Seizure of the property of bankrupt Ukrainian banks, withdrawal of funds through controlled foreign companies and involvement in the forceful takeover of a plastics plant: how did an unknown young lawyer Olga Gutovskaya become the owner of a British company handling hundreds of millions of dollars? How does a likely fraudulent link work? And what does this have to do with the husband of the niece of the famous Russian politician Dmitry Medvedev - the owner of the capital's Gulliver shopping center, Viktor Polishchuk?
The editors exposed new details of the “scheme” for more than $600 million, one of the persons of which was the newly minted lawyer and businesswoman Olga Gutovskaya. Details are in the second series of journalistic investigation by Igor Khmury.
The figure of the little-known lawyer Olga Gutovskaya, whose company WWRT Limited actually acquired the loan portfolios of the largest Ukrainian banks for next to nothing, attracted the attention of the StopCor editors last year due to her luxurious lifestyle, aggressive PR in the media and public accusations of fraud.
The material we published resulted in considerable public outcry and a rather ambiguous reaction from Olga herself. Because of social networks, she contacted journalists and accused them of distorting the facts. Therefore, we invited Olga to record a short interview, where she could present her position, and at the same time answer the questions that interested us. The woman allegedly willingly agreed at first, but for almost a month she could not find time to visit our studio.
At some point, Mrs. Olga simply stopped picking up the phone. Then we went to visit her ourselves. Already under the heroine’s house, the ignore continued. In the end, we saw her and decided to personally inquire about the interview. there was no trace. Mrs. Olga said that she talked with some people and changed her mind about giving an interview,” notes Igor Khmury.
Consequently, StopKor decided to independently investigate the details of the story with the “redemption” of credit debts and understand the intricacies of the probable “scheme” with the participation of Gutovskaya.
And the further we delved into this topic, the more logical the assumption looks: the key link in this mechanism may not even be Olga Gutovskaya’s British company WWRT Limited, but the structure that transferred her rights to the bankers’ debts. We are talking about the company Star Investment Van and the interests that may lie behind it.
The beginning of the story dates back to the end of 2018, when the Deposit Guarantee Fund of Individuals prepared a package of 21 domestic banks for the auction. In November, Exito Partners presented a project called “Eloria”, in which it described in sufficient detail the nominal value of loans, collateral property, its location, etc. Loans in the case amounted to almost $294 million, and the total cost of securing the loans amounted to more than 367 million greenbacks.
However, despite the fact that the case only contained provisions worth $367 million, the lot was put up for auction for only one and a half billion hryvnia, which at that time was approximately $50 million.
In similar variants, the Dutch trading system is used. If they don’t find anyone willing, they begin to reduce the price of the lot several times and put it up again and again until it is sold. Thus, the value of this portfolio fell to UAH 310 million in December 2018. And this is only about 11 million dollars.
And here the Star Investment Van company, which at that time was called ABC Ukraine, played its role.
It is noteworthy that the company was registered just four days before the start of accepting proposals for the first lot. A company from the Czech Republic contributed 135 million to the authorized capital.
The “newborn” company missed the first auction. On the second, she did not have a single competitor, so playing short, she took the entire case for 62 million UAH. At that time it was approximately $2 million.
It turns out that the Federal Guarantee Fund did not simply admit to trading a company that was less than a month old and had an authorized capital half the price of the lot. In the end, he gave her the rights to $294 million in loans and got $367 million for less than 0.5% of their total value.
“There is a business, let’s put it this way... buying debts is a business of vultures. Because these people buy for one percent, two percent and even lower, half a percent. You know, to buy for half a percent, for a percentage of debts worth a hundred million, a billion. then you can sell these debts further, heal them, do something, torment creditors for these debts, etc.,” comments Valentin Zagaria, managing partner of the Spensers law firm.
What explains this amazing performance and level of confidence?
It is worth noting that one of the largest lots in this portfolio was the Mikhailovsky Bank. He is associated with one of the richest Ukrainians - the owner of the Gulliver shopping center, several large chains of household appliance stores and a number of other valuable assets - Viktor Polishchuk. Also, according to media reports, Polishchuk’s wife, through her aunt, is a relative of Putin’s henchman and ex-President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev.
