Yakov Gribov: how the vodka king became a grain raider. PART 1

Ukrainians and Russians who believe in the advertised purity of popular vodka “Nemiroff”they would be unpleasantly surprised if they found out what exactly it was made from, and what kind of dirty wars the co-owners of this famous company waged among themselves for years. Now the winning side, represented by the pro-Russian businessman Yakov Gribov, has decided to “squeeze” the Rostok agricultural holding for itself. To do this, he attracted not only professional raiders with criminal records and squads of armed “titushki”, but also corrupt prosecutors, “tame” courts and even government anti-corruption agencies.

What then happened at the Rostock-Holding enterprises during their raider takeover eloquently personified the whole mess going on in the country. Semi-criminal structures acted together with law enforcement agencies, the police and unknown armed persons pushed back the indignant people, and meanwhile the unharvested crops rotted in the fields. The culprit of all this, with a grin, led the process from Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism), where he fled back in 2017.

Yakov. Gribov. Secrets of the alcohol yard

Gribov Yakov Semenovich was born on May 27, 1964 in the military town of Ozernoye near Zhitomir (now the 39th brigade of the Ukrainian Air Force is stationed there). His father served in a military unit, and his mother was a kindergarten teacher. He has a sister, Bella Finkelstein, who is her brother’s business partner and co-owner of the Nemiroff company. As you probably already guessed, the Gribovs have Jewish roots. After graduating from school in Ozerny, Yakov did not want to create a military family dynasty and even “declined” from military service, but instead entered the instrument-making department of the Chelyabinsk Polytechnic Institute with a specialty in automation and telemechanics. In 1987, Yakov Gribov was assigned to work in Khmelnitsky, at one of the research institutes. However, from the very beginning he did not like this job: it was boring and poorly paid. But he spent all his evenings in the billiard room, where he became friends with similar lovers of big money. And in the same 1987, Yakov Gribov became a cooperator. At first they tried to produce something: they made musical bells for entrance doors and car horns, but somehow things didn’t work out. Therefore, according to Skelet.InfoGribov and his comrades decided to go into business, reselling everything: electronics, food, cars. It was during this first business experience that Yakov Gribov became friends with the Kipish brothers, Anatoly Zinovievich (born 1965) and Viktor Zinovievich (born 1960), from Khmelnytskyi. They are extremely non-public people, nothing is known about their past, so there was all sorts of talk about the Kipishas: for example, that in the 90s they were connected with local organized crime groups.

Anatoly Kipish, partner of Yakov Gribov in Nemirov

Anatoly Kipish In 1993, Yakov Gribov and Anatoly Kipish established Mistral LLC (USREOU 14145156), which engaged in the trade of cigarettes and products, as well as grain (mainly cereals). One day they had a large shipment of grain that needed to be stored somewhere. And then they came across the Nemirovsky Distillery, which by that time had been taken under control by the Glusey family.

The Glusey family. In the center – Alla Sigismundovna and Stepan Karlovich Glus, far right – Alexander Glus

Glus Stepan Karlovich worked as the director of this enterprise from 1987 to 2006, and his wife Alla Sigismundovna was the chief accountant there. They did not disclose their pedigree, but it is known that Alla Glus was a Catholic, and the workers called their family “Poles,” which is why the subsequent conflict between the Glus and Gribov was nicknamed the “Jewish-Polish War.” The dominant official position of Stepan and Alla Glus allowed them to actually take full control of the distillery in the early 90s, although formally it is still listed as a state-owned enterprise. Then, under him, they created a “vodka artel” in the form of a joint venture – in order to minimize taxes, since huge benefits were provided for “foreign capital” in Ukraine. But, as a rule, to do this, they simply registered a company in Europe or the USA, and through it they acquired a share in the joint venture.

In this case, three unknown Ukrainian emigrants became Glus’s foreign partners (the real co-owners or figureheads are unknown). It was from this joint venture that the Nemirov Distillery grew, which became the first enterprise of the Nemiroff company.

It is worth noting that the director’s family enjoyed a very bad reputation among the plant workers. The frantic Catholic Alla Sigismundovna annoyed everyone with her feigned piety, which was hypocritical and pharisaical at that.

