In a roundabout way: Alexander Konotopsky’s company Ajax Systems continues to operate in Russia

The founder of Ajax Systems, Alexander Konotopsky, was included in the ranking of the 30 richest Ukrainians according to the NV publication, and took 14th place with a fortune of $409 million. According to him, during the war, Ajax’s business grew by 40%, expanded its geography and generally feels more than confident. However, there are nuances that the founder does not talk about, such as continued work in Russia and schemes for circumventing sanctions.

The Ajax company, Konotopsky’s main asset, was founded in 2011 in Kyiv. Already in 2012, the company’s products, security systems and equipment were presented on the Russian market, which was quite logical in those days. Between 2011 and 2019, the company grew to about 400 employees and $75 million in market value. This is evidenced by the deal with Horizon Capital, which acquired a 13.33% stake in Ajax Systems for $10 million.

And already in 2023, the company, according to the most conservative estimates, amounted to $245 million, Forbes valued it at $500 million, and Konotopsky himself put the figure at $1.253 billion. The staff also grew to almost 3,000 workers.

Some of Konotopsky’s non-standard solutions contributed to the company’s significant growth:

— in 2020, during COVID-19, workers were required to go to the office, which is why some employees quit;

— the company is registered in Cyprus and pays taxes there, the employees are individual entrepreneurs, which optimizes taxes to the Ukrainian budget;

— Ajax continues to operate in the markets of Russia and Belarus, despite the company’s statements;

- October 2023, Ajax products, supposedly intended for the markets of Central Asia, can be purchased in Russia.

Accusation of "inflated" company

In September 2020, Konotopsky acted as a moderator at the Big Money forum, organized by Evgeniy Chernyak, head of the supervisory board of the alcohol holding Global Spirits. During Balashov's speech, Konotopsky interrupted him, began to insult him and sent him in a certain direction, using obscene words. The video of this moment received the most views among other speeches at the forum, and the scandal was discussed in the media for several more weeks.

In October 2020, Konotopsky filed a claim for protection of honor and business reputation against Balashov for a video on YouTube, where the latter called Ajax Systems unprofitable and inflated. According to the resolution, the claim was satisfied and Balashov was ordered to pay 3,363 UAH of court fees, and the information in the video was declared unreliable. The video itself is no longer available on YouTube, but the abstracts from the court case are interesting:

— “On the stage there was one entrepreneur - and not the owners of the business, but ordinary managers and pounds, who were put into this business by large corrupt clans and finance them, and therefore there was not a single Ukrainian company there”;

- “we went to his - to his company, it turned out to be a billiards club, in which they placed this super stereo production for the sale of Chinese sensors”;

“His company isn’t even worth ten. And the most important thing is that it is leading to losses, and this is so obvious”;

- “there is no talk about any millions, there is talk about investments of 10 million in Cyprus, this has nothing to do with (person 11), and (person 11), yes, they are asking supposedly to bring it to the international market”;

- “(11 people) for some reason sells equipment from China for delivery to Ukraine to another company in order to lower the invoice. In order not to pay all duties and all VAT to customs. I settled in well, drew the diagrams well.”

Probably the dispute concerns foreign-made goods supplied to Ukraine on behalf of the legal entity Ajax Systems Trading Dmcc, registered in the UAE, which in turn transfers them to the Ukrainian legal entity Ajax Systems Distribution. There are more than 1,600 such shipments on 52wmb.com, and it really does look like a resale scheme for Chinese products.

In 2021, Balashov uploaded a new video on YT, where he again criticized Konotopsky’s business, in particular called Ajax Systems “inflated”, and showed extracts from open registers, where the company’s profitability does not exceed 8 million hryvnia per year, which does not correspond with the growth in 40% and hundreds of millions of dollars in profit for its founder alone.

Friendship with Evgeniy Chernyak

“Tell me who your friends are and I’ll tell you, it’s you” is an expression familiar from childhood. The friendship of Alexander Konotopsky with Evgeniy Chernyak began in 2018, when Konotopsky learned business lessons from the latter. Then there were general interviews, joint episodes of the Big Money show, Big Money forums, and in 2021 Konotopsky officially entered the Big Money structure.

