Evgeniy Chervonenko: A Racer for Life. Part 1
A troublemaker, a foul-mouthed, and a violent boor—that's how we remember him fifteen years ago, at the very beginning of his political career, and that's how he remains. Yevhen Chervonenko was accustomed to looking down on people not because of his height, but because of an ego that had been inflated since his youth. And now, suddenly, he's started regularly appearing in television studios, ripping the collar of his threadbare sports jacket, spilling his guts about the difficult lives of ordinary people, spewing sensationalism, revelations, and the inevitable curse words. Why is this? The answer is obvious: Chervonenko is running his own political campaign, trying to be noticed and in demand.
Evgeny Chervonenko. Tales of youth
Evgeny Alfredovich Chervonenko was born on December 20, 1959, in Dnepropetrovsk (now Dnipro), to a respected Jewish family. His father, Alfred Grigorievich Chervonenko, was a doctor of technical sciences, author of numerous patents on mining equipment, and a professor. Chervonenko's grandfather was also a cousin (on his mother's side) of the children's poet Samuil Marshak. Evgeny Alfredovich has a younger brother, Igor Alfredovich (born April 24, 1971), who is rarely mentioned in the media, but plays a significant role in his older brother's life and business. They even later settled in Kyiv at the same time: Evgeny Chervonenko in an apartment on Reitarska Street, and Igor Chervonenko in an apartment on Volodymyrska Street.
He studied at Dnepropetrovsk school No. 23, the same place where Viktor Pinchuk and Elena Arshava, who were only a year younger than Chervonenko and were among his school friends. Judging by the fact that so many children from far from ordinary Jewish families attended this school, it was elite for its time (though this was not advertised). But science did not captivate young Zhenya Chervonenko, despite his good grades and even becoming a finalist in the republican mathematics olympiad. This was due to his difficult, delinquent nature. He himself claimed that he did not graduate with a gold medal only because he was a victim of anti-Semitism and the Soviet system.
According to one version, voiced by him back in the late 90s, tenth-grader Zhenya Chervonenko was inflamed with righteous anger at a guy who called him a "Kike" (though he calls himself that), and beat him so badly that an ambulance had to be called. According to another version, also presented by Chervonenko himself and known Skelet.OrgHe hosted a New Year's party at his home. "Pinchuk came there with the daughter of the first secretary of the regional party committee, and one of our guys got drunk, then smashed a shop window and ended up in police custody. There was a Komsomol meeting, and everyone was shut down, leaving me alone. And I, a straight-A student, was kicked out of the Komsomol with the phrase: 'Chervonenko is the mastermind behind this drinking bout, and he's also the technical executor.' That's the stigma that stuck with me for life," he claimed in 2004.
Evgeniy Chervonenko in his youth
Well, both versions are shaky. Firstly, he started fights at school (and after) with or without reason, but his classmates don't recall Chervonenko sending anyone to the hospital – as the saying goes, God didn't give the pugnacious boy such hefty fists. And causing moderate or severe bodily harm is a guaranteed offense, even for a minor. Therefore, the first story was simply an attempt to portray himself as some kind of hero: look how strong and scary I am, I can cripple anyone with one blow! He also emphasized his origins. After all, Yevhen Chervonenko is one of the few Ukrainian Jews who flaunted his nationality, except perhaps for wearing a kippah – and perhaps because it wouldn't have matched his race-car jacket. And he needed this because in the 90s Chervonenko initially sought to head the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress (VJC), trying to push aside its chairman Vadim Rabinovich, with whom they had a long-standing falling out. Chervonenko then founded his own Jewish Confederation of Ukraine (JCU), but three years later abandoned it and returned to the VJC. Such a man simply needed a beautiful biography-legend about how he personally punished anti-Semites in his youth.
As for the second version, it's unlikely Chervonenko couldn't have known that Viktor Pinchuk had been dating Elena Arshava since school, the daughter of the deputy head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Health Department, not the first secretary of the regional committee. Incidentally, the regional committee was headed by Alexey Vatchenko at the time, and he didn't have a high-school daughter. This casts doubt on this story, but as for "one guy from our group," only one person in their group could have drunkenly smashed a shop window—Chervonenko himself. He was nicknamed "Chervonets" at school, and behind his back, "Bull," due to his nasty temperament, combined with his large size. So his claim that "they covered for everyone" is also a lie, because no one had to be covered for—the perpetrator of the hooliganism was caught by the groin. Again, Chervonenko is confused about exactly when he was expelled from the Komsomol: back then, in 1977, or as late as 1988 (as he claimed in another of his tales). Of course, a shop window isn't a beating, but in any case, the professor's son got off easy! However, it would be a mistake to think of Chervonenko as some kind of fearless rebel: his acquaintances and even his ex-wife told the press that he only "bullied" when he was confident of impunity. But it seems he was sometimes mistaken.
