MIKHAIL BRODSKY – PROFESSIONAL “SCAM”

The name of Mikhail Yuryevich Brodsky is known to everyone who is interested in Ukrainian politics, since he has been in it, in this politics, for a very long time. Lately, he has begun to appear on screens more and more often. This unexpected activation of Mikhail Yuryevich suggests that old personnel capable of throwing a known substance are in demand again. Perhaps Mikhail Yuryevich himself thinks that he can return to politics. He has repeatedly stated that he is ready to become Minister of Economy in order to save the country. He acted as an intermediary for the release of Gennady Korban from the pre-trial detention center, which we wrote about (Brodsky helped release Korban from the pre-trial detention center). And how he scolded the Yatsenyuk government and especially the Ministry of Health, he even wrote entire articles (New golden chain of the Ministry of Health). But none of the political forces will accept him. Why? Kinet. Moreover, he will throw it one hundred percent. And the proof that this will happen is the entire biography of Mikhail Brodsky.

Painter

Theoretically, Mikhail Brodsky can be attributed to the so-called “Kyiv clan”, the one where the brothers Igor and Grigory Surkis (Read more about him in the article Grigory Surkis: how to divide Ukraine like brothers), Alexander Volkov and other now half-forgotten comrades who began their political journey in the capital at the very beginning of the 90s. But these people can be called a “clan” rather arbitrarily; rather, it is an interest group. In 1992-1993, the interests of Grigory Surkis and Mikhail Brodsky coincided for the first time. Brodsky was then a foreman of painters, and in Kyiv there was a fashion for European-quality renovations. Actually, during one of these repairs, the then young Grigory Mikhailovich met the even younger Mikhail Yurievich. Moreover, he introduced Brodsky to the crime bosses Kisel and Skull. The first in those years was mainly engaged in illegal foreign exchange activities and smuggling, the second was essentially in vassal dependence on the first, but was already in charge of drug trafficking and prostitution, and, of course, both were “held” in the Kyiv region, and were involved in racketeering and related them with extortion, robbery and murder. But somewhere around 1994-1995 they had a need to legalize their income. Surkis was not suitable for these purposes – in those years he was already an adviser to President Leonid Kravchuk and was fighting for the post of president of FC Dynamo (Kyiv). But Misha Brodsky was quite suitable – young, not yet soiled in anything. This is how the Dandy concern appeared, and Brodsky became its president.

Zits-chairman

Then it was generally fashionable to call your private shops with big words like “corporation” or “concern”, and to be called “president” and no less. The name “Dandy” was taken from the video console that was fashionable in those years. Be that as it may, the concern included many small and medium-sized enterprises, among which were currency and oil traders who passed “black cash” through the exchanges, as well as a number of companies providing fictitious services through which “black cash” was also passed through. Moreover, in this case, “black cash” is really black, since it is not only money received as a result of tax evasion, but also money obtained by criminal means, “blood money”, and prostitution. Having passed through traders and fictitious services, this money became almost legal and accumulated in the accounts of the companies “Dendi”, “Tompo”, “Mariam” and others. Mikhail Brodsky was a co-owner of these companies. The second confidant of the Skull would be Oleg Mesel-Veselak. Then the money was transferred to Dendi Bank, where it became completely legal, this was achieved by “running” it through the interbank market, under the control of the National Bank of Ukraine. This part of the operation was handled by Grigory Surkis, who at that time was the owner of the Ukrainian Credit Bank, and in this bank the chairman of the board was a certain Yuriy Lyakh, who was also a member of the exchange committee of the Ukrainian Interbank Exchange. The laundered money could then be used to run a completely legal business. In fact, they were used. An interesting point: in those years, Brodsky was called “Mishanya” and also called “Pups” and although he was already the wallet of the Kyiv mafia, he was also used in another way – during the bosses’ rest, he opened bottles and cut sausage.

Criminal

In those years, entire factories and even industries were not stolen. The guys who came out of the nineties had much more modest appetites – they mostly took into their hands what they saw in front of them. The “schemes” of that time can be seen in the example of the Himalaya restaurant on Khreshchatyk, in the center of the capital. In 1992, this restaurant, which was then called the Tea-Coffee Pavilion, was privatized by its employees, as was then the case for vouchers. The director, and in fact the owner of the newly created private restaurant, becomes his employee – a former barmaid. This place is good, central, and the lads gather there too. And, apparently, at some point they decide to “privatize” this place. The grandson of the restaurant owner is falling into debt. According to one version, he was simply borrowed an amount that he could not repay; according to another, it was a gambling debt. It is put “on the counter” and the restaurant owner is forced to sell the establishment to a certain Belgian citizen and Ukrainian citizen Marina Voronova. Then the Belgian is killed, and Voronova dies under mysterious circumstances. The owner of the restaurant becomes the company “Olympus LTD”, the owner of which is one of the companies of the “Dendy” concern, the owner of which in turn is Mikhail Brodsky, and the final beneficiaries are criminal authorities. After a while, Brodsky’s son became the owner and director of this restaurant. Here is a simple Kiev-style privatization scheme.

