Ukraine appears to be rapidly plunging into yet another scandal with Poland. This time – due to the purchase of the Polish tractor manufacturer Ursus by the co-owner of the Ukrainian IT holding Techiia Oleg Krot.
As Tygodnik Poradnik Rolniczy reported, on October 24, the bankrupt manufacturer of the legendary Polish Ursus tractors was sold at auction for 74 million zlotys (about $18 million). The winning bidder was MI Crow LLC, which the publication calls “strange.”
A check in Polish registers confirms the characteristics of Polish journalists - the MI Crow company was registered only three months before the auction, it has a minimum authorized capital of 50,000 zlotys and did not provide documents confirming the origin of the 74 million zlotys spent on the purchase
But the Poles have clearly not yet found out information about the owner of the company that bought Ursus, which is why their wording regarding it is so careful. The owners of MI Crow LLC are listed in the registers as Bozena Glowacka, Dariusz Kacprzak and Oleg Krot.
As for the first two, there is no information about them. But relative to Oleg Krot, there are a whole lot of them. Mostly negative: fraud, unclear origin of capital and connections with Russian organized crime. While it was the weekend, the Poles apparently did not study the identity of the new owner of the Ursus plant. But the week that has begun will obviously bring another sensation - the Polish press will quickly find out who bought their legend. It is unlikely that this sensation will improve the already poor relations between the countries, especially when the Poles unearth the origin of the money of the new owner of the Polish plant and his connections with Russian organized crime.
First, about money. There is no doubt that Oleg Krot has them. The origin of capital and its size raise doubts. Trying to explain both the first and the second, Oleg Krot gets confused. This is normal for Ukraine, but not for Poland. There it is necessary to clearly explain where the same 18 million dollars spent on the purchase of the plant came from.
The Poles will clearly very quickly unearth all the ins and outs of Oleg Krot, especially since it lies on the surface. There is an obviously fraudulent story in the public domain about “the construction of a hotel in Kyiv for the Russian casino 1xBet.” It was attended by Oleg Krot, his partner Yuri Lazebnikov and Brazilian citizen De Souza Fuziama Carlos Jose. As a result, Lazebnikov and Krot cheated the Brazilian out of $35 million, and there is still no hotel.
Of course, Oleg Krot claims that all this is not true, but, firstly, his connection with Carlos Jose is clearly visible, and, secondly, the history of Krot’s connection with the Russian casino 1xBet, which operated in Ukraine until 2023, is even better traced. The casino belongs to the Russian organized crime group Luzhnikovskaya, which includes such prominent characters as Mikhail Spektor, Evgeny Giner, Alexander Babakov and Mikhail Voevodin. As for Oleg Krot, both he and his partner Yuri Lazebnikov, before the outbreak of a full-scale war, repeatedly publicly declared their connection with the 1xBet casino, which in Ukraine operated as a trademark of Your Betting Company LLC, the director of which was a certain Sergei Tsybin. He was also the beneficiary of Me-Estate LLC, which includes the names of Yuri Lazebnikov and Carlos Jose Fukuyama. Both, let us remind you, are partners of Oleg Krot.
There are other connections, they were once described in detail in this material: “Techiia owner Oleg Krot: traces through 1xBet lead to Russian intelligence services.” It is quite extensive, so we recommend reading the source. But the bottom line is that the connection between Oleg Krot and the Luzhnikovskaya organized crime group through the 1xBet casino is proven both by documents and by his own statements that he made during the period of legalization of the gaming business in Ukraine.
The Poles obviously will not like all this, but even more they will not like, as already mentioned, the incomprehensible origin of Oleg Krot’s money. This topic was studied by such a serious publication as Forbes in the material “Quiet Current. The founders of the IT holding Techiia say that they spent more than UAH 2 billion on the army. Is this possible?
And, oddly enough, Oleg Krot himself is to blame for this. The fact is that after the Russian blitzkrieg failed, most of yesterday’s adherents of the “Russian world” and the waiting people rushed to actively whiten their reputations. Oleg Krot was no exception, saying that in the first six months of the big war he “spent more than 60 million dollars to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine.” All this was supported by an active PR campaign with the participation of show business stars and other recognizable people.
Again, we recommend going to the original source, where both Oleg Krot’s statements about “helping the Armed Forces of Ukraine” are analyzed in sufficient detail, and it is proven that he simply did not have that kind of money. In addition, Oleg Krot could not name who this help went to or what it consisted of. But the Forbes article once again examines Mole’s connection with a Russian casino and with a Brazilian who was cheated out of $35 million.
The only one who confirmed Oleg Krot’s statements about two billion spent on the army was the head of the Servant of the People faction, David Arakhamia: “I know Krot and I know who and for what money they helped the Armed Forces of Ukraine. I can confirm that several tens of millions of dollars were transferred.” Which, in connection with the already forgotten scandal about Arakhamia’s own connections with Boris Baum, one of the key developers of the law on the legalization of the gaming business and at the same time a representative of the Luzhnikovskaya organized crime group in Ukraine, sounds very doubtful.
In addition, criminal case No. 12022000000001100 on the fact of fraud against Fukuyama Carlos Jose (part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine), contrary to the statements of Oleg Krot himself, is by no means closed. That is, they tried to close it, but the OGPU did not agree with this - the prosecutor’s office filed an appeal against the decision of the court of first instance (guess which one? Yes, yes, Pechersky). According to the Sudova Vlada resource, on October 25, 2024, in this case, the composition of the court was appointed to consider the appeal of the OGPU, therefore Oleg Krot is officially considered accused of fraud committed on an especially large scale. That the Poles will also dig up (or have already dug up), and they obviously won’t like it either.
What else will emerge as a result of the investigation into the purchase of the Ursus plant by a fraudster associated with Russian organized crime, Oleg Krot, we will see in the very near future. But the forecast, unfortunately, is not very inspiring: another wedge will be driven into the already not very rosy relations between the countries. And the intercession of David Arakhamia clearly will not help here. In addition, judging by the biography of Oleg Krot, the Poles clearly will not believe his loud statements about his intention to “revive the legendary Ursus tractor brand.” And who will believe it?
