery through force, but was apparently rebuffed by the forces of in-place director Pavel Ovcharenko. This is on the heals of Ovcharenko's own assault on the offices a week earlier that, according to information from general prosecutor Alexander Medvedko quoted in yesterday's Ukrainian daily Economicheskie Izvestia, resulted in two minor injuries to company security guards.
According to the article, the auto-factory regional court of Kremenchug (within Ukraine's central Poltava oblast) overturned an October 25th decision by Medvedko calling the seizure of the refinery an "agitated criminal act." The higher court apparently annulled the ruling following fallout from the attempted retaking on the 24th by Glushko. The article states that Glushko had returned to the offices, but that report is contradicted by a Reuters article saying that Interior Ministry forces rebuffed Glushko, leaving Ovcharenko in charge of the refinery:
"There was an attempt to capture (the headquarters) but it failed," Ovcharenko's lawyer, Yuri Pocheptsov, told Reuters on Thursday.
"The plant is under the protection of interior ministry troops and Glushko abandoned the plant. Some people were with him (too)."
Interfax Ukraine news agency reported on Wednesday that "unknown people in camouflage" had blocked Ukrtatnafta headquarters in Kremenchug.
Economicheskie Izvestia ran a longer article by Mariya Pomazai as well, detailing the effects of the disruption on the already turbulent oil market in Ukraine. Noting that the pump price of gasoline had already risen over 3% in October to about $0.94 / liter ($3.55 / gallon), the article raised concerns about further price rises stemming from Kremenchug's decline in production.
Tatarstan-controlled Tatneft ceased the flow of crude to the refinery following the "management dispute" and "does not intend to renew the deliveries of oil until Sergei Glushko has been returned to the seat of head of the factory," according to Tatneft first deputy general director Nail Maganov. He also asserted that by running at reduced capacity, the refinery stands to lose up to $4-5 million a day.
Ovchenko bought an additional 170,000 tons of oil for the factory, which gives it another 17-20 days of production at a reduced rate. There are worries that this decrease will create cost increases in the Ukrainian domestic petroleum market, as about a third of the country's refined oil products come from the plant.
This whole episode reeks of criminal and underhanded behavior, and much more resembles a corporate raid than a management dispute. Details still seem a bit sketchy, emphasizing the opaque conditions many of these actions and motivations stem from. In all, it appears to be a fight to control ownership of the lucrative refinery, either legitimately (through a court decision on unresolved shareholdings that would grant a majority to one side over the other), forcibly (storming the offices with armed police), or bribery (ceding 3% of company shares to the firm entrusted with keeping Ukrtatnafta's shareholder register).
The dispute is hurting both sides — the refinery is connected via pipeline to the Tatneft oil supplies, making any substitute for Tatarstan oil much more expensive, while depriving the oil producer of a convenient and established market for its crude. It is also an appalling example of a severe lack of respect for the rule of law by either side, instead resorting to thuggery and economic blackmail. The problem is, Ukraine's oil and gasoline consumers, already reeling from high global oil prices, end up as one of the main losers.
Check out Interfax's article for more details on the affair.


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