Viktor Topolov: the old guard of Ukrainian corruption
People like Topolov always prefer to remain in the shadows, where they are more accustomed to managing their business and pulling the strings of their puppets. There they are also invisible to the press, which can ask them too many uncomfortable questions about their past. And it is not at all what they try to portray it in their carefully edited biographies. In its dark corners you can find such surprises, in comparison with which modern corruption will seem like petty hooliganism – after all, these people created their business in the 90s!
Viktor Topolov and Gold Lazarenko
In July 2016, the little-known Ukrainian bank “Zemelny Capital” with rather modest assets of 214 million hryvnia (98th place in the ranking of banks) changed owners. This almost routine event in the Ukrainian economy would not have attracted any interest if the media had not announced the names of these same owners. The sellers of the bank were Alexander Mazurenko (42.4% of shares) and Tamara Tsikova (22.4%). They are completely non-public people, preferring to stay in the shadows and work through their lawyers, and for good reason.
The fact is that Mazurenko at one time was a security guard for Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko, after whose escape and arrest he remained his confidant in Ukraine, the “guardian” of his daughter Lesya Shatalina, and, according to Skelet.Infoone of the main custodians of Lazarenko’s “treasures”. So, in particular, it was Mazurenko who regularly “loaned” money to the arrested Lazarenko for expensive American lawyers – in fact, he sent him money from the boss’s “family cash register,” of which the Land Capital Bank was a part. Well, Tamara Tsikova is Pavel Ivanovich’s mother-in-law, although, one might say, almost in absentia. Her daughter
Oksana Tsikova and Pavel Lazarenko
Oksana Tsikova (granddaughter of academician Valentin Tsikov, director of the Dnepropetrovsk Corn Research Institute) was a classmate of Lazarenko’s eldest son Alexander, then an activist of “Gromada”; in 1999 she moved to the USA and participated in the work of Lazarenko’s group of lawyers, and was his translator. And when Pavel Lazarenko was released under house arrest in 2003, she married him and gave birth to his son Ivan.
During the years of Lazarenko’s “great stay” in the USA, his property in Ukraine was constantly attacked by raiders – for example, Gennady Korban and Boris Filatovtherefore, deals for its sale were concluded only with those businessmen whom the family of the ex-prime minister could trust. Moreover, the case of the Land Capital Bank is special: in 2016, the National Bank included it among the financial institutions with an opaque ownership structure, and the bank was threatened with withdrawal from the Ukrainian market. That is, in essence, the sale of this troubled bank simply saved the property of the Lazarenko family, which was carefully buried in intricate schemes. This means that there was special trust in the buyers of Land Capital, at the level of some personal agreements, and this transaction probably had undisclosed “additions”. After all, who else would decide to buy a problem bank in our difficult times, when even larger and more prosperous banks are bursting and closing one after another?
The buyers of “Land Capital” were Viktor Topolov and his wife Elena Topolova, another non-public people.
An almost forgotten “man from the past,” Viktor Topolov was once known as a “coal miner banker,” as well as a very close acquaintance of Viktor Yushchenko, who left the political arena during the 2010 presidential elections. However, not everyone knew about him, so Topolov from time to time arranged “surprises” that destroyed the usual ideas of Ukrainian inhabitants about the clans of the Ukrainian aristocracy. This happened with the Land Capital bank: already in October 2016, it entered into an agreement on comprehensive cooperation with the First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB), 92% of whose shares belong to SCM Finance, a subsidiary of System Capital Management. It turns out that Viktor Topolov bought the troubled bank “Land Capital” from the Lazarenko family, and then actually allowed FUIB Rinat Akhmetov to take over the patronage of it? What was he really up to?
Viktor Topolov – Stakhanovite banker and Seva Mogilevich
Topolov Viktor Semenovich was born on December 21, 1945 in the village of Agapovka, Chelyabinsk region (now the Russian Federation (*country sponsor of terrorism)), and two years later their family moved to Donbass to restore the coal industry destroyed by the war. They settled in Kadievka (Stakhanov), where Viktor Topolov himself graduated from the mining technical school in 1963. He served in the army when his military service lasted three years (1964-67), then he worked as a foreman in a vocational school, an underground standard setter in the Lisichansk mine administration, after graduating from the Kommunarsky Mining and Metallurgical Institute (1973) he worked for almost fifteen years at the Central Research Institute of Economics and Scientific and Technical information of the coal industry (in Stakhanov).