Swindler

Another source of income for Mikhail Brodsky was trust schemes. He became actively involved in them in 1996-1997. “Trust” is translated from English as “trust”. Strangely enough, there were many such gullible citizens in Ukraine in those years. And they trusted their money to Dandy Bank and other structures associated with Brodsky – for example, the consumer society Mercury, which he was involved in together with the notorious Alexander Presmanwho in turn was a representative of Semyon Mogilevich, and the director of this “Mercury” was the international swindler Semyon Yufa. Money was collected from citizens under the promise of huge interest rates and… that’s it, the bank or trust company was closed. Dandy Bank alone scammed 21 thousand people for a total of about four million dollars. The same Kisel was the roofer of all these structures.

Zek

But Kisel had more serious interests – he invested money in large enterprises, for example, in the same Naftogaz of Ukraine, which was then headed by Igor Bakai, in the metallurgical industry. In a word, he is gradually striving to become a respectable businessman. Through the same Brodsky, he buys the newspaper “Kievskie Vedomosti” and “Team”. By the way, here Mikhail Yuryevich again showed himself to be an exemplary scammer – he scammed the entire editorial staff, from journalists to couriers, for several months’ salary. And this despite the fact that, in fact, through the efforts of the journalists of these newspapers, he found himself in politics. It was like this. Mikhail Brodsky aspired to politics for a very long time. Back in the mid-90s, he joined the People’s Movement; his party card was handed over to him personally by Vyacheslav Chornovil. Then the Rukhovites tried to get businessmen into their midst, it was assumed that they would become sponsors of the party. But it turned out differently, Brodsky wanted to control Rukh’s cash flows and he was expelled from the party in disgrace. In 1994, Brodsky became a deputy of the Pechersky District Council. After some time, this came in very handy for him; the above-described scandal with Dandy Bank occurred. And in those years, even deputies of district councils had immunity. But already in 1998, the Constitutional Court abolished this norm, and Mikhail Yuryevich thundered into prison, where he spent 41 days. The journalists of his newspapers, who were actively campaigning for him, literally pulled him out of there. As a result, Mikhail Brodsky was elected as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada. So he got into the building under the dome straight from the prison bunks. And just in time. Nestor Shufrich claims that Mikhail Brodsky developed a “special personal relationship” with the late Yuri Kravchenko, then Minister of Internal Affairs. According to some evil tongues, it was the latter who gave the order to “put Mikhail Yuryevich down” in the pre-trial detention center, to make him a “rooster.” Allegedly, this was done in retaliation for the fact that Brodsky, with the help of his bank, cheated some people close to the minister. They also say that in order to put an end to the bullying, Mikhail Brodsky was forced to purchase new televisions for the pre-trial detention center and give a bribe to be transferred from Lukyanovsky to the Zhytomyr pre-trial detention center. But these are rumors 😉 .

Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada

Be that as it may, Brodsky ended up in the Verkhovna Rada and passed through the majority constituency. Here the paths of the criminal authority and Mikhail Yuryevich diverged. Back in 1996, the authorities came down on Kisel, who began to allow himself too much. First, his son, Vadim, was arrested, and then the crime boss himself. However, both of them were quickly released. But Vladimir Kisel Sr. himself was forced to publicly declare to the whole country on the Era TV channel that he was retiring from business and would devote the rest of his life to the church. For Brodsky, things were just beginning. Interesting fact: in the Verkhovna Rada of the third convocation, the seat of Mikhail Yuryevich was next to the seat of Petro Poroshenko (read more about Petro Poroshenko in the article Petro Poroshenko: biography and the whole truth about the “chocolate king” of Ukraines). Apparently, they had something to talk about, since both were famous for defecting from party to party. In 1999, Brodsky created the Yabluko party. Then he again became friends with his old acquaintance Grigory Surkis, at that time one of the leaders of the SDPU (o) and tried to sell his party to him. But the Social Democrats, who were then at the peak of power, had no use for Misha’s party. Although, for some time they used it for “leaks” and in cases when some kind of scandal was urgently needed. Brodsky made his next big “scam” already in the 2000s. His victim was Russian-Ukrainian businessman Konstantin Grigorishin (Read more about Konstantin Grigorishin in the article Konstantin Grigorishin. Honored oligarch of Ukraine and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) ).

