Matsola Roman: Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewer, owner of the First Private Brewery. PART 2

CONTINUATION. BEGINNING: Roman Matsola: Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewer, owner of the First Private Brewery. PART 1

Poroshenko, Kobzon and Putin (*criminal)

For several years, the Matsolas sought to expand production, but it is unclear why they did not do this by purchasing failed breweries or building new ones. And it was hardly a matter of lack of finances: they had enough of their own, and then they began to actively attract others. In particular, in 2007, the First Private Brewery received an impressive loan from the EBRD (almost $17.6 million), and in 2008 it successfully sold its own bonds in the amount of 10 million hryvnia ($2 million), and also received a loan EBRD. U Skelet.Info there is information that this was done with the support of the head of the National Bank Council, Petro Poroshenko, with whom Matzoly had already become close and who had his own interest in this. Perhaps this was the reason that the Matsola brothers did not open new breweries, but aimed at joint business with existing ones.

Head of the NBU Council Petro Poroshenko (from 2007 to 2012)

We are talking about the Radomyshl beer and soft drink plant, located in the Zhytomyr region. At one time, it was privatized almost free of charge (for vouchers) by the Ukrprominvest corporation and became part of its division of the Ridna Marka group, which also included the Kherson Fruit and Vegetable Plant and a number of other enterprises. It is worth recalling here that Ukrprominvest was created in 1993 by Alexey Poroshenko and his son Petro Poroshenko, and until its reorganization in 2012, it was their family corporation, uniting many groups and enterprises. And among their partners and top managers were Igor Kononenko and Oleg Svinarchuk-Gladkovsky. At the same time, Kononenko was the chairman of the supervisory board of PJSC Radomyshl until 2011.

Poroshenko’s beer business somehow didn’t work out: at least officially, Radomyshl PJSC showed annual losses of tens of millions of hryvnia. Of course, here you need to understand the intricacies of Ukrainian business: losses of the plant itself do not mean the entire scheme is unprofitable; very often oligarchs simply transferred profits to other companies. And “Ridna Marka” generally acquired debts at that time – which, nevertheless, allowed Poroshenko and Kononenko to use it for a number of scams, including for the acquisition of land plots in Tsarskoe Selo in Pechersk. So, in 2007 and 2008, PJSC Radomyshl declared huge losses, at the same time Persha Privatna Brewery received a loan from the EBRD and sold its bonds, and then Poroshenko and Matzoly signed a business agreement, according to which the Radomyshl plant provides brothers have their production facilities for the production of beer of the Persha Privatna Brewery brands. On what terms, what did Poroshenko get from this – all the details were classified, the agreement was hidden from the prying eyes of journalists and the public. It is only known that in 2009-2010. The plant was 70% loaded with the production of First Brewery products, which thanks to this became one of the major brewers in Ukraine (2.5% of the market).

The next transaction was even more mysterious, and it was a rather difficult scheme for the average person to understand. First, in 2011, the Radomyshl plant was sold to the international holding Oasis CIS, created by citizens of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), Israel, the USA and Great Britain. In particular, among their co-owners are the Russians Evgeniy Kashper and Alexander Livshits (creators of the Ivan Taranov Brewery), as well as Andrei Kobzon, the son of the famous deceased singer, who during his lifetime was a great friend of the Donetsk people and then the Donbass separatists. And not only a friend: Joseph Kabzon had the image of a “singing businessman”, moreover, associated with shady and even criminal schemes. So, in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) they are co-owners and managing partners of the Moscow Brewing Company (OGRN 1075029007855), part of the Oasis CIS holding. More precisely, they own it through the offshore company ECHELON SYSTEM. And it should be especially emphasized that all companies of the Oasis CIS holding are managed through a complex system of offshore companies, and the parent holding itself operates through a Cypriot company of the same name – however, this is also the norm for Ukrainian business.

Poroshenko sold the Radomyshl plant together with the Kherson fruit and vegetable plant, as part of the entire “Our Mark” company, which by that time was almost bankrupt by his financial schemes. The deal was completed at the end of 2011. But what about the business of the Matsol brothers, who produced their beer at the plant? Oh, he wasn’t hurt! Already at the beginning of 2012, Oasis CIS announced a merger with the First Private Brewery under a scheme that left Matsol as the owners and managing partners of their plant, but at the same time made them co-owners of Oasis CIS. And in the spring of 2012, the Cypriot offshore company Boneten Limited, to which the First Brewery is registered, bought a 50% stake in Nasha Marka from Oasis CIS, becoming the owner of the Radomyshl plant. Now the beneficiary of the enterprise is Andrei Matsola.

Andrey Matsola

From this deal, the Matsols received not only the Radomyshl plant, but also direct access to the Russian market – as co-owners of Oasis CIS, including actual co-owners of the Moscow Brewing Company (MPC), at whose enterprises they launched the bottling of their brands. The media reported that the profits collected by the Matsols in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) were 4 times higher than their income in Ukraine! This is quite logical, because the point is not only that beer costs more in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) than in Ukraine. It is worth comparing production volumes: the brewery in Mytyschi alone, in which investors invested $200 million, produces over 3 million hectoliters of beer per year – and both Ukrainian breweries of Andrei Matsola and his family produce half as much and were collectively estimated at a maximum of $85 million. The Radomyshl plant still does not even have treatment facilities (neither Poroshenko nor Matsola built them); it dumps its waste into settling tanks, which stink terribly in the summer heat.