Perestroika pulled Topolov, who had already begun to turn gray, from the research institute to leadership positions in the Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) coal mining department, where he very quickly got used to the field of “self-financing.” In 1990, the management created Ugolprogressbank, through which they began to carry out financial transactions of coal enterprises in the region, and Topolov became the chairman of its board of directors. So the engineer retrained as a banker and businessman, and quite a successful one at that, judging by the fact that three years later Viktor Topolov appeared in Kyiv as the head of the board of the new Nadra JSCB.
A detailed history of the creation of JSCB Nadra, one of the largest (and problematic) banks in Ukraine, is almost impossible to find in the media. This is not surprising, because there is something to hide! And this story should begin with the emergence of Kyiv-Donbass CJSC. It is not easy to find out the exact date of its first appearance; usually in all documents it is 1994, but this is the year of re-registration of Kyiv-Donbass JSC as a holding company – it still exists today, and it employs as many as three employees (an interesting office). But in 1993, Kyiv-Donbass was one of the founders of Nadra Bank, that is, the company already existed then. But some sources report that Kyiv-Donbass CJSC was active even before the creation of Nadra Bank, and it was engaged in stealing funds allocated by the government for the purchase of equipment for Donbass mines – including for the Lugansk region. And it worked in the same scheme with Ugolprogressbank, headed by Viktor Topolov.
It would seem like a typical corruption scheme of the 90s! However, behind “Kyiv-Donbass” there were people for whom the word “corrupt” is too mild an epithet. According to former member of the “Russian” mafia of New York Leonid Roitman, the “Kyiv-Donbass” project was the brainchild of such famous crime bosses as Alik Magadan (Oleg Asmakov) and Semyon Mogilevich, carried out with the direct participation of Viktor Topolov and some Kyiv officials. Alexander Levin, Leonid Roitman and Alik Magadan (mafia), little-known financial virtuoso Pyotr Slipets, and representative of the coal Donbass Viktor Topolov had their shares in the company. Also involved in the case were the president of the company, Mikhail Grishpon, and Vasily Nefediev. Very quickly, the successful project needed its own bank – and so “Nadra” was created, with Viktor Topolov becoming the chairman of the board. A year and a half later, in 1995, Nadra carried out the takeover of Ugolprogressbank, becoming the main financial instrument of this scheme. However, speaking about the bank, it is worth remembering one more person who may be involved in the “Kyiv-Donbass” schemes of the early and mid-90s: this is the then head of the National Bank, Viktor Yushchenko. After all, it was then that a close friendship began between him and Tolov – and the head of the NBU did not bestow it on every Ukrainian banker!
Semyon Mogilevich
Further events were even more interesting and thoroughly criminal. A split occurred between Alik Magadan and Semyon Mogilevich, which affected the further fate of the named enterprises – the division of the joint business began. In 1997, Nadra Bank was sold: its new owners were brothers Ilya and Vadim Segal – originally from the Kherson region, they lived in the USA and, according to a number of sources, were connected with the “Russian” mafia and directly with Semyon Mogilevich. This was confirmed by the brothers’ earlier purchase of the Moscow Petroff Bank, which belonged to the Solntsevskaya Bratva and Mogilevich. Thus, the essence of the deal was that the bank went to Mogilevich’s people, and Kyiv-Donbass remained with Alik Magadan. After this, Viktor Topolov left Nadra and moved to the structures of the growing Kyiv-Donbass, becoming president of Firm Kyiv-Donbass LLC. He also became a shareholder of Kyiv Donbas Development Group NV, a development division of the Kyiv-Donbass holding company registered in the Netherlands (this company today owns the Carte Blanche restaurant chain and Puzata Khata eateries). He (through the Cyprus offshore Arpanet Holdings Limited) owned 11.25% of the company’s shares (he later transferred them to his wife Elena Topolova), Alexander Levin – 28.32%, Alik Magadan – 45%, and Peter had another 11%. Slipets, and 3.5% from Valentin Muzhchuk, Topolov’s trusted business partner (through the offshore Yankline Holdings Limited).
