Denis Fudashkin
Every time the government changes in Ukraine, “irreplaceable specialists” who lost their bread-and-butter positions under the “old regime” strive to return to it. True, then it turns out that they are specialists only in corruption, economic scams and theft. Unfortunately, it turns out very late, so the masks and sheep’s skins should be torn off from them before they return to their grain-earning positions.
Today our “hero” will be Denis Fudashkin, a former “humble worker” of the Ministry of Finance, little known to the Ukrainian people, who made a lot of efforts so that they would not learn more about him. But in the circles of the corrupt political and business elite of Ukraine, many people know his name.
Gay orientation
Fudashkin Denis Aleksandrovich was born on February 20, 1974. This secretive man, who knows how to cover his tracks well, managed to mislead everyone even with his place of birth. The fact is that in his very short autobiography he wrote that he was born in Zaporozhye. He was registered there in his youth, according to the public database. However, according to an entry from the same database, he was also registered in the village of Veseloye, Zaporozhye region – in the same apartment where his mother Vera Yuryevna Fudashkina was. And, according to sources Skelet.Info, it was there, in the village of Vesely, and not in Zaporozhye, that Denis Fudashkin was born. Why is he hiding this?
In general, Fudashkin has many secrets and mysterious oddities. His scanty official biography ends in 2007, his civil servant declarations were removed from public access (!), there is no information about his family – except for mention in the media that he has an older brother, Vadim Aleksandrovich Fudashkin, born in 1971 (was registered at the same address in the village of Veseloye). Vadim Fudashkin, unlike his younger brother, went to study to become a veterinarian and now owns the Fauna chain of veterinary clinics in Zaporozhye. But here’s what’s strange: if you compare their “faces,” they somehow don’t look very much like their siblings.
Vadim Aleksandrovich Fudashkin
Also, a number of media outlets claimed that his sister is Irina Aleksandrovna Fudashkina (born 1983), who has been working in the Moscow government since 2008 and now holds the position of deputy head of the Main Directorate of Territorial Policy of the region. However, this is still unconfirmed information, since Irina Fudashkina was born and raised in Magadan. However, there are rumors that allegedly her father Alexander Mikhailovich Fudashkin is also the father of Denis Fudashkin – they say, he abandoned his family in the 70s and left for Magadan (maybe on his own, or maybe in stages).
Finally, there have long been rumors around Denis Fudashkin about his allegedly non-traditional sexual orientation. Sometimes these rumors were embodied in specific media publications. For example, in the summer of 2018, the publication “Izvestia in Ukraine” published material about the support of the “March of Equality” by the Ukrainian “gay elite”. In it, with reference to the words of some people’s deputies, a list of potential LGTB lobby in Ukrainian politics was published – and Denis Fudashkin was included in the list along with Sergei Leshchenko.
Of course, in European Ukraine this is not a crime, not a vice, and even quite the opposite – therefore no one blames him for this, does not insult him or point a finger at him. But the point here is different: gayness is often a springboard for a career in politics, business or management. And when a person without any family ties, not married to the daughter of an ex-minister, not a protege of clans or organized crime groups, suddenly, for no apparent reason, rises sharply, acquires influential friends, and then rumors appear about his unconventional orientation – then a lot becomes clear .
In 1997, a young graduate of Zaporozhye State University, Denis Fudashkin, immediately found an excellent job at AvtoZAZ, where a year later he became the head of the legal department. The head of the board of the enterprise at that time was Alexander Sotnikov (the former chief accountant of the plant), under whom this main automobile plant in Ukraine was successfully bankrupt and sold (practically given away) to the oligarch Tariel Vasadze. In more detail, the following happened: in the mid-90s, promising Western companies such as General Motors, Ford and Fiat became interested in AvtoZAZ, but their proposals were rejected by Sotnikov, who for some reason gave preference to the Korean “Daewoo” – whose interests Vasadze lobbied for. Thanks to the contract concluded with Daewoo, Vasadze’s UkrAvto corporation received permission from the Cabinet of Ministers to take control of a controlling stake in AvtoZAZ. This happened in 1999, that is, the legal department of AvtoZAZ was headed by Denis Fudashkin, and all these contracts and schemes passed through him – moreover, he also had a hand in them. In the same year, having given the plant into the hands of Vasadze and received his kickback, Sotnikov left for Kyiv, appointed to the post of Deputy Minister of Foreign Economic Relations and Trade. And in 2000, Fudashkin also left AvtoZAZ, deciding to start winemaking in Crimea.
