The multimillionaire's areas of earnings were very different - from raw materials to the illegal entertainment industry
A castle in Florence, planes with drugs and tens of millions of dollars stolen from the Ukrainian state are just a small part of the murky business of Russian entrepreneur Alexei Fedorichev. It was his property worth 41 million euros that was seized in Italy in connection with the investigation and at the request of the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office.
How did Fedorichev manage to build a financial empire on Ukrainian grain and who condoned this?
Money, power and connections
Alexey Mikhailovich Fedorichev is a Russian multimillionaire, former owner of the Dynamo (Moscow) and Rostov football clubs. Back in 2006, he was included in the Forbes list of the richest businessmen in the Russian Federation.
In the 1980s, he established close ties with the criminal circles of the USSR. These contacts obviously played an important role in his rise. Indeed, after several decades, Fedorichev built an extensive business that covered different areas and went far beyond the borders of one country.
His name is more associated with the raw materials market, where he became an influential figure in the trade of grain, sulfur and mineral fertilizers. Criminal schemes allowed him to launder money and keep assets in different parts of Europe, including Ukraine.
The businessman is a citizen of Hungary, Russia and Uruguay, but he chose Monaco for permanent residence, namely Monte Carlo - a well-known “tax haven” and a place of concentration of the world elite.
Mafia in Europe
Fedorichev’s life and work in Europe became more and more “bright” every year.
It is known that in 2002, 150 people were detained in various European countries, suspected of allegedly trafficking in drugs, weapons and organizing illegal brothels with prostitutes from Eastern Europe. This network, according to the detainees, was coordinated by Alexey Fedorichev.
Further more. In 2005, a businessman took aim at the Odessa port, trying to seize it by raider. Six years later, a large-scale operation began to steal a large batch of grain from Ukrainian bins.
In 2012, Fedorichev again became the hero of many publications in the European press. His personal Bombardier Global 7000 business jet, tail number 9H-FED, landed in the Canaries full of cocaine.
Ukrainian grain in sight
Fedorichev’s activities in Ukraine began at the dawn of the 2000s. It was then that he completely bought out the largest sea terminals in the Yuzhny port near Odessa - TIS-Zerno and TIS-Mineral Fertilizers.
This purchase became the basis for expanding his business in Ukraine, allowing him to control the transshipment of approximately 2.3 million tons of fertilizers and 1.7 million tons of grain. At the same time, many Ukrainian sites dedicated to work at sea were replete with warnings that Fedorichev’s company was “abandoning” sailors without paying wages.
Which government indulged the fraud?
The Russian businessman established “friendly ties” with Ukraine precisely during the time of Leonid Kuchma. During his reign, there was also an attempt to raid the Odessa port.
2005 Fedorichev’s business in Ukraine went all-in. His company Transinvestservice (TIS), which controlled six berths in the port of Yuzhny, decided to act on the principle “it is better to apologize than to ask for permission.” Without approval, they dredged the bottom of one of the berths to accommodate large-tonnage vessels.
Four years later, this adventure turned into a legal scandal. The successor of Transinvestservice, TIS-Ruda, filed a lawsuit against the port for 51.3 million hryvnia, demanding payment for those unauthorized works.
The situation was resolved only after the intervention of the special control commission of the Verkhovna Rada on privatization issues and the then Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko. She promised the Yuzhny port protection from raiders.
But the start of large-scale operations to steal grain from Ukrainian granaries occurred during the reign of Viktor Yanukovych. Especially after his flight from the country, the occupation of Crimea by the Russians and the beginning of the armed aggression of the Russian Federation in the Donbass, Fedorichev received ideal conditions for his large-scale schemes.
According to the Ukrainian investigation, in April 2014, a businessman paid more than 667 thousand dollars to the chairman of the board of directors of PJSC State Food Grain Corporation of Ukraine (SFGCU) in order to conclude contracts for the supply of agricultural products on market and favorable payment terms.
Ultimately, the Grain Corporation did not receive most of the funds for the grain sold. As a result, the state-owned enterprise suffered losses of more than $60 million.
At that time, the head of the company was Petr Vovchuk, who, by the way, received a suspended sentence last year.
The scheme also included Fedorichev’s name, but the ex-official of the GPZKU (head of the information and analytical department) was detained with suspicion. According to NABU, he was also involved in committing a number of crimes.
Let us remind you that from the end of February to the beginning of June 2014, acting. President by appointment of the Verkhovna Rada was Oleksandr Turchynov.
The corruption mechanisms of the Russian businessman were quite stable and were able to survive the change of political regimes in Ukraine. However, later he probably lost his "roof".
How exactly did the GPZKU scheme work?
According to investigators, Fedorichev skillfully used his experience in grain trading to create a complex financial fraud.
GPZKU entered into contracts for the supply of grain to Saudi Arabia on cash on delivery terms. That is, payment should have been received after delivery of the goods. However, instead of being returned to the accounts of the state company, the funds ended up under Fedorichev’s control. So the state enterprise actually worked to enrich a private individual from the aggressor country.
These funds, instead of filling the state treasury, went to satisfy the personal whims of the businessman. In particular, it became known about Fedorichev’s acquisition of an ancient castle in Florence.
As a result of this case and at the request of Ukraine, Fedorichev’s property was arrested in Italy with a total value of 41 million euros.
In addition, Alexey Fedorichev is included in the list of Ukrainian sanctions for transporting coal mined in the Donbass, occupied since 2014, by sea vessels.
