BEGINNING: Andrey Volkov: Russian “Alpha Raider” in Ukraine. PART 1
Andrey Volkov
Andrey Volkov: “Scammers” from Cyprus
The Ukrainian economy has a number of features that contribute to the development of takeovers and raiding. Oddly enough, corruption is far from the main thing among them! On the contrary, sometimes the corruption of government agencies and the judicial system helps to resist invaders who use the law for their own purposes. And the rapid activity of Andrei Volkov’s company “Investohills Capital” is a good example of this.
At the end of 2008, another economic crisis hit Ukraine, triggering a large-scale banking collapse. In many cases, banks went bankrupt on purpose, with the aim of simply stealing the money of their depositors and state refinancing – as was the case with the Nadra Bank, about which Skelet.Info talked in the material about Igor Gilenko and the Segal brothers.
Let us note that this happened during the 1998 crisis, and then repeated on an even larger scale during the 2014-15 crisis. But in addition to constant crises, the Ukrainian economy is also distinguished by a high percentage of captive banks created to serve the interests of oligarchic groups. For example, the most famous Ukrainian captive bank was Privatbank, which lent to enterprises of the Privat group. By the way, Alfa Bank is also a captive bank!
The bankruptcy of a bank is not only about thousands of its defrauded depositors. These are also dozens, and often hundreds of enterprises that have not repaid their loans. Someone did not return it on purpose – this is how oligarchs usually go bankrupt and their captive banks, while their debtor companies transfer valuable property to others in advance and also go bankrupt in order to hide the debt ends in the water. Some didn’t return it because they really couldn’t. But in any case, all debtors refer to the crisis – and it is very difficult to distinguish who is who. However, people like Andrei Volkov have their own method. For them, it is completely immaterial whether banks and firms went bankrupt due to the crisis or on purpose. For them, only one criterion is important: is it possible to shake off their debts or take something valuable and liquid as repayment or not?
Alfa Bank itself was not going to go bankrupt; on the contrary, it was preparing to take away the property of indebted borrowers – that is, the hot suffering of the “harvest” began for the Alfa Bank! By the way, it is worth remembering that in the period 2006-2008. Alfa Bank generously distributed consumer loans to Ukrainians for the purchase of household appliances, cars, apartments. And then the crisis struck, and hundreds of thousands of borrowers were unable to return several billion hryvnia to the bank! Of course, no one wrote off their debts: for example, in 2010, Alfa Bank sold 40 thousand “problem consumer loans” of Ukrainians to a collection company “Credit Collection Group”.
But Andrei Volkov was no longer running the bank at that time; he left it back in 2009 to head the specially created Investohills group of companies. Soon he was joined by “Alfa member” Andrei Bobyshev, who in 2004-2010. He was also a member of the board of Alfa Bank and headed the Treasury and Capital Markets block there.
Andrey Bobyshev
Why did two top managers of Alfa Bank leave it in the midst of the recovery process, and founded their own company for “transactions with distressed assets”? It is clear that they wanted to warm their hands on this themselves, and not be content with a salary from Friedman. But why did he let them go? There are only two options: either Friedman himself blessed them to work “autonomously”, as a company formally independent from Alfa Group, or Volkov and Bobyshev went to work for some other market player, no less powerful than Alfa (with all her American connections). But then for some reason this mysterious boss of Volkov prefers to remain in the deep shadows.
The level of “conspiracy” in Volkov’s business is such that it is not easy to even find the roots of Investohills Capital, the creator of which he so proudly calls himself. There is something wrong with this name! It has been mentioned in the media at least since 2011 – then Andrei Volkov, as the head of Investohills Capital, acted as a financial consultant to the Russian Valars Group, which included grain trader Valar LLC and the Valinor agricultural holding (with 360 thousand hectares of land). They belonged to a businessman from Taganrog, Kirill Podolsky, who, judging by the names, is a big fan of Tolkien. Having become a grain trader, Podolsky then wanted to expand his business by attracting loans and placing shares on the Warsaw Stock Exchange. He invested $2 million in promotion, but it was all in vain. Volkov “advised” him so that the IPO process simply collapsed, and the loans taken turned into unsustainable debts. As a result, Podolsky went bankrupt, and among his creditors was … Alfa Bank (both Russian and Ukrainian), which immediately began collecting debts (counting more than 832 million rubles), through the courts, alienating other creditors. In this story, Andrei Volkov showed himself to be a provocateur and a “swindler”, setting up his client for bankruptcy so that he would then be tormented by Alfa Bank.
Kirill Podolsky
But here’s the strange thing: all attempts Skelet.Info “break through” the registration data of a company with the name “Investohills Capital” provides links only to the company “Investohills Capital Ltd”, registered in Belize (offshore) in April 2019. So it turns out that before this no “Investohills Capital” officially existed, and he lied to his clients? Or Volkov, having done dirty tricks (as in the case of Podolsky), abolished it and destroyed all entries in the registers? But then why did he revive it in 2019? There are many questions, no answers yet…
However, if “Investohills” did not start with her at all, then with whom? Perhaps with the Cypriot Investohills Partners Ltd, created on April 9, 2008 – that is, six months before the crisis, and more than a year before Volkov left Alfa Bank. This means that either it was a company from Alpha’s old reserves (for implementing various schemes), or it was the personal offshore of the head of the bank, or, alternatively, it was in the reserve of the new boss Volkov.