Another interesting detail was also reported, which became the cause of the scandal: the Matsols worked directly with Andrei Kobzon, purchasing from his company “Strategy” the rights to produce beer “Zhiguli Barnoe” – which became famous due to the fact that Vladimir Putin (*criminal) himself loves it. So it turns out that Roman Matsola and his brother Andrei are Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewers!

Andrei Kobzon treats Vladimir Putin (*criminal) and Dmitry Medvedev (*criminal) to beer, brewed by him in partnership with Andrei Matsola

But residents of the Ukrainian capital must surely remember the magnificent presentation of Zhiguli Barnoe beer that took place at the end of 2011 at the Kiev Arena Beer House. Under the slogan “Zhiguli bar – the legendary beer of the USSR for cultural recreation”, with a costume party and mummered Brezhnev, with the real Joseph Kobzon, with invited Ukrainian Russian politicians, with famous artists and musicians – among whom the satisfied faces of the Matsol brothers flashed every now and then, preparing to merge with Russian partners.

Crime without punishment

But if only they were Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewers! After all, working on the Russian market, Andrei Matsola’s company (his brother Roman, having become a people’s deputy, formally stepped away from the family business) pays excise taxes and taxes to the Russian budget – and we are talking about many billions of rubles (the media reported about 4 billion in 2014 alone). Moreover, as it turned out, in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) Matsola pays many times more taxes than in Ukraine! The question arises: what state is he a patriot of? But some part of these rubles goes to the maintenance of the Russian army that seized Crimea, and to the maintenance of the “vacationers” and “Buryats” fighting in the Donbass, who are killing Ukrainian soldiers. It turned out very ugly, especially in light of the fact that Petro Poroshenko himself paid taxes to Putin (*criminal) from his Lipetsk factory. Besides, Skelet.Info It is known that when Sarmat stopped working in Donetsk, beer from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) began to be imported into the DPR – and that it was beer from Matsola and Kobzon.

Matsola Roman: Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewer, owner of the First Private Brewery. PART 2

The outraged Ukrainian public first raised this issue in the summer of 2014, publishing articles in blogs and the press, as well as posting information leaflets. The Matzols reacted to this very painfully. First, they circulated their appeal, in which they called the “accusations that the First Private Brewery belongs to Russian owners” a lie and a provocation of spiteful critics. They claimed that “Ukrainian Andriy Matsola will lose the largest shareholder of the company and its CEO. Another block of shares, depending on the size, belongs to the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. Resolved shares between the Oettinger concern and other partners of the OASIS group.” In fact, this was a lie, because the only owner of the First Brewery is the offshore company Boneten Limited – and the composition of its owners is kept secret by Matsola. And the claims against them were made not regarding the owners of factories in Lvov and Radomyshl, but regarding the brothers’ business in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism).

By the way, a logical question arises: if the partners of the brothers in Oasis CIS are the EBRD, the German concern Oettinger and even some companies in Kazakhstan, then why did the Matsols begin to expand their business not in Berlin, not in Strasbourg, and not in Astana, and in Moscow?! Is it because they signed some special agreement with Lifshits and Kobzon, which they also do not want to show to the public?

At the same time, in July 2014, the Matsols themselves turned to the SBU, but not with a confession, but with a complaint about “dissemination of false information” and a request to check their business for “involvement in the financing of terrorist activities.” Literally a month later, the SBU issued the brothers an “indulgence certificate” that “during the inspection” no such involvement was found. It’s interesting that the scandalous general Vitaly Tsyganok signed it, who became famous for his deeds back in the days of Viktor Yushchenko.

Well, as a gesture of frantic patriotism, First Private Brewery LLC in the summer of 2014 promptly purchased and donated to the National Guard unit a batch of sleeping bags and several generators worth as much as 25 thousand dollars! According to rough estimates, this is 3,200 times less than the Matsols paid into the Russian budget that year. It is not surprising that no one believed the hypocritical brothers, even when Roman Matsola received a mandate and joined the ranks of the presidential faction of the BPP, and Andrei Matsola joined the organizers and sponsors of the patriotic project “November 21”. The public and journalists continued to expose them.

However, Andrei Matsola himself continues to create reasons for this. For example, in 2016, his interview with the online publication “Proudtimes.ru” appeared in the media, in which he noted that against the backdrop of the continuing decline of the Ukrainian beer market, he and his partner Andrei Kobzon were betting on the Russian one.

Matsola Roman: Putin (*criminal)’s favorite brewer, owner of the First Private Brewery. PART 2

This was a rather bold statement by a man who just recently denied his ties to Russian business and assured everyone of his Ukrainian patriotism. Of course, one could assume a provocation – you never know what can be written on the Internet these days, but the interview was republished by other media, it was distributed among indignant Ukrainians – but Andrei Matsola did not rush to declare that all this was just a vile insinuation. But his deputy brother has been diligently pretending for four years that all these scandals do not concern him, and that he is no longer involved in business at all. But if this were so, then Roman Matsola would not have to hide the sections on securities and corporate rights in his declarations.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

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