In addition, Polishchuk’s name appeared in several high-profile power conflicts and raider takeovers. Several years ago, the public organization “Stop Illegal” held a rally near “Gulliver” specifically about the “Russian trace” of Mr. Polishchuk. There they were attacked by his guards, but subsequently the scandalous case was dropped.
And later, activists of the same organization noticed the same guard during the forceful seizure of a plastics plant in Brovary.
“I was surprised when I arrived at the plastics plant and saw the same guards who beat us. I asked one person, and it turned out to be almost Polishchuk’s right hand, what was he doing here? He began to behave very aggressively, broke my mobile phone, and also inflicted numerous physical injuries on me. I then had to call an ambulance to be examined,” said the head of the Stop Illegal NGO Denis Shinkarenko.
And probably, the “squeeze” of the plant was organized precisely because of the scheme with the old loan on Star Investment Van securities.
“The scheme for seizing the plant is quite simple. "Star Investment Van" receives a court decision on the mortgage of the property and instantly re-registers the property rights before the opponents come to their senses. And then the brutal force comes into play, which had previously appeared in “Gulliver,” comments investigator Igor Khmury.
So the following picture emerges. Bank Mikhailovsky, associated with Polishchuk, is part of the portfolio that was bought by a company registered in his business center and helping to “squeeze out” the property by his security service. And the most interesting thing is that now the “British” company of Olga Gutovskaya is demanding enormous funds from the owners of several large banks from this package, but for some reason it does not affect the bankrupt “Mikhailovsky” and the depositors who “abandoned” it.
Let us recall that some light on the details of this “scheme” could be shed by an interview with Elena Tishchenko, ex-squad of Sergei Tishchenko, who at one time headed the bankrupt Fortuna Bank. Elena spoke about a possible mechanism for extorting money by a group of people of interest through a number of foreign companies, in which Gutovskaya is also involved. And, in her opinion, the same people are behind Star Investment Van and Gutovskaya’s company.
“There is a clear pattern there that the WWRT company is in fact closely connected with the Star company. And I believe that the owners of both companies are the same. Star Investment Van bought these debts, and they immediately began to come out. on management, on large clients of banks, and demanded that these lots be bought separately - at significantly inflated prices,” says Ms. Tishchenko.
Against this background, a logical question arises: why is the Guarantee Fund not involved in returning funds to depositors while the banks’ portfolios are not yet related to the state?
Moreover, it is possible to find billions transferred abroad, experts say. However, for some reason the Foundation is in no hurry to do this. One of the notorious examples is the story of Delta Bank.
“In the presence of two Ukrainian lawyers, three English lawyers, three financial intelligence officers from Great Britain, we presented two schemes on two large Whatman papers. The first scheme is how a billion dollars were withdrawn. And the second diagram is where to look for it. We presented all the companies that existed in the world at that time and that were controlled by Nikolay Lagoon, his proxies, nominees, related parties. We found real estate in many countries, many jurisdictions - Cyprus, Austria, Great Britain, Seychelles, Panama, Vietnam and etc. “More than a hundred companies. When the Fund asked how quickly you could seize the assets of the bank owner, our soloist said that we would do it in six weeks,” recalls Valentin Zagaria, managing partner of the Spensers law firm.
It turns out that in the end, depositors from their own pockets compensate for the “schemes” for the bankruptcy of banks, and clever businessmen and people with a raider background profit from them? StopCor will continue to carefully investigate the story with Star Investment Van and WWRT Limited, as well as the probable connection between the patrons of Olga Gutovskaya and Viktor Polishchuk. To be continued.
Let us remind you that a little-known lawyer received loan portfolios of the largest Ukrainian financial institutions for next to nothing and leads a luxury life, in the absence of any legal activity. You sometimes Elena Tishchenko accused lawyer Olga Gutovskaya, whose firm WWRT Limited is seeking to seize the property of a number of domestic banks, of demanding huge sums and fraud. Based on these facts, several criminal proceedings seem to have been initiated.