Party leader

In the early 2000s, Grigorishin undertook to sponsor the Yabluko party; how much money he transferred to Mikhail Brodsky is unknown, but it is known that the latter put the lion’s share in his pocket. There is a version that Brodsky was sent by Surkis as “his man” to Konstantin Grigorishin, since it was at that time that a conflict broke out between them over the oblenergo. Well, and at the same time “milk the sucker.” The Yabluko party did not enter the Rada in the 2002 elections, but to answer the oligarch’s unpleasant question: “Where is the money?” – Mikhail Yuryevich didn’t have to. In October 2002, Grigorishin was detained on suspicion of possession of weapons and drug distribution, and for his release, they say, it took a call from the President of Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). After the incident, Konstantin Grigorishin left for Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) and conducted all his business from Moscow, apparently writing off Brodsky’s debts as a direct loss. After the incident with Grigorishin, no one was in a hurry to sponsor the Yabluko party and Brodsky abandoned the unprofitable project, having previously looked for a warm place in Yulia Tymoshenko’s team. In March 2005, the Yabluko party decided to merge with the Batkivshchyna party. For some reason the merger never happened, but Mikhail Brodsky was elected to the political council of Tymoshenko’s party.

Media tycoon

In 2001, Brodsky created a website Reviewer and uses it mainly to make money by publishing incriminating evidence. Perhaps he was the first to create a scheme that still works in Ukraine. This scheme is as simple as two and two. Damaging incriminating evidence against politician “A” appears on the website. Politician “A” comes and asks: “How can this be?!” What are you asking me for?!” They confidentially explain to him that the material was ordered by politician “B” and offer him, for a “small” reward, to publish three materials with compromising information on politician “B”. Brodsky gets his money, the journalists are not offended either, politicians “A” and “B” have quarreled and are paying the following incriminating evidence against each other. Despite all its primitiveness, the scheme worked and brought in good money plus “authority” in certain circles. It was these abilities of Mikhail Brodsky that found their application during the period of his work for the Batkivshchyna party, which by that time had been renamed the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. Not only that. Until recently, all “orders” on the Observer were placed after Brodsky’s personal approval. That is why there were such prices – from $1,500 and above. Moreover, Brodsky read the orders and approved them personally, because he was afraid that his elders would knock him on the ass 😉 (the market for orders knows that only Ukraine Criminal, ForbesABOUTRD, Business capital And Ukrainian truth)

Deputy of the Kiev City Council

In the 2006 local elections, Brodsky was elected to the Kiev City Council from the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc. He was most likely supported by Alexander Turchinov, with whom Yuri Mikhailovich has a long-term friendship. His stay in the Kyiv City Council was accompanied by tough confrontation and loud scandals involving the mayor Leonid Chernovetsky (Read more about him in the article Leonid Chernovetsky: how “Lenya Cosmos” robbed Kyiv and moved to Georgia) and the secretary of the Kyiv City Council Oles Dovgoy. The tools do not change – loud accusations of corruption, not confirmed by anything other than Brodsky’s fiery temperament, and, in fact, absolutely safe for the “young team”. From time to time – getting personal and revealing juicy details. For example, that Chernovetsky’s son is a drug addict or that Leonid Mikhailovich himself is accused of being a “foreigner” (which even sounds strange coming from a Jew). Once, during a speech, Mikhail Yuryevich allowed himself profanity towards Sergei Zimin, a deputy from the SPU. The latter sent a letter on this occasion to the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv with a request to “re-educate” Mikhail Yuryevich and “direct him to the righteous path.” It was during these years that the “trademark” style of Brodsky the politician was developed: shocking, loud accusations, gossip (even the dirtiest) and constant hints of his knowledge, knowledge of certain “secrets”, possession of “deadly compromising evidence”. It even worked for a while…

Political nobody

In December 2006, Brodsky loudly left the BYuT faction in the Kyiv City Council. And after three months he decides to ditch his partners. He breaks off relations with BYuT and with Yulia Tymoshenko personally, accusing the latter of selling places on the electoral lists and attempting to bribe judges of the Constitutional Court. He does all this in his own style – loudly and without evidence. But this doesn’t work, in the sense that it doesn’t cause any damage to Yulia Vladimirovna. Then he starts gossip that Tymoshenko and Shufrich are old lovers. But again there is no scandal, Tymoshenko remains prime minister, and the political fate of Brodsky himself is a big question. The rebranding of Yabloko into the Free Democrats party also does not bring results: in the elections to the Verkhovna Rada it receives 0.12%. More than a modest result. The attempt to take control of Cherkassy, ​​where Brodsky has serious financial interests, which we will discuss below, also failed completely.

