"I Would Like Corrupt Officials Like Poroshenko to Go to Prison." Highlights from Sam Kislin's Interview

Former Giuliani partner wants Poroshenko jailed and promises to help Zelensky.

American businessman and Odesa native Sam (Semen) Kislin, who has been linked to Donald Trump's lawyer and former New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, gave an interview to Stop Corruption in which he expressed hope for a prison term for former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and his allies, and promised to help current head of state Volodymyr Zelensky.

On Profiting from Rotterdam+

"Through Rotterdam+, Poroshenko's company and his people earned around $700-800 million. The money went into their pockets. I will report the scheme itself to the anti-corruption authorities only when a new prosecutor general comes in. They earned more than $50 on every ton of coal."

Sam Kislin
American businessman

"I would like corrupt officials such as Poroshenko, Lutsenko and Turchynov to go to prison. I know that Poroshenko's son — I don't remember his name, actually — has $55 million in accounts. Where did he get such money? Did Dad give it to him?"

On Zelensky and Bakanov

"I met with Mr. Bakanov (Ivan Bakanov — head of the SBU — note by TK Media), and promised him that when Zelensky is in the US, I will invite investors to come listen to what the president intends to do for Ukraine. Investors will trust the young president, come into Ukraine, and we will help them here."

"I will help Zelensky and advise him."

On Corruption in Ukraine

"Corruption — is a plague. No one wants to invest money in a country where it is number one or, at the very least, number five in the world for corruption. And the president himself was corrupt. In Ukraine even the secretaries who sit in officials' offices take bribes."

"In my small homeland of Odesa I saw nothing new. It is as it was a hundred years ago, and so it remains. Roads are not built, and all of this is being stolen — by the city mayor (Gennady Trukhanov — note by TK Media), his company, his team. I was told that 40% of the budget goes to the mayor, who puts everything in his own pocket."

Who is Sam Kislin?

However, Kislin himself was suspected by the FBI and Interpol of laundering money coming from Russia to the US.

Sam contributed money to Giuliani's election campaigns when he ran for mayor of New York in 1993 and 1997, and worked as his economic adviser until 2001, when Donald Trump's current lawyer left the post.

Since 2017, Sam Kislin had been banned from entering Ukraine, but Ivan Bakanov, after heading the SBU, canceled that decision.