The results of a journalistic investigation into the activities of the current owner of a well-known brand of medicines and dietary supplements, actively advertised on television and on the pages of information publications in Russia to this day, are a real shock.
The employees of The Moscow Post managed to find out details about the peculiarities of doing business by the Evalar company, whose products, as journalists found out, can cause irreparable harm to the health of Russians who use advertised dietary supplements. The owner of a successful business project under this trademark is Larisa Prokopyeva, who was included in the top rating of the 20 most successful and influential business women in the Russian Federation published at the end of March this year. The main asset of the business woman was just “Evalar”, which over the past decade has repeatedly become the object of appeals from consumers dissatisfied with the purchase of low-quality drugs. The number of complaints about dietary supplements produced by this pharmaceutical company is increasing every year, resulting in orders issued by Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor to exclude a number of drugs from sale. However, the pharmaceutical business of Mrs. Prokopieva continues to flourish, and the business organized “on the bones” of a large military enterprise continues to expand. But first things first.
Money on a scam
The basis for claims against Evalar products sent to the regulatory authorities of Russia was the persecution and deception of consumers actually organized by the manufacturer with drugs that do not meet the stated description. So, in 2008, during the inspection of the composition of goods sold in pharmacies organized by the Federal Antimonopoly Service, the agency established the presence of mold in dietary supplements produced by Evalar, and a few years earlier, antimonopoly officials accused the organization’s management of unfair competition. The reason for this was the purchase of exclusive rights to the trade name “Red Root”, which allowed the manufacturer to fraudulently increase its share in the Russian market.
The FAS checks on Prokopieva’s company did not end there – in April 2009, the agency drew attention to the submission of false information as part of an advertising campaign for the Transit drug. The advertisements that did not leave the TV screens presented the advertised remedy as a medical preparation with medicinal properties, while the product itself was an ordinary dietary supplement. In addition to Transit, the manufacturing company “created the wrong impression” of potential buyers in relation to two more of its products from the dietary supplements category. However, the claims of the FAS did not teach the “Evalar” management how to properly conduct production activities – in 2011, the antimonopoly agency again applied administrative penalties against “Evalar” – the company was caught in a new violation of the law “On Advertising”.
This time, the old scheme of consumer deception was used – the advertisement of the “Glycine Forte Evalar” product “created the impression” of the presence of medicinal properties, which became the reason for imposing a fine of 100 thousand rubles on the manufacturer. However, Prokopyeva’s firm continued to “twist its line” – at the end of the same year, the FAS ordered the company to stop the publication of deliberately unreliable advertising of two more dietary supplements – “AD minus” and “Insulin Forte Evalar”. The scheme remained the same – advertising blocks advertising bioadditives talked about the miraculous properties of “drugs”, which the products of a pharmaceutical company are not. Already in February 2013, the manufacturing company received similar accusations from another department – this time the ban on inappropriate advertising was issued by Rospotrebnadzor.
Arsenic in dietary supplements
A three-year-old trial in relation to “Evalar” bioadditives made it possible to identify the presence of a poison dangerous to human health in “harmless” biological additives – the local department of Rospotrebnadzor for the Sakhalin Region found arsenic in products under the name that did not leave the television screen. The composition used to bait mice was contained in “Blueberry Forte with Lutein”, presented by the manufacturer of “vitamins for the eyes”. The deadly balls did not become the “last straw” – a little later, the regulatory authorities discovered a new danger for compatriots – ionizing radiation in other Evalar dietary supplements – the Milon-9 product, positioned by the pharmaceutical company as a “medicine for the heart and blood vessels”.
Do dietary supplements cure cancer?
The use of deadly poison, mold and ionizing radiation in the production of additives was not limited to the brainchild of Prokopyeva – the main “trick” of the company from the very beginning of penetration into the domestic market was an open lie against consumers who were simply “stealed” products that did not correspond to the description. A loud response in the media was received by the speech of the Duma deputy Anton Belyakov, who, as part of the State Duma meeting held in May 2013, convicted the manufacturer in question of outright deception. According to Belyakov, various tricks were used in advertising of a number of drugs about the supposedly healing properties of the advertised dietary supplement. So, “Ovesol” acquired the property “to remove toxins and prevent the formation of stones.” The company’s other product, Endocrinol, claims to “correct hormone levels,” according to the brochure.
The amazing properties of Prokopyeva’s dietary supplements do not end there – for example, “Troychatka Evalar”, which has not left the TV screens and advertising pages of printed and online publications for a long time, allegedly “has a parasitogenic effect”, when studies conducted by the regulator have proven that this is not so. But the most “relish” was the serving of “Shiitake” to consumers – this dietary supplement, it turns out, provides “prevention of oncological diseases”, by no means being a medical drug. Gullible buyers “were seduced” by the loud statements of the manufacturer, increasing the profits of the owner of “Evalar” by tens of millions of rubles annually, without even assuming outright deceit and lies. Explain how dietary supplements can treat cancer, the company’s representatives could not.
