Andrey Verevsky
One of the most secretive and mysterious Ukrainian oligarchs is the co-founder of the largest agricultural holding in Ukraine, Kernel, and former people’s deputy of four convocations, Andriy Verevskyi. He almost never appears in Ukraine, managing his business from Switzerland. Having been a people’s deputy for more than 10 years, he managed to create a successful business, lobbying for which in the Verkhovna Rada. He was dismissed from the post of people’s deputy before the start of the revolution in Ukraine. In fact, it did not affect him at all – Verevskyi continues to “make money” on the agricultural potential of our country.
“Young Agrarian”
Andrey Mikhailovich was born in 1974 in Poltava. He tried to get a higher education at the Poltava Civil Engineering Institute, but it did not work out – he went to work. In addition, he studied at Oxford College, and also graduated from the National Agrarian University in 2001. He owes his start-up capital to his father, Mikhail Verevsky, a major entrepreneur and owner of several enterprises related to the agricultural sector. It is noteworthy that Mikhail Ivanovich was under the protection of the leader of the Socialist Party, Alexander Moroz, for a long time, and was even the head of his election headquarters in the 1998 elections. These political connections were very helpful to Verevsky Sr. in running his business. And this also affected Andrey Verevsky, because his rapid career cannot be explained in any other way. The 19-year-old young man, who had studied at the institute for only a year, was immediately appointed to a management position in the Poltava branch of the state company “Khlib Ukrainy” (engaged in the purchase and storage of grain under government orders). He worked there for almost 5 years, while simultaneously building his own business empire.
In 1998, Andrei Mikhailovich took the post of deputy general director of the Zernoexport company, and a year later he became deputy director for commercial issues at the Transagroinvest enterprise. In 2002, before entering big politics, he was the chairman of the supervisory board of the Sonyashnik plant, which he cunningly “squeezed out” back in 2000.
“Spin” of the “Sonyashnik” plant
In May 2000, Aval Bank unexpectedly refused to renew the agreement with the Sonyashnik plant on the provision of financial resources and demanded that the loan in the amount of 5 million UAH be repaid. The plant was denied refinancing. But then, like a prince on a white horse, Andrey Verevskyi appeared with an offer to pay off the enterprise’s debts in exchange for 40% of its shares. The management, after thinking for a while, agreed, but later it turned out that in addition to these 40%, Verevskyi also concentrated 11% of the shares, which gave him a controlling stake in the entire enterprise. A scandal arose, and Andrey Mikhailovich had to sell the “extra” shares to the Sonyashnik management. And a couple of days later, he pledged the same shares to Ukrsotsbank in order to receive a loan for three months. It is noteworthy that the amount of this loan was 9 times less than the value of the pledged shares. Seeing an opportunity to make a profit, the management of Ukrsotsbank blocked these shares, leaving their “new” owners with nothing. At the same time, Verevskyi put forward demands to the plant’s management: a complete change of management and gaining full control over it. Andrey Mikhailovich brought Victoria Matkovskaya, the wife of the then head of the Poltava tax administration, to the post of plant director.
At the same time (of course, purely by chance) the distribution of Sonyashnik assets became of interest to law enforcement agencies, whose interests (again, by chance) coincided with the financial plans of Andrey Mikhailovich. At the same time, endless inspections of the plant’s activities began, the results of which were not reported to the management. Even the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine got involved in the case, and Verevsky’s hand was clearly visible in its actions, because after each of the regular inspections he came to the resisting managers and convinced them that until they transferred the controlling stake to him, the prosecutor’s office would not leave them alone. He offered to “friendly” solve all their problems with one phone call. And, as we can see today, they finally gave in, and Andrey Mikhailovich received control of yet another enterprise.
The mechanism of the robbery of the Poltava region, which is used by Verevsky (according to information from the publication “Zerkalo Nedeli”)
Politician turncoat
Andriy Verevskyi quickly learned that politics is a great way to solve business issues, and so in 2002 he ran for office as an independent candidate from the 146th electoral district (Poltava region). Having become a people’s deputy, Andriy Mykhailovych went through all the party “beds”, starting with Leonid Kuchma’s “United Ukraine”, having been in “Regions of Ukraine”, in the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, and ending with the “Party of Regions”. Verevskyi felt that the title of people’s deputy brings great benefits to business during the financial crisis in 2008, when the parliament headed by Yulia Tymoshenko introduced quotas on butter exports. Despite the bans, Verevskyi’s companies continued to export their products, and even increased their volumes. And competitors in this situation could only bite their elbows.
In parallel with his political career, Andrey Verevskyi’s business was also developing. In 2004, having consolidated all his assets, he created Kernel Holdings SA, which included elevators, grain terminals, oil extraction plants and bakeries. Every year, the Kernel company became stronger, and its profits grew before our eyes. Over time, it became the leader in the Ukrainian sunflower oil market (trade marks Chumak, Schedry Dar, Stozhar).
One of the few public appearances of Andrey Verevsky
Over time, Andrei Mikhailovich realized that the government in the country would soon change, and he left the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc, joining the Party of Regions. And just in time, because when they came to power, they also introduced quotas on grain sales abroad. Verevskyi’s lightning-fast decision to “change his political views” gave him the opportunity to work “past” these quotas.
Expelled from the Rada “for absenteeism”
In the spring of 2013, the Supreme Administrative Court ruled to strip him of his parliamentary mandate, thereby satisfying the claim of the then speaker of parliament, Volodymyr Rybak. According to the official version, Andriy Verevskyi violated the law “On the Status of a People’s Deputy” by combining work in the land committee with a leadership position in the Kernel holding company. It was assumed that he used his elected position for his own interests. According to another, unofficial version, the Party of Regions was thus demonstratively trying to strengthen discipline in their ranks so that members of the faction would not skip meetings (Verevskyi was the most ardent truant, since he actually lived in Switzerland, managing a business from there). In fact, Andriy Mykhailovych wanted to expand his business, taking out a loan in Europe for this. The trouble is that Ukrainian politicians are not very trusted there, checking almost every dollar they receive or give. In fact, he was faced with a choice: either to give up his mandate and receive a loan, or to remain a people’s deputy, but not to receive the loan he needed. For him, as a businessman-politician, and not a politician-businessman, the choice was obvious.
During the four convocations in which he was elected as a people’s deputy, he managed to take control of virtually all elevators in the Poltava region. And, in fact, he became the “grain” monopolist of Ukraine, since only he had the right to store grain, he had the right to priority shipment and its free storage. To all this, we should also add the opportunity to receive any bank loan secured by the elevators that he owned, as well as friendship with the leaders of the region and the management of “Ukrsotsbank”.
Andrey Verevskiy is one of the smartest businessmen who has created a mysterious aura around himself as the most successful agricultural businessman of our time. He carefully monitors the rumors that are spread around him, not allowing them to grow into something more than rumors.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info