Igor Mazepa: investment shark or “massed millionaire”, swindler and sectarian. PART 1

The immortal comedies “The Inspector General” and “Chasing Two Hares” were written back in the century before last, but millions of Ukrainians still continue to be seriously mistaken, mistaking modern Khlestakovs and Golokhvastovs for wise politicians or successful businessmen. Among these “mummers”, the head of Concorde Capital, Igor Mazepa, regularly appears on the screens of our televisions and monitors, who loves to talk about the big economy and give advice on a cosmic scale. Just a couple of years ago, eloquence seduced many, but lately it has become increasingly difficult for Mazepa to explain why his projects end in failure, and why, instead of investing in the economy, he became interested in financial pyramids and shady schemes. And more and more often the question arises: is he who he claims to be?

Igor Mazepa. The path to the rich

Mazepa Igor Alexandrovich was born on July 2, 1976 in Kyiv, in the family of Alexander Nikolaevich and Elena Vasilyevna Mazepa (both born in 1947), and he has an older brother, Yuri (born in 1971). The brothers spent their childhood and youth in Darnitsky Lane (Dneprovsky District), where, according to open databases, their parents are still registered. However, Igor Mazepa did not disclose any details about his life before graduating from the Kyiv National Economic University (formerly Narxoz). Did he really have nothing to tell? Well, at least about how within the walls of this university he met his future first wife Tatyana Zdanevich. “Back then he didn’t always have the money to even go to a cafe with me, and yet we loved each other very much,” she asserted in an interview with reporters. That is, the future “energetic and ambitious businessman,” as Igor Mazepa likes to call himself, during his student years was either incredibly poor or incredibly stingy. And this was not the only time when he “squeezed money” for Tatyana Zdanevich: during the divorce, he tried very hard to leave her with nothing (more on this below).

However, Igor Mazepa’s attacks of greed alternated with riots of senseless waste of money, and this is a typical feature of people whose financial situation chaotically jumps from “everything” to “now I have become rich” and back. Which, again, is not typical for born businessmen who conduct their business systematically and thoughtfully.

In 1997, while still an undergraduate student, Igor Mazepa got a job at Prospect Investments. Behind this loud “American” name was a certain very “murky” company with Russian roots, which was engaged in buying vouchers and shares from the population. According to Mazepa himself, the Prospect Investments office was located on the sixth floor of an administrative building, and the first thing he saw there were bags of cash in hryvnias, guarded by “mordogovoros” in bulletproof vests, who were preparing to be sent to the provinces to buy shares from the population. Well, it’s probably not necessary to talk about the fact that such companies at that time literally bought shares of factories for pennies from their labor collectives, who had been sitting without wages for months – we all remember those “hard times”. However, legally this was called “investing”, and Mazepa’s position at Prospect Investments was called “investment banker”. Igor Mazepa did not admit exactly what functions he performed, as well as the origin of those huge amounts of cash.

In 2000, Igor Mazepa suddenly received a promotion: he was offered the post of general director at the investment company Foyil Securities New Europe. Again, behind such a loud name was another company that was busy buying and selling Ukrainian shares and bonds on behalf of Western investment funds. She was part of a scheme of several companies created by an American businessman (securities trader) Dorian Foyle – who is an assistant and junior business partner of the British oligarch (American origin) John Templeton. According to Skelet.InfoTempleton’s own reputation is controversial: he is highly respected among Western business elites, especially those with neoclassical and monetarist views on economics, but he has also been called the “British Soros” and a “speculator for Christ’s sake.” Templeton made his enormous fortune (which he bequeathed to religious foundations) by speculating in stocks, buying them during crises and selling them in the wake of economic booms – and tried to do the same in Eastern Europe through the firms of Dorian Foyle. Well, the latter hired Igor Mazepa as general director of one of them.