In any case, it turns out that “Investohills” is from Cyprus. Moreover, almost all of Volkov’s Ukrainian companies are subsidiaries of Cypriot, Belizean or other offshore companies. Take, for example, the Cypriot Platforma Capital Ltd, which, together with the Belizean Investohills Capital Ltd, is controlled by Andrey Bobyshev. It was from her that “Investohills Partners Ukraine” (USREOU 42554108), “Investohills Vesta” (41264766) and others were born, working in Ukraine. Among their beneficiaries, the names of Victoria Bondarenko and Cypriot citizen Antoniou Konstantinos often appear, but, most likely, these are just vice-chairmen.
Agree that this is somehow completely different from the “international company with offices in London”, which Volkov pathetically calls his “Investohills”! Because serious international companies always have a parent company registered somewhere in the European Union, in England or the USA – and only then, as necessary, they create offshore companies in Cyprus, the Virgin Islands or in Belize, through which they carry out risky operations in other countries. Here it is worth remembering that even “CS First Boston” worked in Ukraine through its Cypriot clone. But in the case of Volkov’s Investohills, everything is completely different: the primary companies Ltd were opened in Cyprus, and only then they, as the main beneficiaries, began to register their companies in Ukraine. And this, you know, is not at all an international level, this is what provincial Ukrainian swindlers do! Therefore, Volkov should not boast at all as the “founder of Investohills,” since opening a company in Cyprus is a simple matter, often part of a scheme.
And if you look into the history of Volkov’s offshore companies, you are simply amazed at the ingenious manipulations! Look: on October 16, 2018, the Cyprus “Investohills Partners Ltd” registered its clone “Investohills Partners Ukraine” (42554108) in Ukraine, and already on October 23, for some reason, it transferred it to another Cypriot company “Auranvest enterprises ltd”, by the way, too registered to Konstantinos. Then (watch your hands!) On February 5, 2019, “Investohills Partners Ukraine” was again transferred to the Cypriot “Investohills Partners LTD” (beneficiary Konstantinos), and a day later the alignment of the founders changed dramatically: the share of “Investohills Partners” (7.1 million hryvnia ) went to Andrey Bobyshev, and Cypriot citizen Konstantinos became the holder of a share of 10.4 million on behalf of Platform Capital LTD (Belize). A month later, both shares were combined together, and the sole beneficiary again became Investohills Partners, again registered in the name of Konstantinos. I wonder what kind of scam this was? Perhaps it was associated with a several-year war for land in Mizyakovskiye Khutorswhere the invader was the Kolorit-Agros company, the founder of which was Andrei Volkov before the start of the conflict, and Auranvest enterprises ltd also appeared?
Volkov’s nasty nature came back to haunt him in 2014. Then, by order of the Cabinet of Ministers No. 378-r dated April 9, he was appointed head of the National Financial Services Committee. Considering the colossal corruption of this body, one can only guess how much they “paid” for the appointment of Volkov. The media wrote that lobbied for this appointment UDAR. However, Volkov lasted only a month and a half in office. First, near the office of the National Financial Services Commission a picket was waiting for himangry participants of the Maidan, because of which Volkov never showed up for work. Participants in the action spoke about Volkov’s dual Russian-Ukrainian citizenship and his work for the Russian Alfa Group.
At the same time in the District Administrative Court of Kyiv a lawsuit was filedwhich was satisfied on June 6, canceling the government order on the appointment of Volkov. He immediately lost his powers, and in November the Cabinet of Ministers put an end to the dispute, revoking his appointment. And the claim was filed by the Ripe insurance company, which in the period 2012-2013 was subjected to a massive attack by creditors: first, it was deprived of membership in the Transport Bureau (and this is a profitable auto insurance), and then licenses. According to sources Skelet.Infoit was Andrey Volkov, as the head of the competitive IC Retail-Insurance (formerly Alfa-Insurance), who directly had a hand in this. So he received an “answer”!
Andrey Volkov: “Squeeze out” for debts
If until 2014 Andrei Volkov somehow managed to hide his vigorous activity, then his name increasingly began to appear in the media in the context of various scandals, securing him the image of a raider and even a racketeer. Which is understandable: if previously Volkov was engaged in bringing someone into bankruptcy, now he is carried away by collecting the debts he bought. Moreover, it is worth noting that in 2018-2019. his Investohills spent more than 6 billion hryvnia to buy up these debts. And in the fall of 2019, he sought to buy the debts of PJSC Kremenchukmyaso, OJSC Stakhanov Freight Car Building Plant, and CJSC Creative (totaling 3.9 billion hryvnia), but the auction was canceled, which greatly upset Volkov.
