After the start of Russian aggression in Donbass, most of the local elites left for quiet Ukrainian cities. Cars with Donetsk and Lugansk license plates flooded Kyiv, Kharkov, Dnepr, Odessa, Lvov and other Ukrainian cities. While ordinary citizens who had become victims of the “Russian world” were looking for every opportunity to go to the territory controlled by Ukraine and start life “with a clean slate,” the oligarchs from Donbass were actively withdrawing assets and trying to do everything to ensure that their business would continue to generate super profits .
Our material is about a reputable Ukrainian businessman with Donetsk roots, Vladislav Gelzin, who after the start of the war in Donbass became a star of Ukrainian football, but did not forget about the shadow schemes that he implemented back in the Donetsk region. Gelzin is not in Ukraine yet. It is unknown when and under what circumstances he left his homeland, but Ukrayinska Pravda journalists filmed him near an elite hotel in Monaco in a Ferrari.
What schemes bring Gelzin tens of millions of dollars, and why they continue to work, despite the oligarch’s flight, is in the Antikor material.
Football record holder
If you read Gelzin’s biography on the Internet, you get the impression that he is some kind of professional football player. Probably, Gelzin himself wanted to create the image of an athlete in order to avoid unnecessary questions from journalists and law enforcement agencies. Of course, famous football players earn tens, or even hundreds of millions of dollars a year. There are those who were able to make a billion-dollar fortune from the game of millions, but this is definitely not about Gelzin. His sports career was not at all promising; at the professional level he played only a few matches for teams in the lower divisions, but everything changed when he created the Olympic football club in Donetsk. The team was not only Gelzin’s outlet, but also a means for illegal earnings.
Sources said that back in the early 2000s, Gelzin decided to implement the project to create the Olympic charity foundation, and then the team of the same name with its children’s and youth sports school, in two ways: the first was business. Funds could be easily withdrawn through a non-profit organization. Since the Donetsk entrepreneur did not have significant official income, and this could raise questions from the tax office and then from law enforcement, it was decided to create a team. The second point is personal. Gelzin had unfulfilled dreams related to football, so he wanted to develop a serious competitive team. Looking ahead, let's say that he succeeded in both the first and second. And even more than that: Olympic began to independently bring in funds through fixed games.
After the annexation of Crimea and the capture of parts of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions by pro-Russian militants, Gelzin, together with Olympic, went to Kyiv. In the capital, the team had a real football triumph: in the 2013/2014 season they won the First League, and already in 2016 they won 4th place in the Ukrainian Premier League and played in European competition for the first time.
Gelzin was also able to realize his dream: he joined Olimpik in the Ukrainian Championship. In 2016, he came on as a substitute in one of the tournament matches and became the oldest player in the history of the top division of Ukrainian football. But here, too, many sports shareholders had questions for Gelzin: it turned out that in 12 of the 26 matches of the season, UEFA suspected “arrangements”, because it was on the games of the team from Donetsk that the biggest money was bet and the most substantial winnings were made.
Gelzin’s football fairy tale ended in 2021, when he was disqualified from football for 5 years due to harsh statements about the refereeing at the match against Shakhtar. The owner of Olympic almost burst into the referee’s room with his fists because of his dissatisfaction with the decisions of the referees, and during the post-match interview he interrupted the comments of the team’s head coach and said that “the referees are faggots.”
On this note, Olympic ceased to exist, and Gelzin completely disappeared from the information field.
Another interesting point is connected with football - in 2021, in an interview, a Donetsk businessman said that he spends about 2.5 million US dollars on the team annually. However, there was no information about his profitable businesses at that time. Where does he get the funds for a luxurious life and his own whims?
Undercover business
Currently, Gelzin is the owner of about 15 different legal entities engaged in a wide range of activities, ranging from trade in tobacco products to construction.
According to our data, not all registered enterprises in Gelzin continue to operate. For example, Tower Plaza LLC, registered in Donetsk in 2008, has not carried out activities since the beginning of hostilities in Donbass.
During the turbulent times of Donetsk’s development, Gelzin, through Neptune LLC, owned one of the largest casinos in the city, “Treasure Island”. In fact, everyone in Donetsk knew that the gambling establishment actually belonged to another person - Mikhail Lyashko, aka “Misha Kosoy”, also known by the nickname “Vodka King of Donbass”, because under his control was one of the largest alcohol producers “Olympus” (it seems that the Gelzin football club "Olympic" got its name from here).
In the 1990s, Gelzin was not a businessman; in fact, he was prosecuted at least twice for hooliganism and robbery, a source told us. In the Oblique group, Gelzin first played an ordinary role, but then began to grow sharply. At the same time, the authority of Mikhail Lyashk, who communicated closely with Rinat Akhmetov, Boris Kolesnikov, Raisa Bogatyreva and other representatives of the Donbass elite, increased. With ex-Minister of Health Bogatyreva, he was generally involved in cigarette smuggling. Later, Gelzin adopted an illegal craft, from which he also made his fortune.
