Igor Mazepa: Investment Shark or "Disguised Millionaire," Con Man and Cultist. PART 1
The immortal comedies "The Government Inspector" and "Chasing Two Hares" were written in the 19th century, yet millions of Ukrainians continue to make the grave mistake of mistaking modern-day Khlestakovs and Golokhvastovs for wise politicians or successful businessmen. Among these "masqueraders" on our television and computer screens is Igor Mazepa, the head of Concorde Capital, who regularly appears, fond of discussing the big economy and offering cosmic advice. Just a couple of years ago, his eloquence captivated many, but recently, Mazepa has found it increasingly difficult to explain why his projects fail, and why he himself, instead of investing in the economy, has become fascinated with financial pyramids and shady schemes. And the question increasingly arises: is he who he claims to be?
Igor Mazepa: The Path to Riches
Igor Aleksandrovich Mazepa was born on July 2, 1976, in Kyiv, to Aleksandr Nikolaevich and Elena Vasilievna Mazepa (both born in 1947). He has an older brother, Yuri (born in 1971). The brothers spent their childhood and youth on Darnitsky Lane (Dniprovsky District), where, according to public databases, their parents are still registered. However, Igor Mazepa hasn't disclosed any details about his life before graduating from the Kyiv National University of Economics (formerly Narxoz). Wasn't there anything he could tell? Well, at least about how he met his future first wife, Tatyana Zdanevich, within the walls of that university. "Back then, he didn't always have the money to even go to a café with me, and yet we loved each other very much," she claimed in an interview with journalists. So, the future "energetic and ambitious businessman," as Igor Mazepa likes to call himself, was either incredibly poor or incredibly stingy during his student years. And this wasn't the only time he "squeezed money" for Tatyana Zdanevich: during their divorce, he went to great lengths to leave her with nothing (more on that below).
However, Igor Mazepa's bouts of greed alternated with rampages of senseless waste, which is typical of people whose financial situation vacillates chaotically from "rolling poverty" to "now I'm rich" and back again. Which, again, is not typical of natural-born businessmen who conduct their affairs systematically and deliberately.
In 1997, while still a senior in college, Igor Mazepa got a job at Prospect Investments. Behind this flashy "American" name stood a rather shady firm with Russian roots, which bought vouchers and shares from the public. According to Mazepa himself, Prospect Investments' office was located on the sixth floor of an administrative building, and the first thing he saw there were bags of hryvnia cash, guarded by tough guys in bulletproof vests, being prepared for shipment to the provinces to buy shares from the public. And it's probably unnecessary to mention that similar firms at the time were buying factory shares for pennies from their workers, who had gone months without pay—we all remember those "wild times." However, legally, this was called "investing," and Mazepa's position at Prospect Investments was described as "investment banker." Igor Mazepa refused to disclose the precise functions he performed, nor the origin of those enormous sums of cash.
In 2000, Igor Mazepa received a sudden promotion: he was offered the position of CEO at the investment company Foyil Securities New Europe. Again, behind this high-sounding name stood yet another firm, busy buying and selling Ukrainian stocks and bonds for Western investment funds. It was part of a scheme of several firms created by American businessman (securities trader) Dorian Foyle , an assistant and junior business partner of the American-born British oligarch John Templeton. According to Skelet.Org , Templeton's reputation is highly controversial: he is highly respected among Western business elites, particularly those who adhere to neoclassical and monetarist economic views, but he has also been called the "British Soros" and a "speculator for Christ's sake." Templeton made his vast fortune (which he bequeathed to religious foundations) through stock speculation, buying up during crises and selling during economic booms—and he attempted to do the same in Eastern Europe through Dorian Foyle's firms. Foyle, in turn, hired Igor Mazepa as CEO of one of them.
Dorian Foyle
But how did they meet, and what exactly brought them together? When, after the 1998 crisis, domestic businessmen (and even organized crime groups) found themselves with very little spare cash, Prospect Investments began to actively engage with Western asset buyers. Mazepa was in the process of arranging deals with Foyle, during which he became friends with him and used all his eloquence to convince him of his "unique talent." Incidentally, Igor Mazepa learned how to frantically spend "easy" money from Foyle, a keen enthusiast of auto racing and vacationing in the Bahamas (where Foyle's offshore companies and funds are also registered).
However, their partnership was short-lived: in 2002, Foyil Securities New Europe CEO Igor Mazepa was abruptly dismissed by its owner, Foyil, without publicly declaring the reasons. His position was taken by another firm employee, Stepan Makovyak, who now works as an investment expert at the Ukrainian branch of USAID (the United States Agency for International Development). Later, in a press interview, Foyil only briefly noted his disappointment with Mazepa's poor performance. