North Dakota farmer Kurt Groszhans spent his Thanksgiving in a Ukrainian prison cell. He’s accused of plotting to assassinate Roman Leshchenko, the minister of agriculture. Groszhans allegedly wanted revenge against Leshchenko for embezzling $250,000 from him in 2018. Guilty or not, one would think that an American citizen trying to assassinate a foreign official would be a major news story. No stories on CNN and no indignant tweets from Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Imagine if Groszhans was arrested in Russia, Belarus, China, or Iran.
I initially saw the story on Glenn Beck’s personal news site The Blaze. Glenn Beck and his staff are hardline conservatives and frankly not my cup of tea. But times like this remind me why I pay attention to him. To the best of my knowledge (and I’ve looked), no other large national news outlet has mentioned the Groszhan episode, not even Fox News.
Here’s the story in a nutshell. Back in Spring, 2018, Groszhans started a farm in Ukraine and hired Leshchenko as his manager. Over the next six months, Leshchenko allegedly embezzled roughly $250,000 into his own pockets. Groszhans eventually found out and fired him, or Leshchenko voluntarily quit, depending on who you believe. Leshchenko countered the accusations by claiming Groszhans broke Ukrainian law on seed imports, which is an odd claim for him to make as the company’s manager overseeing those imports in the first place. Regardless of who was telling the truth, Groszhans demanded money, Leshchenko refused, and they went to court.
Meanwhile, Leshchenko gradually climbed up the ranks in the Ukrainian government. On March 1, 2021, he became the country’s minister of agriculture. According to an article by the Kyiv Post, it is confirmed fact that Leshchenko improperly transferred $250,000 from Groszhan’s company into his own, in violation of Ukrainian law. But a week after taking office as minister of agriculture, he paid the money back. However, Groszhan was still unhappy about the massive losses his farm had suffered over the previous two years and wanted more compensation. So the legal battle continued.
In a press release dated November 19, Ukrainian state media outlet Ukrainform reported that on November 18, authorities arrested Groszhans and a local woman for attempting to hire a hitman against Leshchenko. A second report later that same day identified the woman as Olena Bohach.
Groszhans’ family insists on his innocence, and that he is being framed in retaliation for suing a senior government official. This is certainly possible, and as Groszhans noted in a blog post from last August, Ukraine has an extensive history of scamming foreign investors like himself. That said, it is equally possible that Groszhans is guilty. The Ukrainian National Police claim that they had been stringing Groszhans along for a significant period of time, and recorded video of him and Bohach trying to hire a hitman. It’s unfair to automatically assume they are lying just because the primary suspect is American. Bear in mind that Groszhans had been in a legal battle with Leshchenko for three years. It’s easy to imagine that he became angry enough to wish Leshchenko dead. Groszhans might have also been fooled by appearances. Maybe because Ukraine is poorer than his home country, the disgruntled farmer thought it is possible to hire a hitman like in the cinema. Unfortunately, this is real life and not a video game so hiring hitmen isn’t that easy.
Equally unfortunate for Groszhan, his criminal case is inconvenient for the USA. White supremacist and failed blogger Roman Protasevich had allies in the West because such an alignment was momentarily convenient. Rallying behind Groszhan is not convenient right now. Ukrainian President Voldomyr Zelensky is complaining of a coup against him. Western media outlets are complaining of a planned Russian invasion of Ukraine next year. Both liberal and conservative leaders in the USA are urging President Joe Biden to send more aid to Ukraine. If major news outlets so much as mention the Groszhan story, at least some American voters will assume that he is innocent and that Ukraine is corrupt. That sort of negativity is counterproductive for World War III. I’m sorry, Kurt Groszhan. You are collateral damage now.
Ian Kummer
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