Since the beginning of the year, law enforcement agencies have made several arrests of individuals who may be involved in fraud with public funds.
While society was following the high-profile case of the Grinkevichs, who is suspected of scandalous purchases for the Armed Forces of Ukraine, on the evening of January 18, news feeds were filled with equally loud headlines: “Security forces detained the founder of Concorde Capital, Igor Mazepa, at the border.”
The investment company responded and stated that security forces “without any court orders” detained Mazepa at the Shegini crossing, and conducted a search in his car, and also “broke into searches, knocking down the door of a business center controlled by the businessman.”
In addition to Mazepa, three more people were detained in different regions of the country, including his brother Yuri. The Pechersky District Court of Kyiv placed the director of Concorde Capital in a pre-trial detention center, setting bail for him in the amount of UAH 349 million, although the prosecutor's office requested arrest with the possibility of bail in the amount of UAH 700 million.
In a case that has been going on for 10 years, the security forces made an official statement about the possible involvement of a criminal organization that illegally took possession of the lands of the Kyiv hydroelectric power station and built elite cottage communities there, which is unacceptable and directly threatens the functioning of the critical infrastructure of Kyiv.
Mazepa's arrest caused a great stir in the business community. The association of entrepreneurs of the Manifesta 42 movement, co-organized by Mazepa, announced a “precautionary protest against the arbitrariness of the rear security forces on February 1.”
To reduce public tension and reject all accusations of a political order, the authorities organized a meeting with business, as a result of which the very next day a decree of President Vladimir Zelensky was issued on the implementation of the National Security and Defense Council decision on concessions to business demands. After this, the Kiev Court of Appeal reduced the bail to UAH 21 million, and the owner of Concorde Capital freely left the pre-trial detention center and immediately began thanking Zelensky for the “prompt response to the business’s request and the decision made at the National Security and Defense Council.”
As expected, the fifth president, Petro Poroshenko, who has a long-standing partnership with the businessman, also took advantage of Mazepa’s case. After Yanukovych's escape in 2013, Mazepa joined Poroshenko's team, where he was responsible for transactions to purchase state assets. One of the largest processes of transferring state assets into private ownership is Ukrspirt. Schemes journalists repeatedly recorded Mazepa’s night visits to the Presidential Administration. Then the AP stated that the businessman is an adviser to the head of the Administration Boris Lozhkin.
The leader of “European Solidarity” came to the businessman’s defense and said that “there is no investment business in the country that is not under attack by the security forces.” There may be many reasons for the disposition of Poroshenko and his media towards Mazepa: a reason to criticize the authorities, common projects in the past and general schemes. After all, Mazepa’s structures may be connected with the transfer of shares in “Forge on Rybalsky” by Poroshenko himself and the oligarch, ex-deputy chairman of the Party of Regions Sergei Tigipko.
Six years ago, a few months before the presidential elections, the Prime Assets Capital fund, which managed the assets of the fifth president, and Vic, the first deputy chairman of the BPP faction in the VIII parliament, Igor Kononenko, sold Kuznitsa, all its lands and property TAC group of Sergei Tigipko through the Cyprus company Ewins Limite.
The purchase price of Kuznitsa then seemed exorbitant: Poroshenko’s Prime Assets Capital sold 73.9% of the plant’s shares for $235.8 million, and Igor Kononenko’s Vic sold 20.1% of the shares for $64.2 million.
TAS then stated that it did not plan to change the profile and main directions of development of the plant - then “Kuznitsa on Rybalsky” was actively mastering state defense orders, producing armored boats, machine guns and grenade launchers. However, Tigipko had plans for a land plot located in the central region of Kyiv: Lipki Island City Resort was to appear on the territory of “Kuznitsa” - a residential complex of 36 houses, as well as offices and a shopping center.
However, according to media reports, the Poroshenko and Kononenko foundations did not receive the entire declared amount. “Vic” company Tigipko paid only the initial payment in the amount of $2.14 million, “Prime Assets Capital” received more - $7.86 million. The main amounts from the buyer must be received by November 2025. The new management did not want to change the leadership of the Forge, which may indicate an agreement. Valeriy Shandra, who was called Poroshenko’s confidant, remained the head of the company.
Regarding “possible tax evasion and subsequent legalization of proceeds from crime during the sale of shares in Kuznitsa,” a criminal case was even opened against Poroshenko and Tihipko in May 2019. Its initiator was the scandalous ex-deputy head of the Yanukovych Administration Andrei Portnov.
The case materials then indicated that “in the opinion of the applicant, the above-mentioned agreement may be formal and in fact the change of owner did not take place, and the transaction for the alienation of corporate rights was aimed at concealing the real owner, which is confirmed by the fact that the amount of the sale transaction is very significant - approx. 300 million dollars, which, according to open sources, Person_5 (Sergey Tigipko - ed.) could not own.” Already in September 2019, the real estate and corporate rights of the plant were arrested.
Experts estimated the investment potential of the “Forge” territory at UAH 28 billion. This is exactly the amount of money the developer could gain from the sale of all apartments. However, Tigipko did not move beyond his plans - construction never began.
In the midst of a full-scale war, the plant unexpectedly received a new owner. On December 2, 2022, the press service of Concorde Capital reported that Igor Mazepa’s group of companies acquired 100% of the shares of Ewins Limited, which owns 94% of the shares of Kuznitsa, from Tigipko’s Agimant Limited. Concorde’s PR people called the amount of the deal “smart” and added that they see “investment potential” in it. Mazepa himself announced the group’s intentions to resell the acquired shares to a strategic investor.
Besides the price, the further actions of the former owners of the plant were no less “smart”. Immediately after the announcement of Mazepa’s company’s acquisition of Forge on Rybolovny was made public, the capital’s Economic Court received an application from the Cypriot Proctoremo Investments Limited, which was associated with Poroshenko, and Ukrspetsexport to declare the plant bankrupt.
This was immediately followed by statements from the plant’s creditors, including a significant number of government agencies. We are talking about the State Enterprise “Research Institute “Kvant-Radar” for 101 million UAH, “Ukrspetsexport” for 80 million UAH, State Enterprise “Research Institute “Kvant” for 77 million UAH, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine for 45 million UAH and others . According to media reports, the total amount of demands from government agencies amounted to more than UAH 375 million. It made it possible to form a committee of Kuznitsa creditors.
Then Poroshenko and Kononenko entered the game. In January 2023, Prime Assets Capital and Vic declared claims for UAH 8.334 billion and UAH 2.269 billion, respectively, as debt under transactions to purchase shares of Ewins Tigipko's Forge.
Telegraph suggests that the plant entered into a guarantee agreement with the Poroshenko and Kononenko foundations, which made it Ewins’ guarantor for obligations to the funds. Journalists point out that similar agreements were concluded at the end of November 2022 by Land Development LTD Plus and Bud-Renovatsiya, which allowed Prime Assets Capital to head the committees of their creditors and have them declared bankrupt. But since Tigipko did not fulfill her 300 million obligations to the Poroshenko and Kononenko foundations, they went to court.
Today, Poroshenko is not in the best financial condition, in particular, his assets and control of the Prime Assets Capital fund were seized by the court, and he himself, even before the full-scale invasion, received the status of a suspect in criminal proceedings initiated by the DBI. Thus, it can be assumed that Poroshenko or Kononenko will not buy out the assets of the plant, but Concorde Capital, whose founder is Igor Mazepa, can do this.
