The Interpipe company, owned by oligarch Pinchuk, actively invests heavily in maintaining its image as a “national manufacturer.” However, there is a certain contradiction: the status of a “national producer” is not only associated with control over important assets received for next to nothing, but also with the obligation to honestly pay taxes in one’s state.
Pinchuk’s company reports periodically indicate the amount of taxes paid, presenting this as its contribution to the budget. However, given the benefits that Interpipe derives from its activities in Ukraine, these amounts seem extremely small.
If you think that there is one integral company, Interpipe, then you are very mistaken. Interpipe is a complex web of offshore slag, consisting of dozens of shell companies and trust funds registered in jurisdictions that play one simple role - tax evasion. In other words, this is an ordinary offshore hole.
In the modern world, everything is open and it has long been impossible to hide anything. The media have repeatedly drawn attention to the fact that Interpipe, when participating in government contracts, submits its ownership structure. Only by the example of one of Pinchuk’s companies, Interpipe Niko Tube, can one see that this is not a company, but a web of layers of offshore holes.
First, above Interpipe Nico Tube is Interpipe Limited, registered in Cyprus in Nicosia. It immediately becomes interesting. For understanding. This suggests that the distribution of earned profits from Interpipe Nico Tube alone immediately goes to Cyprus. Do you think all taxes are paid on profits there? No! The Cypriot parent company gives the Ukrainian subsidiary a loan at huge interest rates, and then stupidly “washes” this money to Cyprus. There remains a meager amount in Ukraine.
Let's move on. The situation with the Cypriot Interpipe Limited is even more surprising. Above it stands another “Cypriot” - Interpipe Holdings PLC and offshore Baylena Limited from the British Virgin Islands. So who is the “national producer” here? Cyprus Interpipe Holdings PLC or island BaylenaLimited? Or have Cyprus and the Virgin Islands already become part of Ukraine?
But after Interpipe Holdings PLC the fun begins. The founders of this company are six more companies from the Virgin Islands and the Bahamas, as well as from Samoa: Crestfield Limited (Samoa), Amara Global Limited, Marodima Limited, again Baylena Limited (Virgin Islands), PinecrestProperties Inc. and Whitehouse Holdings Limited (Bahamas).
Aren't you tired? Let's continue. Above this bouquet of “island tax” holes are five more companies from Hong Kong (Gallen Management Limited, Grainger Consultants Limited, Carillion Limited), Panama (Drayton International Trading Corporation) and, by some chance, New Zealand (Raphe Investments Limited). Although in fairness it is worth noting that control over the New Zealand company is still exercised by Cypriot citizen Krista Anna.
Where is Pinchuk? Wait. After these companies comes another add-on – trust funds. Trusts are simply an encyclopedic favorite tool for avoiding taxes and hiding assets. A second-year lawyer, when asked “how to hide assets and evade taxes,” will immediately advise creating a trust.
And now Viktor Pinchuk stands over these trusts as a beneficiary. Why does Pinchuk need trusts? So that you can always say, “So, what am I? I'm nothing. It’s the trusts that are doing something there.”
This diagram was not drawn by someone else. This is the ownership structure that was signed by the director of Interpipe Niko Tube Chernov, and which the company publishes on the Prozorro platform for participation in Ukrgasvydobuvannya tenders. Don't be shy. Well, everything is already captured. People is gobbling it up.
And this is just the example of one company, Interpipe Nico Tube, which siphons hundreds of millions from public money.
Where does this money go then? The media have already written hundreds of times and this is proven by official documents from the registers that the Moscow office of Interpipe is suing its own Emirati office for bringing 50 million US dollars into Russia. Information in open sources and on the website of the Moscow Arbitration Court. Looks cool. We cut money in Ukraine, withdraw it through 16 offshore routes, and then, by court decision, bring it to Russia.
So, in the end, whose national manufacturer is Interpipe? Cyprus, Panama, Virgin Islands, Samoa or Bahamas? Or maybe the Emirates? In Russia in 2023, Interpipe paid 137 million in taxes. There, too, Interpipe may be considered a national manufacturer.