Valentin Muzhchuk and Victor Topolov
And in 1999, Alik Magadan was killed. It was reported that the most likely customer of its elimination was Surkis brothers and Semyon Mogilevich, but the performers allegedly were those who worked for him brothers Konstantinovskywho then took Alik Magadan’s share in Kyiv-Donbass and other enterprises. At the same time, according to Leonid Roitman, Viktor Topolov also took part in the conspiracy against Magadan.
Viktor Topolov and the Konstantinovskys worked well together. From 1998 to 1999, Topolov occupied the chair of the head of the CSKA-Kiev football club, and after the murder of Alik Magadan, he forged his signatures, which allowed him and Konstantinovsky to take over the club, turning it into an instrument of financial scams. Formally, the Konstantinovskys’ man was put in charge of the club, but Topolov remained with him as an adviser. So it was reported that through this FC, money was transferred to offshores, which was stolen with the help of Chervonogradugol LLC, specially created with the participation of Topolov – and we were talking about tens of millions.
Orange “roof”
At the end of 1999, Viktor Topolov and the Konstantinovsky brothers bought “only” $10 million from Valery Khoroshkovsky Lviv “Index-Bank”. Maybe for their financial transactions, maybe for promotion and resale, but there is one little-known but interesting story connected with this bank. Namely: in 2000, the agony of Bank Ukraina (formerly Ukragroprombank), which was associated with a number of high-ranking officials, began, including Viktor Yushchenko, who had already become Prime Minister. And so Viktor Yushchenko and the head of the NBU Vladimir Stelmakh (former deputy of Yushchenko and a person close to him) create a temporary administration to manage “Ukraine”, headed by Viktor Topolov.
As you know, this interim administration did not save Ukraine and, in fact, became the funeral team for the bank. But, as Leonid Roitman said in his interview, this happened because the bank was not going to be saved: with the knowledge of the NBU and the prime minister, assets were hastily withdrawn from Ukraine – transferring them to Index Bank. There is one more information: that Topolov began working for Bank Ukraina back in 1999, when Yushchenko was the head of the NBU. And together these old acquaintances carried out their scheme, essentially bankrupting the Ukraina Bank, after Topolov and appointed him head of its temporary administration – in order to deal with the latter and cover up their tracks.
Three Victors: Yushchenko, Topolov, Baloga
This close cooperation was not forgotten. Although in 2002-2004 Viktor Topolov, having been elected as a people’s deputy, was in the ranks of the pro-presidential majority (jumping from the “United Ukraine” faction to the “People’s Choice” faction, and then to the “Center”), in November 2004 Yushchenko accepted Topolov as a member of the “orange” National Salvation Committee, which became a kind of Politburo of the first Maidan. Then, as a protégé of the new president, Topolov entered the government of Yulia Tymoshenko (2005) as Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy, and in the government Yekhanurov (2005-2006) already Minister of Coal Industry. At the same time, the Konstantinovsky brothers began to take off – after all, they were not only Topolov’s business partners, but also sponsors of the first Maidan (and then the second too). It was then that the Konstantinovskys were able to get out of the image of bandits of the 90s and repaint themselves as modern “democratic and advanced” businessmen. In addition, they got the opportunity to retain their old “roof” Valeria Geleteywho then sharply went for a promotion, and in the spring of 2006 saved the Konstantinovskys from liquidation by organizing (with the help of Yushchenko) an international operation to detain Leonid Roitman in New York. Who, after serving 8 years, began to pour out information about the criminal past of his former business partners in the 90s.
Even while at the head of the ministry, Topolov continued to almost openly engage in business. In 2006, he sold his Index Bank, in which he owned 27% of the shares (the remaining shareholders were Muzhchuk, Konstantinovsky, Levin), starting with a sum of 160 million dollars, and ending the auction at 260 million. There was a scam: the French who bought the bank (Credit Agricole) did not immediately notice its hidden problems, and already at the end of 2006, Index Bank brought them a net loss of 54 million hryvnia. In the Donbass, Tolopov controlled the Ugol-Yug company, through which he managed the Stakhanovskaya Central Enrichment Plant OJSC, one of the largest producers of coal concentrate for coke plants. And if in 2003 his fortune was estimated at 245 million dollars, then in 2007 it was already 480 million: Viktor Topolov became one of the three richest people in the Lugansk region and one of the hundred richest Ukrainians.