In 1977, Yevgeny Chervonenko tried to enroll at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, but failed. He claimed that anti-Semitism was once again to blame: supposedly by secret Kremlin orders, admission to prestigious scientific universities was restricted for Jews, with the rationale that they would "get a degree for free and then go to the West." Even the patronage of his professor father didn't help Chervonenko. Regardless, the young man faced the prospect of joining the military, so his father helped him urgently enroll in the mechanical engineering department of the Dnipropetrovsk Mining Institute. Thus, Yevgeny Chervonenko continued a family tradition—his father and grandfather had both graduated from the same university. His father then arranged for him to work at the Dnipromashobogashchenie Research Institute, where he began writing his dissertation.
But the drawings of mining combines bored Yevhen Chervonenko, and he instead became fascinated with auto racing. More precisely, auto racing, where he usually sat not behind the wheel but next to it, as the navigator, commanding which way to steer and how hard to press the accelerator. One can only guess how exactly this passion arose, but by 1982 he had abandoned his dissertation and joined a rally team, which in 1983 won the Ukrainian SSR Spartakiad. From that moment on, it was the end of both university and work. Some even called him a "God-given navigator," but doubts are cast on this given his car accident, in which his driver died. Chervonenko himself only briefly mentioned this: "...in 1987, my friend from the Ukrainian national team died; his last word, at 180 km/h, was 'live'..." Judging by what he heard from his friend's last words, Chervonenko was next to him at the time of the accident. However, his friend died, and he wasn't even injured, as he continued to compete in other races that same year. Or maybe he lied about that, too?
How the Orlan took off
The vast majority of athletes are mere toy soldiers in someone's hands. That's what Yevhen Chervonenko would have become if he'd only loved sports cars and racing. But he loved money even more, and most importantly, he knew how to make it. That's why Chervonenko became Ukraine's first athlete-oligarch. However, soon all that remained of him was an oligarch in an old sports jacket.
After his first international competition with the USSR national team (1985), Chervonenko realized that motorsports could bring rewards beyond just free auto repairs for his personal cars or the infatuation of a party official's daughter (he would leave her in the late 80s). He took action, fortunately, his entrepreneurial talent outweighed all others. In 1987, Chervonenko founded the Perestroika team: it was declared professional and independent, meaning the athletes' salaries were paid from the team's own funds. Chervonenko secured self-financing and cost accounting for the team. This was primarily necessary for participation in international competitions. Then, in 1988, he encountered a conflict: the prize fund for the European Championship was in foreign currency, which, by law, was supposed to be surrendered to the state in exchange for "wooden" currency. Chervonenko, who was already planning to use the money to buy foreign cars, lost his temper and caused a scandal – which, according to him, ended with his team being stripped of its right to compete and Chervonenko being expelled from the Komsomol (what, again?!).
He had to travel all the way to the Kremlin (helped by his father-in-law, the father of Chervonenko's first wife) and obsequiously submit to the Kremlin's demands to regain the right to compete abroad. This was far more important than losing a couple of prize money, as it turned out there were other ways to make Deutsche Marks and dollars—the most important thing was having his own window into Europe, through which he could export and import goods. Chervonenko put this business on stream, formalizing it as yet another "cooperative"—or rather, a small enterprise within the Lviv Elektron plant, under whose wing the self-financing race car drivers settled. Thus, in 1988, his first commercial company, Trans-Rally, was founded. It purchased several old trucks and began transporting cargo from Ukraine to Europe and back, becoming the first competitor to Sovtransavto. Chervonenko didn't reveal the contents of these shipments, but his acquaintances assured him that by 1991 he already had his first million in hard currency. He invested it in a new business he'd discovered in Poland, when he was shipping beer and soft drinks from there to Ukraine.
In 1992, Chervonenko opened the Lviv Van Pur joint venture—essentially a line for packaging beer (from the Lviv Brewery) and carbonated beverages in aluminum cans, the first in Ukraine. In 1994, he opened a similar joint venture, Rogan Van Pur, and in 1995, he consolidated these businesses under the umbrella of the Ukraine Van Pur Industrial Group. Later, Chervonenko, as if "in secret," told journalists that Van Pur was created with money from "Irish Jews." A good joke—after all, in 1992, as many as 1300 Jews lived in Ireland (and there were five Jewish organizations operating there), who probably only dreamed of investing in a business in young Ukraine! In reality, things were a bit different: according to available information, Skelet.Org According to information, Chervonenko found a person in Ireland (possibly a Jew) who agreed to become a figurehead founder of the joint venture, and a few years later re-registered his share of the business to the Irish company Kencot Enterprises Limited, which is owned by Yevgeny Chervonenko himself and his brother Igor.
And here is another source Skelet.Org He revealed that Jews from Kyiv and New York, the infamous international "Russian mafia," may have invested in Chervonenko's business. More specifically, it was Semyon Mogilevich's group, which included such prominent figures as Oleg Asmakov (Alik Magadan), Leonid Roytman, Konstantinovsky brothers, Vakhtang Ubiriya (in Odessa), Sergei Maksimov (in 1999, together with Chervonenko, he created the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine) and Alexander PresmanA current Verkhovna Rada deputy and member of the Vozrozhdenie faction, Presman served as Mogilevich's "overseer" in the 1990s during the Mercury scams. Several major financial pyramid schemes operated under the umbrella of this cooperative (later re-registered as a consumer society) between 1990 and 90, with Semyon Yufa as its architect. This same Yufa launched a game in 94 whose rules required new players to send 400 rubles to their predecessors, then recruit new players and receive their money.