For example, in order to earn her favor, the workers had to pretend that they also went to the local church of St. Joseph the Betrothed (the main thing was to appear there in front of Alla Glus), but she had a biased negative attitude towards the “infidels” and tried to fire them. Being the main sponsor and de facto leader of the Catholic community of Nemirov, Alla Sigismundovna decided to help her “return” the house in which priests once lived before the 1917 revolution (the house was adjacent to the church). But that historic house was demolished long ago, and a children’s music school was built in its place. And the “vodka queen” first tried to sue the music school in favor of the Catholic community, and then achieved a settlement agreement under which the premises were transferred to the church for a period of 49 years. Of course, the fate of the children’s music school did not worry her. But the most striking thing is that in 2011 the Glusey family suddenly decided to give up Catholicism and converted to Orthodoxy (to the UOC-MP). Moreover, this happened after Stepan Glus, elected people’s deputy on the BYuT list, defected to the Party of Regions. Glusya’s father and son were distinguished by their boorish attitude towards the plant workers (even swearing), as well as by forbidding them… to get sick. More precisely, to issue a sick leave: for this purpose, Stepan Glus personally, having bribed someone in the Vinnytsia Regional State Administration, obtained an illegal order for the head physician of the Nemirov city hospital not to issue sick leaves to employees of the Nemiroff company, except for the need for their hospitalization. But even if a person ended up in surgery or cardiology, the head of the plant’s security, Vasily Kosorez (a former policeman), visited them, checking whether they were really lying on the beds in the ward, or whether they were “fooling around” and “playing truant.” The “unique quality” of Nemirovskaya vodka is also questionable, which is largely a figment of the imagination of the company’s marketing department. The fact is that Nemiroff advertising has always focused only on the water that is part of this vodka – they say that it is a special artesian water that creates a unique taste! But as for alcohol, the Nemirovsky Distillery always used the most ordinary grain alcohol: at best, Ukrainian, produced at the Nemirovsky Distillery, but sometimes cheaper Turkish (produced by Solomon’s Bros. & Co). How so? Sources reported on certain schemes in which batches of cheap alcohol, including imported and even low-quality ones, were purchased on the side, and then registered as products of the Nemirov Distillery, with all the necessary certificates. Similar schemes were widely used in the Donbass mines in the 90s, passing off Kuzbass coal purchased in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) as mined Donetsk coal (read more about this in the materials about Viktor Nusenkis and Efim Zvyagilsky). But at the Nemirovsky Distillery, these schemes worked in the 21st century – and, according to information Skelet.Infoare still working today.

Thus, Nemiroff vodka always contained exactly the same alcohol that other Ukrainian alcohol producers use – not at all unique. And, while declaring that the plant had some special German equipment for “deep cleaning,” Glusi never showed it to journalists. However, the managers who replaced them, Gribova and Kipish, also did not reveal the secrets of Nemiroff production. By the way, there is an expert opinion that Nemiroff began its proprietary production with pepper vodka and various flavored liqueurs: in this way the taste of low-quality alcohol was drowned out…

So, in 1995, Yakov Gribov and the Kipishi brothers offered the Glusys a batch of grain as “supply raw materials”. The Gluses needed not so much the grain itself as documentation for it – for the fictitious “production” of alcohol, which was the imported Turkish one. The fate of the grain itself remained unknown, but they turned the alcohol into vodka, which Gribov and Kipishi sold with a bang. From that moment on, the first stage of their cooperation began, which ended with Gribov and Kipishi, who had seized all sales into their own hands, and within a year brought the joint venture to bankruptcy and appropriated its shares (what happened to its emigrant shareholders is unknown). Only Stepan Glus resisted, and he was offered a compromise solution: he was left with 20% of the shares and was “set” to manage production, while Gribov and Kipischi dealt with the entire commercial part. So in 1997, their not entirely voluntary merger took place into the Nemiroff company, the first chairman of the board of which was Yakov Gribov. By the way, he also came up with the name: Gribov took the then popular Smirnoff brand as the basis. Moreover, immediately “Nemiroff” was registered in the name of the Cypriot offshore company “Biostar Investments Ltd”, the creator of which was called the same Gribov – thus, vodka businessmen again managed to create a “tax minimization” scheme.