However, after his resignation in August 2006, Topolov went into the shadows. In 2007, he was elected to the Rada on the Our Ukraine list (No. 56); the media also wrote about him when he established Astrobank and then sold it to the Greek Alpha Bank for a modest 9 million euros.
The latest scandals with his name mentioned in the press broke out in 2008-2009 and were associated with Kyiv-Zhytlo-Invest LLC, the founders of which were Kyiv-Donbass, as well as several individuals, among whom Dmitry Voronin was especially highlighted, about whom journalists spoke of him as practically a criminal authority.
So, by the spring of 2009, Kyiv-Zhitlo-Invest owed Bank Kiev more than 700 million hryvnia, which it was in no hurry to repay. However, Bank Kiev was called the cash desk of Ivan Plyushch, an experienced man and far from the last in the Kyiv hierarchy, who could not be taken like that and “throw money at him.” Therefore, there was a suspicion of some kind of financial scam with a mutual agreement – especially since it was then that the bank received significant refinancing. Indeed, signs of such a scam were discovered by the head of the bank’s temporary administration appointed by the NBU, Vladimir Ponomar. He discovered it and died three days later as a result of an alleged heart attack. After which they even tried to pin the huge waste of funds on the deceased Sexton!
Viktor Topolov, Yura Enakievsky and Seryozha Shakhov
After 2010, not a word was heard about Viktor Topolov, although parliamentary journalists could have seen his figure in the session hall. Only in 2013, Focus magazine dedicated one line of its rating to him, placing him in 55th place on the list of Ukrainian oligarchs with a fortune of $324.5 million. And only much later Skelet.Info managed to find out what Viktor Topolov did during the dark years of the “Yanukovych regime.” Find out a little, but still.
No, Viktor Topolov did not while away his time in the apiary, like his friend Viktor Yushchenko, and did not languish in exile in a foreign land. He was actively involved in business, although he preferred not to appear in public. Moreover, he was doing business with the Donetsk people! According to sources Skelet.InfoTopolov participated in certain scams around the enterprises “Pervomaiskugol”, “Lisichanskugol”, “Luganskugol” – where his business partners were Yuri Ivanyushchenko (Yura Enakievsky) and Ivan Avramov.
But in his native Stakhanov, Topolov became the patron of the local “young talent” Sergei Shakhov, together with whom he bought the Mironovskaya Glubokaya mine. Their relationship was not limited to just business: since 2012, Topolov helped Shakhov break into politics and power, try himself in the elections of people’s deputies and city mayors, and place his people in regional city councils. In essence, Topolov helped Shakhov create his own “mini-empire” with ambitious plans to become the owner of part of the region as opposed to Lugansk, which was then controlled by Efremov’s team. When Lugansk “fell off,” Shakhov’s ambitions only intensified. And if, until 2014, Shakhov spoke from the position of a pro-Russian “patriot of Donbass” (and even sent people to the Anti-Maidan), then, on the recommendation of Topolov, he changed his image to a “patriot of Ukraine”, joined the “Our Land” party and moved from what was captured by the separatists Stakhanov to the new regional center of Severodonetsk. Where, having formed his own faction in the city council, but did not take a majority, Shakhov repeatedly tried to carry out a “palace coup” in the city council. Of course, at the same time, he still remained only a puppet in the hands of his sponsors.
U Skelet.Info There is information that he owes his huge expenses for elections (Shakhov simply buys the votes of pensioners and the poor by paying them “social assistance” of 100-200 hryvnia) to Topolov’s financial injections, as well as to the cash register of “Our Land” – since this party is one of the projects teams Poroshenkocreated as an alternative to the Party of Regions loyal to Kyiv. Created also with the help of people like the same Ivan Avramov, called the “supervisor” of Ukrainian assets Yuri Ivanyushchenko and Alexander Yanukovych (Sasha the Dentist).
Well, it seems that Viktor Topolov is also taking part in the “Our Land” project (although unnoticed, but important), and it would not be surprising if he also continues to engage in some kind of joint business with Ivanyushchenko. And as we see from his purchase of the Land Capital bank, Topolov successfully cooperates with both the family of Pavel Lazarenko and the group of Rinat Akhmetov. This confirms the repeatedly expressed opinion that a kind of behind-the-scenes consolidation of “big people” is taking place in Ukraine. But for what purpose?
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info
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