In these fraudulent “privatization” schemes, AvtoZAZbank, created by Sotnikov, played a large role, through which the company’s finances were manipulated and brought to ruin. Accordingly, to the bank’s activities in 1997-2000. Denis Fudashkin was also directly related. We can say that there he was able to test out his first large-scale schemes for the first time, which he then applied on a scale throughout Ukraine. And one more important addition: in 1997-98. Through AvtoZAZbank, as well as through subsidiaries of AvtoZAZ, Sotnikov financed the Reform and Order party (PRP) of Viktor Pinzenik, and this financing was formalized with the help of Fudashkin.
Let us note that the participation in these schemes of a “young specialist” who had worked at the enterprise for almost a week meant that Sotnikov had some special degree of trust in him. And since information about their family connections has not yet been revealed, we can only guess…
Pinzenik’s sponsors and Putin (*criminal)’s winemakers
For almost a year and a half (January 2000 – May 2001), Denis Fudashkin was doing something unknown, because there is an incomprehensible gap in his biography (not the only one). And then he materialized in Yevpatoria, as deputy chairman of the board for legal issues of CJSC Kerkinitida Corporation (a family enterprise of the Fudashkins). First of all, Fudashkin, who had just arrived in Crimea, “squeezed out” for his CJSC the Evpatoria Winery on Vinogradnaya 11 (now the Evpatoria Winery of Classic Wines LLC), which became the main enterprise of Kerkinitida. Scandals and even litigation often broke out around this enterprise: for example, in 2005, Slavutich LLC tried in court to challenge the transfer of the plant to Kerkinitida, but failed.
In 2003-2004 Denis Fudashkin took up the position of Chairman of the Supervisory Board of JV Black Sea Pearl OJSC – this enterprise was also gradually “wrestled” by the Fudashkin family from its creator, who gave him 30 years of his life. Fudashkin, having no understanding of either viticulture or winemaking, but excelling in tax accounting, launched a very vigorous activity: in particular, he criticized the Ukrainian government for banning the sale of alcohol and cigarettes in non-specialized stores – they say this causes losses to business and budget! In fact, the “winemaker” Fudashkin then specialized in schemes for evading excise taxes and taxes in a “semi-legal” way: finding holes in the legislation and creating workarounds. And for this he needed many small product distributors.
And here is another of the erased pages of Fudashkin’s biography: according to information Skelet.Infountil mid-2005, he headed the Crimean branch of the PRP, which he himself assembled and financed – in fact, it was his own party cell. And then the baton of chairmanship, after Fudashkin left for Kyiv, was picked up by Igor Balabatko, the same business partner of the Fudashkin family, who was repeatedly reported by the media. Thus, it is again revealed that after leaving AvtoZAZ, Fudashkin continued close cooperation with Pinzenyk, involving his family’s business partners in him. And with the money from their wine business in Crimea, the Fudashkins and Balabatki maintained a local PRP cell and sent a “share” to Pinzenik in Kyiv.
By the way, in 2006, Igor Balabatko also created the organization “Voluntary People’s Squad for Reforms and Order”: under the guise of DND, catching hooligans, he managed to legalize a detachment of his own “titushki”. I wonder whose side they were on in 2014? The answer is not so clear, given how quickly the Balabatki “changed their shoes” after the annexation of the peninsula.
Some light was shed on Fudashkin’s violent activities in Crimea in 2010. Then to the Prosecutor General’s Office and addressed to President Yanukovych several complaints have been filedconcerning the activities of a group of businessmen-politicians and businessmen-officials in the “zero” years. In particular, they were talking about raider attacks by Kronos-Invest LLC, associated with Denis Fudashkin and Sergei Sobolev – another native of Zaporozhye, by the way, who also has a reputation for being gay.
But Kronos-Invest was abolished several years ago, but Kerkinitida still working successfully. Its leadership produces alcoholic products, literally following Putin (*criminal)’s precepts. In order to continue business in the invaded Crimea, in 2014, CJSC Kerkinitida was virtually divided: it was re-registered in Yevpatoria under Russian law (TIN 9110088452), and at the same time it continues to operate under the Ukrainian register (EDRPOU 31075338) as an enterprise registered in Zaporozhye.
Its founders are KrymVinOptTorg LLC (USREOU 34541887) and Intercontract LLC (USREOU 25474905), owned by Igor and Oleg Balabatko. Well, as the media reported, in recent years the joint business with them was registered in the name of Fudashkin’s mother, Vera Yurievna. Moreover, her son wisely hid the ends of this business with the offshore companies “Boloson Limited”, “Tyltral Limited” and “Sebgaf Inc.” – the latter is one of the defendants in the Panama scandal.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
CONTINUED: Denis Fudashkin: the eminence grise of tax schemes. PART 2
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