“In total, we now have bank assets on our balance sheet worth more than 55 billion hryvnia,” Volkov recently said. It is clear that someone generously financed it, actually buying up the Ukrainian economy and real estate through it.
In 2020, Volkov decided to play openly, and to further purchase debt assets he created the Investohills Helianthus fund, which attracted about $100 million in “investments from the USA and Europe” (and maybe from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism)). He is proud of this as his great achievement, calling such activities “recovery of the economy.” Although the question of whether the absorption of the weak and the confiscation of property from bankrupts is a recovery is highly controversial. A comparison with “forest orderlies” is more appropriate here!
“We see great demand and interest from foreign investors from the European Union and the United States, specializing in investments in distressed assets and illiquid debt instruments. The emergence of the specialized fund “Investohills Helianthus” and its scale is the best indicator of the investment attractiveness of the Ukrainian debt market,” – Andrey Volkov said about this. Well, translated into simple human language, this means that Americans and Europeans are interested in buying up Ukrainian enterprises’ real estate (including land) inexpensively, for debts. And their clerk Andrei Volkov diligently helps them with this.
On August 19, 2020, Investohills Helianthus carried out the first transaction: through Investohills Vesta, troubled assets (borrower debts) of VTB, Rodovid and Financial Initiative banks were purchased from the Deposit Guarantee Fund for a total amount of UAH 1.314 billion. Among these debtors are Fozzy Group (Silpo supermarkets, Nizhyn cannery, Boguslav food factory), SOLAR-GROUP (solar stations), Ukravtozapchast, Mriya agricultural holding (most of its assets have already been sold for debts to the Americans back in 2015), Centravis (production of seamless stainless steel pipes). Not everything went smoothly and simply: back in 2019, Chinese investors SOLAR-GROUP complained to the newly elected President Zelensky that they became the object of a raider attack by Investohills Vesta, carrying out the orders of the oligarch Pavel Fuks, with the participation of the Prosecutor General’s Office, the SBU and the Ministry of Justice. In response, Volkov retorted that these accusations were intrigues on the part of the co-owners of SOLAR-GROUP, the Klyuev brothers.
But the scandal with the seizure of valuable objects real estate in the historical center of Kyiv. In the fall of 2020, capital lawyer Tatyana Kozachenko stated that out of court, through “black realtors,” more than 35 such properties were “squeezed out” in favor of FC Investohill Vesta. Judging by the description of the process, this was a continuation of the story with overdue mortgages purchased by Volkov’s structures from various banks. In this case, given the high liquidity of capital real estate, it was profitable for Volkov not to resell debts to collectors, but to re-register the real estate to his own companies. But it turned out to be difficult to take it away from the debtors, so he turned to not entirely legal schemes: having bought the debt, Investohill submits a statement to the notary about the loss of the original documents, and he issues a duplicate and makes changes to the register – after which the “titushki” come and throw it away debtors on the street.
Quite a long time Volkov fought with Taras Borshchevsky, owning T.B. Fruit (“Tank-trans”, “Apple Gift”, juices “Sandora”, “Sadochok”, Rich, “Zhivchik”). In 2011-13 Borshchevsky’s firms took out loans worth about 93 million euros from Delta Bank, but were unable to repay them in full; in 2015, the procedure for their restructuring began, but at the same time Delta Bank went bankrupt and the debts of its borrowers were transferred to the Deposit Guarantee Fund , from whom Volkov later bought them. He used all methods against Borshchevsky: courts, law enforcement agencies, and also launched a massive campaign of “black PR” in the media, accusing Borshchevsky of wanting to withdraw assets, close enterprises and escape.
From Konstantin Zhevago, Investohill Vesta decided to take away such attractive enterprises as the Bila Tserkva plant “Rosava” (the only tire manufacturer in Ukraine) and “Kremenchugmyaso” (trademark “Farro”). There we are talking about huge sums: 2.7 billion in debt on a loan issued to Rosava itself, and another 13 billion on its guarantees, but Volkov managed to buy out these debts for… 5% of their value, that is, for next to nothing! Therefore, the Bila Tserkva tire workers are most worried not about the change of owner of the plant, but about the risk that it will simply be stopped and closed. After all, this benefits many: Ukrainian importers of tires and their foreign manufacturers. And Volkov is no stranger to fulfilling someone’s orders!
And what’s even more worrying is that no one really knows who exactly is behind Volkov and his Investohills, who gives him the money to buy up debts and indicates which enterprises to take on. Not a single financial market expert believes that his capital is of Ukrainian origin. But whose? Some believe that this is the money of the Russian Alfa Group, others believe that Soros was involved in this, and still others name the British and Americans. It is quite possible that everyone is right, and through Volkov, Ukraine is being plundered by both the West and Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Calling this “the arrival of investment” and “the recovery of the economy.”
Mikhail Shpolyansky, for Skelet.Info
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