“Nemiroff”

Why did the Glusi agree to the proposals of Gribov and Kipish? According to the unofficial version, the vodka family was attacked by an organized crime group associated with the Kipishas, ​​forcing them to give up 4/5 of the business. And at the beginning, Gribov and Kipishi were, as it were, representatives of this organized crime group in Nemiroff, managing its assets. There is no specific information about this yet, although the same rumors claim that it was thanks to the organized crime group that Gribov was able to bring Nemiroff to the Russian market. But, alas, the name of this group remains unnamed.

According to the official version, Yakov Gribov and Anatoly Kipish showed remarkable talent as businessmen, which helped bring Nemiroff to the ranks of the leaders in the vodka market.

Therefore, they took over the function of marketing the products, and Glusi continued to produce them. But the latter were in trouble both in 1997, when they divided the Nemiroff shares, and in 2006, when they were redistributed. By the way, the reason why the company was “restructured” in 2006 also remains unknown. According to fragmentary information, this was a consequence of the collapse or transformation of that same organized crime group, during which its members and “shadow accountants” were legalized as “respected businessmen.” Some of them sold their Nemiroff shares to Gribov and Kipish, as a result of which they became the main owners of the company. And in 2006, the company Nemiroff Vodka Limited (NVL) was registered in the Virgin Islands, to which all the assets of the Cyprus offshore Biostar Investments Ltd, which owns shares of Nemiroff, were transferred. The co-owners of NVL were: Anatoly and Victor Kipish (17.48% each), Yakov Gribov (20%), his sister Bella Finkelstein (20%), but Stepan Glus was left with 25%. True, in return for his son, Alexander Glus, who previously held the positions of head of the Hungarian and Russian branches of the company, received the position of chairman of the board of directors of Nemiroff, which Gribov gave to him. At the same time, Stepan Glus transferred his stake of shares “for management” to his son. This was due to the fact that in the same 2006, Stepan Glus bought himself a place on the BYuT list and became a people’s deputy. Then he bought himself the same 108th seat in the 2007 elections, but in 2011 he defected to PR.

Also in 2006, the company “Nemiroff Intellectual Property Establishment” was established in Liechtenstein, to which all rights to trademarks were registered. However, Nemiroff itself never respected the rights of others, and the company was sued several times for using other people’s brands and designs (for example, Pshenichnaya vodka). For the period 2001-2008 Nemiroff flourished, and it was achieved largely through exports to Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism). Yakov Gribov was personally involved in the entry of Nemiroff into the Russian market, and this was accompanied by numerous scandals. Firstly, Gribov involved the Russian Boxing Federation (an organization most closely associated with various organized crime groups) in advertising vodka, acting as a sponsor of the fights. And soon a flashing “Nemiroff” logo and an annoying advertisement for “honey and pepper” appeared on Russian television screens, under which boxers were wearing tights. But direct advertising of alcohol in Russia (*country sponsor of terrorism) was prohibited, to which Gribov retorted that it was just… pickled peppers! But it was not possible to fool Russian officials for long, and soon the Russian Boxing Federation was forced to terminate the sponsorship contract with Nemiroff. But in Ukraine, this same method was used for quite a long time: in particular, “Nemiroff” advertised itself well against the background of the Klitschko brothers.

The Klitschko brothers and Nemiroff

The Klitschko brothers and Nemiroff Then Gribov contracted the distribution companies Rotor House (Moscow), Euro-alko and Duplet (St. Petersburg) to promote Nemiroff vodka on the Russian market. However, their cooperation ended with Gribov simply “dumping” them, breaking the contracts and not paying the amounts due to them. Together with other violations (including in the issue of product quality), this led to the fact that Russian government agencies took a close look at Nemirov. And this coincided with the troubles that befell the company in Ukraine.

Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Info

CONTINUED: Yakov Gribov: how the vodka king became a grain raider. PART 2

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