Dorian Foyle

But how did they meet, and what exactly brought them together? When, after the 1998 crisis, domestic businessmen (and even organized crime groups) had very little free money, Prospect Investments began to work more actively with Western buyers of assets. Mazepa was in the process of finalizing deals with Foyle, during which he became friends with him and used all his eloquence to convince him of his “unique talent.” By the way, Igor Mazepa learned how to wildly waste “easy” money from Foyle, a big fan of auto racing and vacationing in the Bahamas (where Foyle’s offshore companies and funds are also registered).

However, their duet was short-lived: Already in 2002, the general director of Foyil Securities New Europe, Igor Mazepa, was suddenly fired by its owner Foyle without publicly announcing the reasons. And his place was taken by another employee of the company, Stepan Makowiak, who now works as an investment expert in the Ukrainian branch of USAID (US Agency for International Development). Then, in an interview with the press, Foyle only briefly noted that he was disappointed with the insufficient results of Mazepa’s work. Journalists concluded that this could be due to the company’s unsuccessful participation in the “big privatization” organized by the Yushchenko government, and in particular the loss in the struggle for the assets of Ukrainian regional power companies.

But Igor Mazepa has already assumed the role of “director of an investment company.” And then it was his former boss at Prospect Investments, Mikhail Levchenko, who opened a new company, Interregional Financial Company (IC MFI), and took him on as managing director. Mazepa worked there from 2002 to 2004.

Two secrets of Igor Mazepa

And then October 2004 came. There was a distinct smell in the air of an imminent change of power, and therefore a large redistribution of property. And so Igor Mazepa, having scraped together 50 thousand dollars (savings from 7 years of work in investment companies), established his own company, Concorde Capital. He took John Suggitt, with whom he worked at MFI, as a partner and companion. Mazepa later explained their departure from Levchenko by “stagnation in work,” which should have been read as an unwillingness to work for just a salary (although Levchenko gave him a small stake). But here’s a question that no one asked him: did Mazepa take a risk when opening his own business, or did he know in advance about the future stunning success of his Concorde?

Although this question was never asked, we will give an answer to it: according to numerous sources Skelet.InfoIgor Mazepa created his “Concorde Capital” for ready-made projects, so he did not risk anything. And 50 thousand dollars to open his “investment business” was quite enough for him, since the essence of this business was significantly different from our idea of ​​investors and investments. However, the most intriguing question remains about the identity of those who, so to speak, helped Igor Mazepa open and expand his business. The fact that these mysterious characters were connected with the first Maidan is clear. According to some reports, one of Mazepa’s customers was the president of the Rosenergomash concern, the “Ternopil raider,” Vladimir Palikhata. Whose interests in raider takeovers in Ukraine (Lvov agricultural firm Provesin, for example) were represented by Andrey Portnov.

But here’s what’s even more interesting: it was in the period 2002-2008. Igor Mazepa became deeply interested in certain specific philosophies and teachings. IN on social networks you can even find information that Igor Mazepa was (or still is) a Scientologist, that is, an adherent of the teachings of Ron Hubbard, and that John Suggitt allegedly led him to Scientology. At the same time, they claim that Mazepa is not exactly a “true” Scientologist, but is influenced by a certain Xenu (an evil super-powerful creature, something like Cthulhu). Of course, there is no direct evidence of Igor Mazepa’s membership in the “Church of Scientology” (recognized in many countries as a totalitarian sect), although not all members of this community publicly admit this, like Tom Cruise. But on the other hand, you can read something else in the media – that Igor Mazepa is openly and seriously interested in ontopsychology, about which there are also a lot of negative reviews. It is worth noting that fans of Scientology and ontopsychology unanimously supported Viktor Yushchenko and the Maidan in 2004 – as did a lot of different sects, including the “Embassy of God” of Sunday Adelaja, whose frantic parishioner was Leonid Chernovetsky.