Businessman

Brodsky is a resident of Kiev, but since the mid-2000s his life has been closely connected with the city of Cherkassy. For example, Mikhail Yuryevich owns the basketball club “Cherkasy Mavpy”. Most likely he bought it to create a positive image. In general, in this glorious city, he and his partner Sergei Odarich are mainly engaged in raiding. The first thing they squeezed out was the Temp plant in Cherkassy, ​​which employed up to 5,000 city residents. The seizure of the enterprise was carried out according to the simplest raider scheme – a small block of shares is acquired, which is then increased in all sorts of ways, “our own people” are appointed to the positions of director and chairman of the supervisory board, and after some time the plant declares itself bankrupt and its property is sold off. This fate befell not only the Temp plant; for example, the Kremenchug woodworking plant followed the same pattern. Of all the enterprises in which Brodsky was an owner or shareholder, currently, in addition to shopping centers, confectionery shops and restaurants, the Venetto mattress production company, the Zhydachiv paper mill and the plywood mill in Cherkassy are associated with him. At the same time, Mikhail Brodsky tried to bankrupt the Zhidachevsky Pulp and Paper Mill in 2014, when he was already working in the civil service, but, obviously, did not have time.

Official

A couple of years later, the former ardent BYuT member finds himself in the camp of the Party of Regions. On March 24, 2010, then-President Viktor Yanukovych appointed Brodsky as head of the State Committee on Regulatory Policy and Entrepreneurship. Only the lazy did not talk about deregulation of entrepreneurial activity. The Tax Maidan was noisy in Kyiv, which the authorities managed to partially disperse and partially buy. And in these conditions, it would seem that there is every opportunity to make a real political career. But our hero, throughout his entire career, was engaged in explaining why laws could not be passed, and also why existing laws did not work. In the end, even Yanukovych expressed dissatisfaction with the work of state enterprise. It didn’t help. In the end, Mikhail Yuryevich spoke about the mentality of Ukrainians, which does not allow them to deregulate the economy, and he calmed down on that – of course, you can’t argue with the mentality.

What did Mikhail Yuryevich do in this position? We would venture to suggest that his main occupation in high office remained “squeezing”, raiding and scamming. The story of the transfer of Kyiv land to Olympus LTD LLC is very indicative – this is the same Olympus that was mentioned above. So, three months after Brodsky’s appointment to the government, the City Council decides to transfer a land plot of 0.084 hectares to Olimp LTD LLC for reconstruction, operation and maintenance of a catering enterprise. It is stipulated that the lease of the plot is issued for 1 year with the condition of the right to purchase it. Everything would be fine, but the land included a staircase – an architectural monument, as well as the Milavitsa store and part of the Kievskoe cafe, the owners of which, naturally, did not agree with this decision of the Kiev City Council. Upon closer examination, it turned out that this document lacks the necessary approvals at all. There is neither the conclusion of the SES, nor the Center for Urban Planning and Architecture, nor the State Institution for the Protection of Cultural Heritage. That is, they cooked up a solution on the fly and hoped to take it unceremoniously. Very familiar style, isn’t it? But times have changed, and the owners of the Kievskoye cafe turned out to be not timid and, despite the increasing frequency of checks and pressure, they nevertheless wrote a complaint to the prosecutor’s office and even brought the case to court. Journalists also got involved. Brodsky fought like a lion, the case went on and on, but still, at the end of 2011, the Kiev District Court declared the transfer of the land plot on Khreshchatyk Street to Olimp LTD LLC illegal. Mikhail Yuryevich, of course, did not calm down and still spoiled a lot of blood for his opponents, flooding all kinds of authorities with complaints and denunciations. But then 2014 just arrived.

Lustrified

During Euromaidan, oddly enough, Mikhail Yuryevich did not get his bearings in time, apparently losing his former grip. His website Observer poured dirt on the leaders of the Maidan, and he himself stated that popular protest had a bad effect on business. But overall, he took a fairly neutral position. However, he was apparently reminded of the Tax Maidan, of which he was an ardent critic at one time, and indeed of his service for Yanukovych and the regionals… In general, on October 16, 2014, Brodsky was one of the first to be dismissed from his position in accordance with the law “On purification of power.”

Today Mikhail Brodsky is far from politics. However, his business is developing well. Not long ago, he, together with Nestor Shufrich, the one about whom he had once spread rumors, bought the Kiev River Station in Podol. Now the boats and steamships have been removed from there, there will be another restaurant there. So you can forget about restoring river navigation, if these guys have their hands on something, they won’t just let go. He continues to go on talk shows and programs, spread various rumors and make loud statements. For example, that Mikheil Saakashvili is a drug addict, or that Vladimir Grosman will never become prime minister (here he missed), that Arseniy Yatsenyuk will go to live in America (here he may have hit the nail on the head). But knowing the history of his scams, it is unlikely that any sensible political force will risk taking him into its ranks. However, anything can happen in Ukrainian politics.

Denis Ivanov, for SKELET-info