Vadim Grib. He was called raider #1, but was hired by the SBU

Like most of today’s major businessmen, Vadim Grib began his career during the wild 90s, when factories were bought for pennies, but in order to hold on to them, it was necessary to “be friends” with the gangsters. Grib started his business in the criminal city of Tolyatti, where shootouts and showdowns were commonplace in the daily activities of entrepreneurs.

In 1989, the businessman founded the company LogoVAZ in Tolyatti, which was engaged in the sale of VAZ products. Two years later, this company received the status of an official importer of Mercedes-Benz cars in the USSR. It should be noted that from 1991 to 1995, Vadim Grib was a member of the advisory council under the President of the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism) on securities; this period is called the peak of his political career.

Moving to Ukraine

The Russian raider-entrepreneur moved to Ukraine in 1995, when privatization was in full swing here and the securities market was still very, very raw. It was in Ukraine that Vadim Grib’s skills in “resolving corporate conflicts” were put to full use. Without thinking twice, Vadim Valentinovich created the investment company “TEKT”, which became one of the leading companies in Ukraine (it still exists). Engaged in buying and seizing enterprises for resale, he rose to the top of the list of raiders in Ukraine. Grib managed to “cheat” privatization vouchers from people, buy shares with them, and then resell them, transferring the money to offshore accounts. Among other things, he was engaged in the resale of shares of “Motor Sich”, Kryukov Carriage Works, Nikolaev Brewery “Yantar”, “Azovstal” and many others.

After arriving in Ukraine, Grib began actively looking for ways to obtain citizenship and cover up his business; he managed to achieve this with the help of the future people’s deputy of the 4th convocation, Anatoly Matvienko, who at that time worked at the Leonid Kravchuk Foundation.

By the way, it was Matvienko who in 1998 introduced the former head of the SBU Valeriy Khoroshkovsky to the former Prime Minister Valeriy Pustovoitenko, who launched his career as the head of the SBU. Grib and Khoroshkovsky, in turn, were connected by a common business – Ukrsotsbank, which was later sold to Viktor Pinchuk (Read more about him in the article Victor Pinchuk: Ukraine’s Richest Son-in-Law).

Over time, corporate raiding became Grib’s main business. In 2006-2007, he made a good profit at Rosinka. He bought Rosinka from the labor collective for $18 million and resold it to the French Orangina Group for $60 million. There were many other deals, but no one stopped him. Maybe because Grib began actively feeding promising politicians. In particular, Vadym Grib was Yushchenko’s sponsor, and even from October 2000 to May 2001, he was an advisor to Prime Minister Yushchenko on a voluntary basis. That’s when he began working on corporate raiding schemes.

After a successful start of the business start-up, Vadim Valentinovich decided to try himself in the political arena, and already in 2005 he worked as the acting Minister of Finance of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, as well as the Vice Prime Minister for Economic Affairs. However, something did not work out for him in Crimea, having created a couple of companies and having squeezed out as many of his positions as possible, he and his friend Anatoly Matvienko resigned.

The most “outstanding” raider takeover

In 2001, when Vadym Grib worked as an assistant to Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, he organized a raider takeover of Rosava CJSC. The Pirelli line was installed at the Belotserkovsky tire plant back in the perestroika era, under the USSR. With Ukraine gaining independence, the company had unlimited opportunities. It manufactured products of comparable quality to European ones, but at a significantly lower price.

This plant had a small tax debt and, despite the fact that the situation was not critical, the tax administration decided to seize the property of the JSC and sell it at auction to pay off the debts. The fact that Grib was the initiator of this scam is evidenced by the fact that he was the only one who not only learned in a timely manner, but exactly the same minute as the decision was made, about the auction of Rosava. Naturally, he bought the enterprise for a pittance. The case was so high-profile that even Leonid Kuchma, the then president, dedicated a special television appearance to it – he publicly demanded that justice be restored, but Rosava remained in Grib’s hands. He subsequently successfully resold it.

First Coming to the SBU

The next time Grib entered the civil service was in 2010, when after Viktor Yanukovych’s victory in the elections, his former business partner Valeriy Khoroshkovsky became the new head of the SBU. According to Vadym Grib, he was exclusively engaged in analytics in the department. It was known in advance that the businessman-raider intended to work in the SBU; even before his appointment, he was predicted to be the head of the Main Directorate for Analysis and Forecasting. Having come to the SBU, he received leverage to organize new financial scams and raider activities. Yes, before coming to the SBU, the PR people of “TEKT” very carefully cleared the Internet of any negative mentions of Mr. Grib.

Later, when Khoroshkovsky was first appointed head of the Ministry of Finance, and then deputy prime minister, Vadim Valentinovich became his right hand; it was he who led the group of advisers to the first deputy prime minister.

“Business Family” Gribov

Vadim Grib is a distrustful person by nature. Perhaps this is why almost all of his business is registered only to him and his family members. The companies “Basten”, TEKT-Realty, TEKT-Privat, the legal company TEKT-Real and other smaller ones are registered to his son Roman. Vadim’s sister Elena was the owner of the company TEKT-Brok (located in Crimea). A significant part of his business is registered to Vadim Valentinovich’s niece Olga Ponomareva (Elena’s daughter). Among other things, she is a co-founder of the company TEKT-Realty, TEKT-Brok, as well as the concern “Chistaya Liniya”. Vadim Grib’s wife Svetlana Boyarkina is also involved in business; she is the founder of two TEKT-Plus pharmacies, and was previously also the founder of the TEKT-Realty company and the Volodar Credit Union.

By the way, in almost every company of Vadim Valentinovich, his co-founder is a certain woman, Svetlana Bolotina, for example, OOO “Mining and Metallurgical Company”, Credit Union “Volodar” and concern “Chistaya Liniya”. She plays a significant role in the management of Vadim Grib’s companies.

Official places of work of Svetlana Bolotina according to TIN:

· 30965388 – Financial Company LLC;

· 25904754 – Credit Union “Volodar”;

· 31351050 – Legal Company LLC;

· 3509539 – Scientific and production commercial LLC;

· 2767205 – ZAT “TEKT-Brock”;

· 23697699 – ZAT “Investment Fund”;

· 32912296 – OOO TEKT-Trade;

· 2071894 – ZAT “Insurance Company” Kashtan”;

· 32310518 – OOO Concern Chistaya Liniya;

· 0393384 – ZAT “Management Company”.

Will Vadim Grib work in the SBU again?

Sources in the SBU claim that Vadym Hryb may soon receive a new position in the SBU, while at the same time he is still a member of the National Commission on Securities and the Stock Market, where his opinion is key and authoritative in establishing the facts of corporate raiding by the Commission. In light of the information that Hryb actively communicates with one of the “key” terrorists in the east of Ukraine, Denis Pushilin, which leaked online on August 27, the question arises as to how the authorities are justifying his appointment to the SBU and how his work in a state structure is connected with corporate raiding in the East.

Local elections will soon begin in Ukraine and it is quite possible that Vadym Hryb, who continues to strive for power, will also run in them (in the previous early elections to the Verkhovna Rada, as part of Serhiy Tigipko’s Strong Ukraine party, he was No. 19 on the electoral list). It is not yet known whether he will succeed or not, but if he is taken back to the SBU, new raider takeovers should be expected.

Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info