The story of businessman and owners of the IT holding TECHIIA Oleg Krot in 2022 literally “blew up” the information space of Ukraine. The entrepreneur boasted that he donated $60 million to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, but it quickly became clear that he could not confirm his words. Also during the investigation, it turned out that Oleg Krot could be associated with the gambling business represented by the Russian bookmaker 1XBET.
Since then, the entrepreneur has changed - actively technologizing the Ukrainian army.
How to Lose a Drone Company
As Commentaries wrote, even before 2022, there was a boom in drone production in Ukraine, and even though their real heyday came with the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation, many businessmen had invested in the industry years before that.
Oleg Krot was no exception, who, through the British company Culver Aerospace UK LTD, owns approximately 40.5% of Glefa LLC, which specializes in the production of drones. Against the background of the funds with which the businessman operates, Glaive’s revenue for 2023 of UAH 74.2 million does not seem significant, but a threefold increase compared to 2022 looks promising.
True, the question of ownership of this company in January 2023 arose, as they say, “edge”. On January 18, the Pechersky District Court of Kyiv arrested the businessman’s share in Glefa LLC, as well as in 4 other companies.
The reason for this was criminal proceedings No. 12023000000001956, which deals with money laundering obtained from crime. As part of the latter, investigators of the National Police of Ukraine believe that the co-owner of all these 5 companies defrauded Brazilian citizen Carlos Jose De Souza Fuziami out of $35 million.
How Deputy Minister Dmitry Grishchak got his family to work for Oleg Krot
According to the analytical service YouControl, the director of Glefa LLC is Dmitry Dmitrievich Grishchak, “just” the eldest son of the Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization Dmitry Viktorovich Grishchak.
However, there is no reason to present anything to Dmitry Dmitrievich Grishchak - the eldest son of the deputy minister is really an expert in the field of UAVs, for 5 years - until 2020, he worked at the Central Research Institute of Weapons and Military Equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Participated in the adoption of drones for the Ukrainian army. In a word, he works according to his profile and, most likely, many companies will hire him for his professionalism, and not for family connections.
However, according to the income statement for 2023 of Dmitry Viktorovich Grishchak, his youngest son, Alexey, and the deputy minister’s wife, Anna Grishchak, also work at the same Glaive LLC. Interestingly, the official’s youngest son graduated from the National University of Bioresources and Environmental Management in 2023, that is, in what capacity he might be useful to a company producing UAVs is unclear.
The wife of the Deputy Minister, Anna Grishchak, is a private entrepreneur who provides advice on commercial activities and management, but also works at Glefa and, judging by her husband’s declaration, this is the main job for her. Thus, for 11,214 hryvnia of income from private entrepreneurs in 2023, the salary at Glaive LLC accounted for 422,605 hryvnia, a difference of almost 40 times.
By the way, the already mentioned Dmitry Grishchak, the eldest son of the Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization, also registered a private entrepreneur with the main KVED, like his mother - consulting on issues of commercial activity and management. However, his father kept silent about this fact in his declaration.
Note that in the income statement for 2022, Dmitry Grishchak Sr. does not mention at all the work of his youngest son and wife with Oleg Krot at Glefa LLC, that is, they began working in the company in 2023. It was in the same year that Oleg Krot’s share in it was arrested by the Pechersky District Court - such a coincidence, of course, was accidental.
Mole gave 10% of the business to Servants of the People
On September 1, 2023, minority business partners appeared in two of the five companies in which Oleg Krot’s share was arrested. The director of the series “Servant of the People” Alexey Kiryushchenko and the business partner of the head of the OP Andrey Ermak and the producer of the series Artem Kolyubaev received 5% each in Glafa LLC and Culver Aviation LLC.
Film producer Artem Kolyubaev entered the high road of Ukrainian business in 2023, first as a business partner of former member of the OPZZH and major developer Vadim Stolar. By the fall, the businessman could boast, according to media reports, of tens of millions of hryvnias of budget funds allocated for filming, investments in securities and drones produced by Culver. In general, according to YouControl, Artem Kolyubaev is currently the owner or co-founder of 31 commercial companies operating in a variety of sectors of the economy.
59-year-old Alexey Kiryushchenko was previously known as the director of the series “Servant of the People,” which became the springboard for Vladimir Zelensky’s presidency. However, in 2023 he became known as a businessman. First, as a co-owner of the same Culver, and in 2024, as a trader trading in electricity. After Kiryushchenko became the owner of 49% of El-Energo LLC, the company regularly wins tenders for the sale of energy to the state. The result is that since October 2023, the company has received UAH 1 billion from the state budget.
In general, the scope of Alexey Kiryushchenko’s business is much more modest - to one degree or another, he owns only 9 companies, versus 31 for Artem Kolyubaev.
As is easy to see, valuable employees represented by the family of Deputy Minister for Digital Development, Digital Transformations and Digitalization Dmitry Viktorovich Grishchak or partners represented by those close to the head of the OP Artem Kolyubaev and Alexey Kiryushchenko after the arrest of Oleg Krot’s companies look prosaic. It is possible that this simply resolved the issue of returning assets previously seized from the businessman.