Alexander Presman
Semyon Yufa
Although Presman claimed to have met Chervonenko only in 2002, there is evidence that they knew each other much earlier, as far back as the early 90s, and that it was Presman who invested money from Kyiv organized crime groups in Chervonenko's business. Incidentally, Presman was connected not only to the Mogilevich-Asmakov organized crime group, but also to Kyiv "authority" Vladimir Kisil, Odesa "thief in law" Valeriy Kukhilava (Antimos), and Lviv criminal circles—their money may also have been invested in Chervonenko's business.
By 2002, this business had been re-registered several times, its owners and their shares had changed, and the presence of "third parties" (not relatives, nor Chervonenko's wives and children) in this business was very carefully hidden in foreign companies (including offshore ones): Ergotron Limited Liability, SZhLT Ukraine Limited, Globex Capital Limited, the aforementioned Kencot Enterprises Limited, Ukrainian-American Enterprise Orlan-Trans-Krakovets LLC, and others. Indirect confirmation of this can be found in information from Chervonenko's acquaintances and ex-wives, dropped in interviews with the media, that between 2006 and 2008... Evgeny Alfredovich had to pay off large debts (possibly return shares in enterprises) with certain non-public people, of whom he was terrified – and therefore was very nervous while collecting the necessary sums.
In 1994, Chervonenko first registered (with the State Tax Inspectorate of the Zhovtnevyi District of Kyiv) Orlan CJSC. Then, between 1996 and 98, he re-registered his entire business under this brand, which by then had expanded significantly: in addition to producing carbonated beverages, he merged his former enterprise, Rally-Trans, with the Ukrtrans-Lviv fleet (a former division of Sovtransavto), as well as the Boryspil Auto Depot OJSC, merging them into Orlan-Trans OJSC. This is how the Orlan Group emerged, which included the following enterprises and firms:
- JSC Orlan
- Orlan-Trans-Group LLC
- OJSC "Orlan-Trans"
- LLC "Ukrainian-American enterprise with foreign investments "Orlan-Trans-Krakovets"
- Orlan-Trans-Slavutych LLC
- Ukr-Trade-Business Corporation
- CJSC "Orlan-Trade"
- Orlan-Unipak LLC
- JSC "Ukrinterexpeditsiya"
- Orlan-Auto LLC
- Techinvest LLC
- LLC "Lviv Van Pur"
- JSC "Berdichev Malt Plant"
- Orlan-Beverages CJSC (sold to Privat Group in 2005)
- OOO "Eney"
- LLC "Limex LTD"
- Master-Donetsk LLC
- LLC "Aktiv"
- LLC "Trading House "Polfort"
- Monolit-Invest LLC
- LLC "IVR"
- Brainworkstudio LLC
- JSC Agroinvest-Group
- JSC "Dar"
- Globex Capital Limited (Britain)
- Kenkot Enterprises Limited (Cyprus)
- Ergotron Limited Liability Company (USA)
And this is far from a complete list, as Chervonenko carefully conceals some of his corporate structures, especially the offshore ones, even from his closest associates. Overall, the business structure was extremely complex—far too complex for a simple soda producer. Almost every year, new companies were established, which then became the founders of the old ones (replacing the previous individual founders), and then their shares were transferred to foreign companies, whose owners were obscured by the names of the other companies.
Perhaps the most striking feature of these schemes, though not immediately obvious, is the composition of the main co-owners of these enterprises and firms. They can be divided into two groups. The first, open group includes Evgeny and Igor Chervonenko, the children of Evgeny Chervonenko, who held small stakes in the shares of his ex-wife, Margarita Chervonenko, who served as the head of Orlan. The second group consists of unknown individuals, hiding behind the screens of nesting doll companies. You open one, and there's another company that owns it; you open the next, and the same thing happens, and even the smallest nesting doll is still a company. But who owns them and who profits from them is unknown! This gives rise to various theories: who are these mysterious Anonymous? There's no doubt that Oleksandr Presman was among them: he became Chervonenko's partner, if not in the early 90s, then certainly in 2002-2003, when they became friends and traveled the country together, running their business. But, let's reiterate, Presman was one of Semyon Mogilevich's trusted "overseers," and he invested not his own savings in the business, but the money of an organized crime group, which they had swindled from gullible Ukrainians through Ponzi schemes. Incidentally, today MP Presman, ironically, is a member of the parliamentary budget committee!
Furthermore, a number of Chervonenko's companies had multiple minority shareholders (ranging from 2% to 25%), not all of whom concealed their identities. For example, his partners in Dar CJSC in 2002-2003 included the then Minister of Economy Valery Khoroshkovsky, then adviser to the Minister of Economy Vadim Gurzhos, son of former Deputy Prime Minister Pyotr Sabluk.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Evgeniy Chervonenko: A Racer for Life. Part 2
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