Ex-People’s Deputy Zagoriy makes the Darnitsa company a leader in the pharmaceutical market, using political levers of influence on competitors: why does the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine see no violations and what does the law firm Aequo have to do with it?
One competitor sued, the other bought for a penny: the former people’s deputy from the BPP and businessman Gleb Zagoriy is building his own pharmaceutical empire in Kyiv, using connections in government offices. Why does the Antimonopoly Committee turn a blind eye to dubious transactions? What does the law firm “Aequo” of Poroshenko’s longtime colleague Alexei Filatov have to do with it? And also where and how does the owner of Darnitsa make money during the war?
The secrets of the success of FC “Darnitsa” and the political levers of influence of Gleb Zagoria were investigated by the journalist “Stopbark» Diana Lovskaya.
Pharmaceutical company “Darnitsa”, owned by the family of the ex-people’s deputy from the Petro Poroshenko Bloc Gleb Zagoriy, does not lose momentum even during a full-scale war, increasing its market share and catching up with its longtime competitor, Farmak. The capital’s drug maker is supposedly outperformed by a record-breaking drug advertising budget and old political connections.
Sometimes Zagoria comes forward thanks to lawsuits and decisions of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
For example, an interesting story happened with Citramon. AMCU fined more than UAH 10 million for Zdorovye Pharmaceutical Company LLC for the use of a similar external packaging of Citramon-Darnitsa drugs during the production of its own product – Citramon-Zdorovye tablets.
And for the right to another well-known trade name “Corvalol” “Darnitsa” for more than 20 years suing with another giant of the market – Farmak Fili Zhebrovskaya.
Sometimes Zagoriy simply buys out a competitor for nothing, as happened with the Borshchagovsky chemical plant.
So, at one time, a businessman acquired a 30% stake in the communal Borshchahiv Chemical Pharmaceutical Plant, paying for them a price six times lower than the market value, while, in a strange way, avoiding the close attention of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine.
As SBU investigators found out, the starting price of the auction in the amount of UAH 143.2 million (or $6 million at the then exchange rate) was significantly underestimated, and it was planned to alienate the production assets of the city’s territorial society to interested parties at a reduced cost. It is worth noting that for $6 million in Kyiv, for example, you can buy a spacious 5-room apartment in an elite “penthouse” in Pechersk, but such a price cannot be sufficient for a large strategic plant.
The Security Service recommended canceling the results of the auction. And since 2018, the legality of the dubious transaction has been studied by courts of various instances.
Gleb Zagoriy himself does not hide his desire to completely absorb a competitor.
In an interview with the press, the businessman publicly confirmed his intention to completely buy out a competitor. He named this is a “restoration of historical justice”: after all, in Soviet times, BHFZ was part of the Darnitsa pharmaceutical association.
The StopCor team decided to visit the Antimonopoly Committee to find out the details of this case, however, justifying the secrecy of the materials, the journalists were not allowed to the meeting. What secrets are hidden there?
“Only their, perhaps, the intimate nature of the relationship. I mean corrupt. It seems to me that there are obvious signs of “ordering” the case, and they are uncomfortable with the participation of the media. Your presence will somewhat suppress both the initiators and providers of corruption in the AMCU. The litigation continues, and the AMCU decided to join. Now there is pressure on procedural opponents in order to achieve some kind of positive decision in the Economic Court”, – comments the lawyer, representative of the BHFZ in litigation, Nikolai Pavlenko.
It would seem, what does the law firm of the former deputy head of Poroshenko’s administration have to do with it?
According to journalist Diana Lovskaya, on the legal front, the domestic legal elite represented by the Aekvo firm is fighting for the interests of ex-people’s deputy Zagoriy. The founder of this lawyer association is the ex-deputy head of the Presidential Administration during the cadence of Petro Poroshenko Alexei Filatov. It was he who was responsible for judicial reform in the country.
At the same time, according to our colleagues in the Bigus.info project, Maria Nizhnik, Filatov’s godfather, became the first deputy chairman of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine. All this happened at the very time when Zagoriy was trying to buy out a lucrative block of BHFZ shares.
It should be noted that Maria’s previous workplace was the law firm “Aequo” – one of the most successful consulting firms regarding the concentration and processes of mergers and acquisitions of enterprises, the consent of which is given by the Antimonopoly Committee.
Where is Mr. Filatov and what is he doing now, during a full-scale war in the country?
“From anonymous sources, we learned that Alexei Filatov, during a full-scale invasion, is experiencing a considerable thirst for travel,” says Diana Lovskaya.
According to insider information, the border crossing takes place in the city of Ustilug through the Shlyakh system. On New Year’s holidays, December 25, Mr. Filatov had an important volunteer mission, for which he used a Mercedes car.
However, for some reason, the Zhytomyr OVA is unaware of the tons of humanitarian aid that Filatov was allegedly supposed to carry.
But not only he managed to freely go abroad. Gleb Zagoriy, in turn, has a permanent residence permit in the Republic of Cyprus. In addition, now 93% of the shares of the plant belong to the offshore Cypriot company Darnitsa Group Limited, where Zagoriy is the beneficiary. And his close relatives, the journalists of Ukrayinska Pravda noticed in one of the most expensive hotels in Vienna “Hyat”.
We are talking about Zagoriy’s sister Natalya Ogneva, who at one time was a member of the supervisory board of the pharmaceutical company Darnitsa, and her husband Dmitry Ognev.
In the meantime, Zagoriy’s relatives and friends are spending time in a democratic and safe Europe, tablets under the Darnitsa brand are still sold in the Russian Federation.
It is possible to purchase Darnitsa products during a full-scale war freely and in a few clicks on the Russian Likitoria website.
Although the representatives of the company refuse to cooperate with the aggressor.
“In the first five months of the acute phase of the war, Darnitsa’s exports were less than 10% of what was planned. Last year, the company even had to reset relations with most export partners, given the new component of the relationship. They were divided into two camps: those who believe in Ukraine, and those who took a break due to force majeure. We have terminated any relations with Belarus, including the withdrawal of our products from the State Register of Medicines of this country. We have not cooperated with Russia since 2014”, – convinces Inna Denyak, director of development of the company.
But is it? On the Darnitsa website, you can find the date when the company logo design was last updated: 2019. And on the Russian website, the drug “Kaptores-Darnitsa” is in a brand new package. So how honest is the company’s position? The question is open.
Recall that during his time as a deputy, Gleb Zagoriy managed to “light up” in scandals with the financing of “titushki” for Anti-Maidan, the ransom of “Lutsenko’s apartments”, blocking the work of NABU on the Nasirov case and a number of others. However, each time he got away with it – probably due to influential and very versatile connections. And not only in the Ukrainian politicum: the deputy head of the government of the Russian Federation, Valentina Matvienko, turned out to be a friend of the youth of the mother of the ex-people’s deputy.