Ukrainian Scorpions

A Tale of Larceny and Greed

Ronald M. Derrickson

• Publisher: ECW Press
• Year: 2023
• ISBN:
  9781778521591
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Eastern European History
• Index: History

Award-winning author Grand Chief Ron Derrickson tells the story of his personal fight against Ukrainian political and economic forces alongside the larger story of the wider struggle for Ukraine to end the corruption that has plagued the country since the 1990s

Ron Derrickson watched the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the country where he had spent much of the past 20 years, with a kind of anguish, knowing the country had been systematically shut out of the EU and left on its own. While doing business there, he had entered the rabbit hole of Ukrainian political and economic life, a land where gangsters controlled not only the heights of the economy but also the police, the courts, and the national parliament. At stake was his $28 million company stolen by a cast of characters that included a former governor and members of the national parliament.

In the end, Derrickson spent a dozen years fighting for justice in the courts, in political and diplomatic spheres, and even with automatic weapon-toting mercenaries. Ukranian Scorpions tells not only the story of his personal battles but the much wider struggle of Ukraine to find its footing and shake off the gangsterism that has plagued it since the 1990s. In the end, Derrickson searches for signs that after the recent cataclysm, a new Ukraine might rise from the ashes.

Table of contents

• Epigraph
• Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Chapter 1: Under the Shadow of War
• Chapter 2: The Art of Corruption
• Chapter 3: Best Man
• Chapter 4: International Real Estate
• Chapter 5: Big Bang: Collapse of an Empire
• Chapter 6: Down the Rabbit Hole
• Chapter 7: Launching the Operation
• Chapter 8: Suspicions Raised
• Chapter 9: The Dnipro Mafia
• Chapter 10: The $28-Million Solution
• Chapter 11: The Disappearing Companies
• Chapter 12: The AK-47 Gamble
• Chapter 13: Gunmen on the Doorstep
• Chapter 14: Kasyanov: The Hidden Face of Ukraine
• Chapter 15: The Injustice System
• Chapter 16: A New Ukraine Struggling to Be Born
• Chapter 17: Plus ça Change
• Chapter 18: End of the Legal Charade
• Chapter 19: The Canadian Card
• Chapter 20: The Final Hail Mary
• Chapter 21: Before the Deluge
• Afterword: Poland 2022
• Appendix I: Memorandum to the Canadian Embassy
• Appendix II: List of Ukrainian Oligarchs
• Appendix III: Corporate Raiding in Ukraine
• Photographs
• About the Author
• Copyright