Well-known Odessa businessman Boris Kaufman (owner of the monopolist company for the distribution of tobacco products Tedis Ukraine), who is a suspect in several criminal proceedings, acquired the Volyn tobacco factory - VOLINTABAC LLC. According to our sources, Kaufman paid $8 million for the factory.
This purchase may indicate that the business of the Odessa entrepreneur is not limited to trade, but will now also be involved in the production of cigarettes. And all processes (production, logistics, sales) will be closed within one business group, the Russian origin of which still raises questions. The Tedis Ukraine company became a monopolist during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych and was called at that time “Megapolis-Ukraine”, since it was the Ukrainian division of the Russian company “Megapolis” of the oligarch Igor Kesaev.
The latter is also the owner of two Russian enterprises producing weapons for the occupation army - the Kovrov Mechanical Plant (KMZ) and the Degtyarev Plant.
It is possible that it is this deal and the creation of a new monopolist that explains the “showdowns” on the tobacco market in Ukraine, which are accompanied by lengthy searches and blocking of factories by security forces. For example, the Bureau of Economic Security in Lviv stopped the work of the Vinnikov tobacco factory for three months. Everything looks like a “clearing” of the market from competitors for a new business.
Let us recall that on December 5, 2022, NABU and SAPO detained businessmen Boris Kaufman and Alexander Borukhovich (Granovsky) on suspicion of creating a criminal organization that specialized in corruption schemes for the illegal disposal of property from municipal property in Odessa. They took control of almost all issues of the city’s economic life, including interaction with developers, purchases from the local budget, the activities of utility companies, and other aspects of interaction with business. To ensure uninterrupted implementation of the set goals, the organizers established a process of systematic bribery of officials and deputies of the local council.
Later, NABU and SAPO charged Kaufman and Borukhovich with seizing the property of the public utility Odessa International Airport worth UAH 118 million and income from its activities worth more than UAH 2.5 billion. The former mayor of Odessa, Alexey Kostusev, is named as their accomplice.
