Oleksandr Shevchenko: Bukovel's "land and budget thief." Part 1
Ukrainian politicians continue to prepare for potential re-elections, bolstering their ratings through all sorts of vote-buying tactics. Some hand out sugar or Easter cakes, others organize concerts, while MP Oleksandr Shevchenko takes his voters on excursions to Bukovel and treats them to dinner. Fortunately, this costs him next to nothing, as he managed this famous resort for many years and remains its de facto owner. And he more than recoups all the minor expenses for his election campaigns from the road construction budget, which he has been enthusiastically siphoning off for several years.
Previously, Oleksandr Shevchenko managed to "seduce" voters in the 83rd district (Ivano-Frankivsk) twice during the early elections in 2014, but now their trust in their chosen one has plummeted. Even those who work at Bukovel and have known Shevchenko for years are complaining, as recently this expensive and crowded resort, which brings in huge profits for its owners, has begun delaying salaries for its service staff. Bukovel, which has been partially owned by the state since the end of 2016, is being artificially made unprofitable—and Oleksandr Shevchenko is directly behind this. The rest of Ukraine knows him mainly from the scandalous incident in August 2014, when Shevchenko was literally attacked. Oleg Lyashko. Well, Skelet.Org invites us to get to know this person better!
The brothers from "Scorzonera"
Alexander Leonidovich Shevchenko was born on April 8, 1971, in Kolomyia (Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast), to a modest, poor family. At the time, the only prospect in young Sashko Shevchenko's life was a foreman's job at one of the local factories. So, after completing eighth grade, he enrolled in Kolomyia Vocational School No. 14 as a radio assembler, where he studied from 1986 to 1989. He then found work as a second-class radio equipment assembler in Shop No. 4 of the Kolomyia Woodworking Plant. At least, that's what his official biography claims. But what's surprising here isn't so much the type of radio equipment Alexander Shevchenko soldered at the woodworking plant, but his second-class qualification. After all, according to the Soviet "table of worker ranks," the second rank was awarded to students without a vocational education. Meanwhile, Shevchenko claims to have graduated from a vocational school with honors, which would have entitled him to the fourth rank. This leaves us with a strange confusion in his biography.
At the same time, in 1989, Oleksandr Shevchenko enrolled in Chernivtsi University as a radio engineer (apparently by correspondence), graduating in 1995 (apparently interrupting his studies while serving in the army). However, by the mid-90s, neither working at a woodworking plant nor even becoming a radio engineer interested him in the slightest. In 1995, Oleksandr Shevchenko plunged into business, becoming a sales manager at the private enterprise "Auskoprut." It was here that he found his calling, becoming the director of the "Production and Commercial Firm "Kvarta" LLC (EDRPOU 13661737) in 1997, a position he held until 2004.
This enterprise is mentioned only briefly in his biography, yet Kvarta is a very interesting firm. It was involved in a wide range of commercial activities: it exported processed milk products (casein) and sugar, as well as grain, and also traded petroleum products. It's clear that a former radio equipment assembler would hardly have taken over such a business without the necessary connections among relatives or classmates, but all the "lives of Alexander Shevchenko" remain stubbornly silent on this point. It is known, however, that Kvarta's founders were father and son, Anatoly Vasilyevich Popadyuk and Igor Anatolyevich Popadyuk, and Alexander Shevchenko's close ties to them raise many questions. The fact is that Popadyuk Jr. had long been known as a con man and swindler, hiding from retribution in Austria. Ukrainians know his father, Anatoliy Popadyuk, from his career at Naftogaz, and then at Naftogazbud, which he made in the 2000s. These are the kind of people Oleksandr Shevchenko started out with in business—and, let's repeat, in 1997, they invited him to become director of their company and even gave him a 35% stake in the authorized capital. Such gifts aren't given to people off the street!
Let us add: several subsidiaries grew out of Kvarta, including Galichina-Sakhar (EDRPOU 31162561), which is currently owned by Tatyana Vitalievna Shevchenko, the common-law wife of Alexander Shevchenko.
Victor Shevchenko
Meanwhile, his younger brother, Viktor Leonidovych Shevchenko (born December 4, 1980), grew up and now serves alongside him in the Verkhovna Rada. Viktor followed in Oleksandr's footsteps: in 1994, he enrolled in the same vocational school, School No. 14, majoring in radio mechanics for radio and television equipment repair, and then enrolled in correspondence courses at the Carpathian University to study law. And so, in 2000, Viktor Shevchenko joined the staff of the newly established company, Skorzonera LLC (EDRPOU 31067573), initially as a lowly project manager. His team was designing the future Bukovel resort complex.
According to the legend the Shevchenko brothers love to tell, in 1999 they were vacationing at a ski resort somewhere in Europe. Apparently, they were relaxing after another successful deal selling Ukrainian casein to Poland. Or perhaps Viktor Shevchenko was temporarily hiding from the military commissar there, waiting for his brother to buy him a "white ticket"—after all, at 19, he should have been serving his military service, not hanging around Alpine resorts. So, supposedly, the brothers then became obsessed with the dream of building a "European-class" ski resort in their homeland—and thus the Bukovel project was born.
And now about what the “Bukovel brothers” are keeping quiet about. Skelet.Org It is known that the original founders of Skorzonera LLC included the Shevchenko and Popadyuki brothers, and it was with them that Bukovel began. However, significant changes then occurred: Igor Kolomoisky's Privat Group joined Bukovel and Gennady BogolyubovPrivat was interested in two oil refineries in the region—Drohobych's "Halychyna" and Naftokhimik's "Naftohimik," but Kolomoisky had no intention of building a resort there. According to available information, Kolomoisky's interest in the Bukovel project was conveyed to him. Igor Palitsa, with whom Anatoliy Popadyuk had dealings. And Kolomoisky "invested" in the Bukovel project—but not in the way Oleksandr Shevchenko so enthusiastically recounts in his fairy tales. All of Privat's acquisitions resembled corporate raids, the only difference being that in some cases Kolomoisky stripped people blind and threw them out, while in others he hired them. The Popadyuks and Shevchenko were lucky in this case. Anatoliy Popadyuk lost his majority stake in Skorzonera, but with Kolomoisky's help (and that of his friend Oleksiy Ivchenko), he secured the position of commercial director of Naftogaz. In 2006, he was even tipped to be Ivchenko's successor, and later became head of Naftogazbud. Oleksandr Shevchenko retained a tiny stake in Skorzonera (2,1%), registered through the company Galichina-Tsukor, and since 2004 has served as the company's director and CEO of Bukovel. His brother, Viktor, worked under him as a "concept development manager" until 2007, and then headed the companies Ambika and Bugil, which provide services (hotels, restaurants, and entertainment) in Bukovel. The majority owner of Skorzonera and Bukovel became Privat (91,4%), which owns them through Derling LLC and Maveks LLC (6,5%), which has roots in offshore havens.
Bukovel's heyday under Kolomoisky followed roughly the following pattern: Skorzonera owned the resort's territory and several key facilities, coordinated operations, and leased land to other companies—currently numbering around 30—for the construction of hotels, restaurants, and entertainment complexes. Some of these were owned by Privat, others by people close to Kolomoisky, others by important people (relatives of officials and politicians), and still others by other businessmen. Even local entrepreneurs built simpler facilities.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Alexander Shevchenko: Bukovel's "land and budget sawyer." Part 2
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