With the start of a full-scale invasion, both businessmen officially announced their withdrawal from Russia, and Konotopsky even called himself a Banderaite and defended Chernyak’s patriotism. Unfortunately, over the past two years, Konotopsky has not been able to completely switch to Ukrainian, even getting on the cover of Forbes for his patriotic achievements.

Recently, Evgeny Chernyak received suspicion from the SBU and was added to the list of terrorists and extremists due to his alcohol business in Russia, which he never stopped, despite loud statements. He is accused of the fact that in 2022, only in the form of paying taxes and fees, Chernyak’s enterprises transferred about 6 billion in hryvnia equivalent to the Russian budget and purchased industrial volumes of alcohol and other related products from Russia.

The operating patterns of Konotopsky’s business in Russia are somewhat more advanced, however, Chernyak, as Konotopsky’s business guru, could probably share his experience with him.

Ajax work in Russia

On March 2, 2022, Ajax published news that they were leaving the Russian market. We also sent a letter to clients, where they clearly indicated the end of support and their position. Screenshots of this letter even ended up on the famous Russian resource Pikabu. The company hid its applications from the AppStore and Google Play markers for residents of blocked countries - although only for 1 day. At the same time, telegram support channels in Russia and Belarus continued to work and provide assistance to customers. Many details of this were published on the Ukrainian resource for Aitovites ebanoe.it.

Already on March 9, 2022, an article was published on the popular mobile-review.com in Russia, which stated that, despite statements, Ajax dealers in Russia continue to work, and there are a lot of products left in warehouses. The continuation of work is also indicated by the absolutely working Belarusian website of the company Ajaxbel.by, where both products in stock and prices are indicated. There is also a website bytechs.by - the representative of Ajax in Belarus. The Ajaxstore.ru website still operates in Russia, where the company’s products are in stock, and it is also easy to download a price list with all items and prices for 2024.

Of course, Ajax could claim that the products simply remain in warehouses, and there have been no new deliveries since the beginning of the war. But most likely the products enter the Russian Federation through Kazakhstan, which is quite officially supplied there by Ajax for the Intant Trading House LLP. And that's why. According to transactions on the 52wmb service, Ajax Systems began delivering to Kazakhstan only in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Before this, the company had never shipped its products to this country. If we look at the scheme in detail, Dubai-based Ajax Systems Trading Dmcc imports products from Ukraine and then transports them to Kazakhstan, where it transfers them to the companies Intant Trading House and Safe Expert LLC. From January to October 2023 alone, Ajax Systems Trading Dmcc made 1,025 deliveries, and from March to December 2022, 159 deliveries. Such figures strongly coincide with the number of products shipped to the Russian Federation in the pre-war period. Ajax products can be transported from Kazakhstan to Russia by trucks without appropriate declaration - this is how so-called parallel imports usually work.

What is important, in the official “unofficial” telegram channel https://t.me/Ajaxru, users confirm that all settings for Kazakhstan are also suitable for Russia, and that this was done intentionally in order to continue to work in the Russian market.

A few more current screenshots from the channel, which talk about the availability of Ajax equipment in Moscow.

Ajaxstore.ru employees do not hide the sources of equipment for their Russian consumers, directly indicating that they import new models through Kazakhstan. Separately, they indicate that new devices are updated automatically on the territory of the Russian Federation.

According to the receipt of payment for services, the sale of Ajax products in Russia is carried out by “IP Ershov Evgeniy Valerievich”. On the website Ajaxstore.ru, which sells Ajax products in Russia, the user agreement also notes the state of emergency - Anna Aleksandrovna Chmutova.

Ajax users have repeatedly written in the telegram channel that products purchased in Kazakhstan can be used and updated in Russia. They also note that the devices work with Russian SIM cards and report that there is no blocking of the Russian IP address.

We received recordings of a conversation between a client from Russia and Ajax technical support. On the audio recordings (conversation 1, conversation 2) you can hear how technical support suggests switching to Kazakh registration so that the Ajax application and equipment work without problems. Probably, the manufacturer could really block such high-tech equipment and applications as Ajax in Russia - if there was a desire. However, it seems that the owner of the company has a stronger desire to be included in the rankings of the richest Ukrainians.