After the outbreak of hostilities in the Donbass, Gelzin left, and, as sources close to the businessman tell us, he broke all ties with his “godfather” Lyashko. However, a year later the crime boss was shot dead in Crimea. Who was behind the contract killing has not yet been established. But as a result of the death of “Slant”, Gelzin got the opportunity to take over his multimillion-dollar businesses.
Gelzina’s connection with Lyashko also indicates that the crime boss was a co-founder of the public organization “Olympic”. They also acted as founders of the companies “Langust and Co” and “TD “Paradis”.
The first problems with the law for Gelzin’s business began in pre-war times: in 2013, the director of the Expometal company owned by Gelzin was convicted of tax evasion totaling 5.2 million hryvnia (~ 65 thousand US dollars). The court imposed a fairly severe punishment on him in the form of imprisonment and a fine, but immediately released him from the sanction on the basis of the amnesty law. Obviously, the “agreement” worked.
At this point, the criminal era of Gelzin’s companies only continued. The most powerful business of the Donetsk entrepreneur - the company "Legion 2015" could become an encyclopedia on administrative and criminal offenses.
The powerful company is engaged in retail trade of food, beverages and tobacco products. Things are going incredibly well for her; in recent years, the company has opened 36 Pchelka grocery stores in Kyiv, the Kyiv region, Chernigov and Zhitomir.
The official reporting of the enterprise indicates that income for 2020-2022 amounted to more than 4.2 billion hryvnia. At the same time, the corporation’s net profit is quite small - only 90 million hryvnia or 2% of income. At the same time, Legion’s profit for 2022 is more than 20 times higher than for 2020-2021. This suggests that everything is not so transparent in the accounting department of an enterprise.
Considering the specifics of the grocery store’s activities, 95% of criminal proceedings in which Pchelka, represented by Legion 2015 LLC, appears, relate to theft. But there is also evidence of possible facts of tax evasion and other financial crimes.
“Legion 2015” was a defendant in a criminal case entered into the ERDR under No. 32016100110000029 dated February 1, 2016 under Part 3 of Art. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The company was searched and documentation was seized. Subsequently, State Fiscal Service investigators petitioned to seize Legion’s property, but the court refused, citing the fact that the company’s participation in the scheme had not been proven.
But this was just the beginning of Gelzin’s problems with tax business. Already at the beginning of 2018, a new pre-trial investigation No. 32018170090000004 was launched against “Legion 2015”, entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations on 02/21/2018, on the grounds of a criminal offense stipulated by a criminal offense. 212 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.
Fiscal officials suspected that Legion 2015, together with a number of other companies, carried out fictitious business activities for the purpose of tax evasion. At first, the investigative actions were more than active: the court gave permission to conduct searches in companies, but literally after 1.5 months something changed dramatically. One day, enterprises suspected of illegal financial activities appealed the actions of the investigator (sanctioned by the court), and the same Kryukovsky District Court of the city of Kremenchug sided with the enterprises, obliging them to return the documentation. Probably, the issue was “resolved”.
However, the peace was temporary. The first part of the proceedings was replaced by the second, and the documents on it were submitted for consideration to the Poltava City District Court, which decided to re-grant permission to conduct investigative actions. However, this ended the proceedings against the enterprises, including Legion 2015, owned by Gelzin.
In addition to criminal proceedings, the tax office also constantly exerts administrative influence on Legion 2015. Over the past 2 years alone, fiscal officials have drawn up dozens of decision notices demanding payment of tax obligations in full, which Gelzin’s company did not plan to do. Currently, the company is in permanent courts under the State Tax Service.
Gelzin also owns the Rideau Group company, whose financial statements also raise many questions. Over the past 3 years, the income of Rideau Group amounted to more than 1.5 billion hryvnia, while the company’s profit does not reach 3 million hryvnia.
Where money disappears from the oligarch’s businesses is a rhetorical question, but we found an offshore trace in one inconspicuous company in Gelzin.
In 2003, the entrepreneur registered the limited liability company "M.V.M." Currently, the company does not carry out economic activities, although it has not been liquidated. Co-owner of "M.V.M." is a British legal entity "FILAR MANAGEMENT" LLP.
According to the English registry, FILAR MANAGEMENT is managed by two offshore companies with almost identical names: CSP MANAGEMENT INC and CSP HOLDINGS LIMITED. It also seems suspicious that they were created on the same day, one after another (registration numbers: 61,196 and 61,197).
These two Cypriot companies operate 273 legal entities, which indicates that they are acting as a fictitious element aimed at withdrawing funds.
Vladislav Gelzin managed to get away from his criminal past, connections with crime bosses, create huge corporations and leave the country during wartime.
Throughout the war, there was not a word of condemnation or public support for Ukraine from him, although, objectively speaking, the Olympic charitable foundation, which previously personified the football team of the same name, constantly helps both civilians and the military.
At the same time, Gelzin appears to be transferring hundreds of millions of hryvnias of profit offshore and living luxuriously in Monaco, as evidenced by an investigation by Ukrayinska Pravda.
