Belotserkovsky businessman Konstantin Efimenko recently gave an interview to Forbes, in which he talked about how to build a business in Ukraine, about his first million earned and his “accidental” entry into two business sectors - the production of brake pads and the medical field.
But for some reason he did not mention such an important point as his own business in Russia, which he owns through offshore companies. “My Kiev region” will tell you what a successful businessman decided not to talk about publicly
Konstantin Efimenko is an extremely controversial figure not only in Ukrainian business, but also in politics. At one time he achieved significant success, but does not like to talk about how he managed to become a dollar multimillionaire. Although the whole secret is that at one time Efimenko was a favorite of the fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych, working as Minister of Transport in the Azarov government and Deputy Minister of Infrastructure of the odious Boris Kolesnikov, for whom Efimenko was “at his beck and call.”
Now, in an interview with Forbes, Efimenko tells funny stories about how to build a business in Ukraine. So, in particular, he said that he got involved in brake pads (Tribo plant) purely by accident - they say, he bought the wrong company and didn’t even know what to do with it. This is interesting to hear from the former Minister of Transport, who knows very well that supplying brake pads to Ukrzaliznytsia is an extremely profitable business. Moreover, Efimenko was repeatedly accused of obtaining the plant through a raider takeover. In future materials we will talk in detail about Efimenko’s “entry” into this business and the mysterious death of one of the previous co-owners of Tribo.
Another “accident” - according to the “honest and decent businessman” Konstantin Efimenko - is that he allegedly encouraged his senior comrade, oligarch Vasily Khmelnitsky, to invest in the pharmaceutical business - Biopharma, part of which was eventually sold to the German pharmaceutical giant Stada .
But Efimenko did not say about the most important thing. And this completely breaks the entire already rather flimsy system of arguments of this businessman. The fact is that when talking about business and war, Konstantin Efimenko did not say a word about the fact that during all the years of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which has been going on since 2014, the Belovetserkovsky Tribo plant, owned by Konstantin Efimenko (and in fact part of Vasily’s business group Khmelnitsky), continues to do business with the invaders. And apparently, it still does.
Since the second half of the 2000s, Konstantin Efimenko has owned the UralATI plant (Ural Auto-Textile Plant), which, despite its name, produces brake pads. This enterprise pays considerable taxes to the Russian budget and sponsors the war.
“My Kiev region” managed to obtain documents in which one can see the management of the Russian enterprise.
It is interesting that the shareholder of UralATI (the city of Asbest, Sverdlovsk region), in addition to the relatives of Efimenko himself, was Oleg Savchuk, the son of the long-time mayor of Belaya Tserkov Vasily Savchuk (2006 - 2015). In particular, “Business Capital” wrote that, in fact, immediately after graduating from Kyiv National University in 2007. Shevchenko, he was appointed chairman of the board of directors, and then transferred to the position of adviser to the general director on corporate issues and investments of UralATI. Now Savchuk Jr. is the general director of the Tribo plant.
It should be noted here that despite the fact that Efimenko positions himself as the sole owner of Tribo, in fact the key player is the oligarch Vasily Khmelnitsky. This also applies to the Biopharma plant. The trick is that he also has direct business ties with the Russian Federation. Ukrainian authoritative media, after the full-scale aggression from Russia, directly linked him with the Russian oligarch, Putin’s childhood friend Arkady Rotenberg, directly calling Khmelnitsky the “wallet” of this Putin comrade. The key object where the interests of Rotenberg and Khmelnitsky intersected was the Ocean Plaza shopping center, which is now under arrest. In addition, Khmelnitsky indirectly owns the assets of the Russian Irkutsk Oil Company.
But let's return to Tribo and Konstantin Efimenko. According to data from open resources on import-export activities, the Bila Tserkva plant has concluded a huge number of transactions with Russian companies, in particular UralATI, Vati-auto, Volzhsky Textile Materials Plant, and BFAI. According to the ImportGenius service, from 2011 to the end of 2022, the Tribo plant concluded 1,652 trade deals, with the Russian companies mentioned above among the leaders.
It is interesting that in his interview, Efimenko proudly stated that the owners of Biopharma will not conduct business in Russia and Belarus for at least “two generations.” There is a classic example of schizophrenia - one company of Efimenko-Khmelnitsky supposedly does not do business with the enemy, and the other cannot exist without it. The latest recorded data indicates that the trading operations of the Tribo plant date back to February 2022, in fact just before the outbreak of war. There is no more recent data left, which does not mean that the business relationship has disappeared somewhere.
Moreover, the Efimenko-Khmelnitsky duo produces blocks not only in Russia, but also in Belarus, where in 2017 they created a Tribo branch, the only plant for the production of blocks in a satellite country of the Russian Federation. It is interesting that at that time the appearance of the enterprise was promoted in Ukraine as the fact that “Ukrainian products are conquering new markets in Europe.”
In the interview mentioned above, Efimenko, for obvious reasons, did not talk about connections with Russian business, and the interviewer decided not to ask scandalous questions. Accordingly, it seems that the interview has a “denim” basis. By the way, according to our publication, the cost of such image material on the Forbes website can fluctuate within several tens of thousands of dollars.
One logical question arises: why should Efimenko, whose existence everyone has long forgotten, be in the spotlight? Because he seems to understand perfectly well the consequences of his work in the Russian Federation.
The fact is that both factories - the Ural and Belarusian - make brake pads for military tractors URAL, MAZ and BELAZ, which are used by the Russian army in the war against Ukraine. In addition, the Ural plant provides blocks for the Russian railway, which is working full time for the war against Ukraine - transferring military equipment, people and weapons to the front line.
In this regard, many questions will arise for Efimenko and his partner Khmelnitsky. Therefore, in the near future we will tell you more about the details of the Russian and Belarusian defense contracts of the Efimenko-Khmelnitsky duo.