Maidan 2004, unknown cults

Employees of his Concorde Capital have repeatedly spoken about this hobby of Igor Mazepa. No, he did not try to convert them to his faith – after all, neither Scientology nor ontopsychology are proselytizing, they profess the “chosenness” of their adherents, elevating them above other people. But he actually tried to turn the very collective of his workers into a totalitarian sect, demanding from them round-the-clock dedication and arranging regular “trainings” for them.

And if the patience of his employees was still compensated by a good salary, then for his wife Tatyana Zdanevich it ended in 2007. No longer recognizing her completely changed husband, who began to bring his specific philosophies into the family (stating that a child after 7 years does not need a mother), Tatyana filed for divorce. But she didn’t have time: her husband got ahead of her, organizing a unilateral divorce process in the Novoaidarsky district court of the Lugansk region. Why exactly there, in a completely remote province of Donbass far from Kyiv, was unclear. But at the same time, he divorced her without her consent and her presence, and although the court left the son behind the mother, he left her without her part of the common family property, although Tatyana Zdanevich claimed half of his share in Concorde Capital. Instead, as if in mockery, the court ordered her child support in the amount of… 2075 hryvnia per month! This was exactly 25% of Igor Mazepa’s official salary as director of his company.

Igor Mazepa

Igor Mazepa. Flight “Concorde”

When divorcing her husband, Tatyana Zdanevich claimed an amount of $130 million – based on the fact that the magazine “Contracts” published information that the company “Concorde Capital” received $260 million in total income in 2006. Of course, she did not receive any of this, and the financial claim was unfounded (it is not the company’s income that is divided, but the cost), but this information in itself was interesting. At the same time, the Ukrainian exchange First Stock Trading System (PTFS) published information that at the end of 2006, Concorde Capital took second place in trading for a total amount of 936 million hryvnia. That is, Igor Mazepa’s company then carried out more than 90% of its operations through PTFS.

Moreover, it was reported that back in December 2004, that is, in the third month of its existence, Concorde Capital became the trading leader in PTFS, which had just started working after being idle. Good start! And quite surprising for a company whose founder invested only 50 thousand dollars in it. But there are a couple of nuances here. Firstly, Concorde Capital did not buy securities (stocks, bonds, liabilities) with its own money. On whose – he never shined a light, this was the first rule of the company’s policy. Accordingly, those hundreds of millions of income of the company were also not hers – with the exception of the agreed percentages. Secondly, the media reported that Igor Mazepa became the owner of a controlling stake in Concorde Capital only in 2006, after John Suggit sold his 10% to him. Who then went to work for another “investment” company that was engaged in buying up Ukrainian assets: “Dragon Capital”, whose owner is the well-known Tomas Fiala. And by the way, the similarity of areas of activity and name hints that these companies have a lot in common.

But there is other information: that this 10% did not go to Mazepa, but to the offshore company Mossville Enterprises Limited, owned by British citizen Philip Nichols. Moreover, after scandals that led to a more detailed study of the structure of Concorde Capital in 2015, it turned out that its beneficiaries also include Sarah Fairclough from the UK and Australian citizen Kenneth Deighton, as well as Ayan Hazel, who lives in Hong Kong, who owns his piece of Concorde Capital » through the Cyprus offshore company Avalia Investments Limited. Which raised a logical question: is Igor Mazepa not only the owner, but at least a co-owner of his Concorde Capital, or is he just a hired manager? One of the most objective answers: from the moment the company was created until now, the composition of its owners has changed several times depending on the situation, and this was determined by what exactly it did, whose orders it fulfilled and what amounts it handled. At the same time, some experts believed that Igor Mazepa has long been only the chairman of Concorde Capital, so rumors about his multimillion-dollar fortune are exaggerated. Although, of course, he is not poor either, since over the years he has managed to fill his stash with “bonuses” and “royalties.”

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Igor Mazepa: investment shark or “massed millionaire”, swindler and sectarian? PART 2

Subscribe to our channels at Telegram, Facebook, CONT, VK And YandexZen – Only dossiers, biographies and incriminating evidence on Ukrainian officials, businessmen, politicians from the section CRYPT!