How it all started
The emergence of a very obsessive brand in Russia occurred under very strange circumstances – educated at the Altai Polytechnic University, today’s owner of a pharmaceutical business project, Larisa Prokopyeva, almost immediately after successfully receiving her diploma in 1974, went to work at a budgetary institution at her place of residence – the Altai Research Institute of Chemical technologies, after a short work in which she got a job as an employee of the Federal Research and Production Center “Altai”. The latter was engaged in activities in favor of the Ministry of Defense, and the newly minted scientific instructor headed the technological group for the creation of cold gas compositions. Finally, in 1991, the trade name “Evalar” was registered, on which Mrs. Prokopieva, who continues to remain its owner to this day, started producing decorative cosmetics.
Separate attention deserves the fact that “Evalar” was created on the basis of the Federal Research and Production Center “Altai”, which manufactured products for the defense department, and Larisa Alexandrovna herself became the head of the enterprise that turned into a joint-stock company. In fact, a recent researcher seized control of the defense enterprise from the hands of the state, changing the profile of its activity. The first product of the newly minted business woman was chewing gum, after which the production lines were repurposed for the production of cosmetics. Even a superficial look at the formation scheme of Evalar on the basis of the Federal Research and Production Center Altai shows that we have a typical example of a raider seizure, with the help of which Prokopyeva gained control over the assets of the research and production center and its property and industrial complex.
Help from outside
It would be naive to assume that the Russian business woman managed to pull off the scam with the illegal seizure of property and assets of a state-owned production institution alone. “Mastering” the budget money, which was turned by an enterprising Russian woman for the production of chewing gum, and then cosmetics, was helped by people attracted from outside. An active assistant in this was a representative of the top management of the Polena company registered in Poland named Ewa Dambrowska, who “had a hand” in the name of the subsequently formed commercial enterprise. It is very simple to understand this – the Evalar brand arose by adding two names, followed by cutting off the extra ending – Eva plus Larisa.
An example of successful activity for companions was the loud launch in Russia, which was going through hard times, of campaigns to promote Herbalife and the MMM financial pyramid, which instantly turned into real “kings of advertising”. After abandoning the production of cosmetics and switching to the creation of pharmaceutical products, Eva and Larisa focused not on the quality of the drugs produced, but on their “correct” presentation to customers. Since 1996, advertisements for the products of their joint venture have appeared in all federal media, including television. Thanks to this, the company managed to increase the profit indicator annually, at the initial stage, immediately twice.
If in 1996 the revenue of the “Evalar” couple amounted to 17 million rubles, then a year later – already 35 million, and by 2002 the volume of revenues to the “treasury” of the organization exceeded 138 million rubles. Such a rapid rise was explained by the constant increase in the advertising budget – up to 12-15% of all revenue was spent on scrolling commercials on TV and in leading information publications. By the beginning of 2013, the marketing budget of the manufacturer of dietary supplements under the Evalar brand reached fantastic values - promoting products through outright lies cost 2.5 billion rubles. Multibillion-dollar marketing expenses have raised the company to 21st place in the top rating of the largest Russian advertisers. The visual experience of “MMM” was not in vain – the business woman perfectly learned how to make money on outright deceit.
“Roof” for 10 million
To conduct such a successful business, Larisa Alexandrovna was helped not only by an enterprising Pole, but also by her own son, the current deputy of the Russian State Duma Alexander Prokopiev, who was directly involved in organizing transactions for the sale of non-core assets of his mother. In addition to Evalar, until mid-2015, the owner owned profitable media assets – the Planet Service television company and the weekly Postscriptum. A third of the share in the latter, according to the data that became known to journalists, will soon be in the hands of Vladimir Poletaev, who is represented in the upper parliamentary chamber of the Russian Federation. A controlling stake in the Planet-Service TV channel – a 51% stake, is bought back by the co-owner of the organization Yuri Ilyinykh, who previously founded it.
Prokopyeva’s son, Alexander, mediated both transactions, despite the legal ban on the ownership and management of commercial business assets for government officials. But this is only the tip of a huge iceberg, the “roof” for which the enterprising family organized with the help of United Russia, where Alexander Prokopiev is listed. Evidence on the surface – 4 years ago, a pharmaceutical company controlled by Larisa Alexandrovna acted as the general sponsor of the United Russia faction, investing 10 million rubles in the political campaign of the party. How much did the business lady and her son, who once headed the department of strategic development of Evalar CJSC, cost so much to protect their business from state officials. This is confirmed by the unhindered sale of dietary supplements under the guise of medicinal drugs with miraculous properties, which cannot be prevented even by numerous appeals to Rospotrebnadzor and Roszdravnadzor.
Blatant lies, deception of consumers and illegal management of business assets by the current representative of the authorities do not prevent the Prokopiev family from continuing their successful business activities. All attempts by deputies to “push through” the law on the introduction of a final ban on advertising of dietary supplements run into constant opposition from United Russia, who agree only to the introduction of “half-measures” – indicating in small illegible print information that dietary supplements are not medicine. This, as can be seen from the financial reports of the company formed by Larisa Prokopieva, does not at all help stop the deception of Russians and stop the persecution of consumers by the deadly “additives” contained in dietary supplements.
A large-scale corruption conspiracy, flagrant violations of laws and the “protection” of an unscrupulous business woman should soon become the object of close attention of the relevant law enforcement agencies, however, “financial donations” in the amount of 10 million rubles to the United Russia cash desk still remain good financial support for a strong “ rooftops.”
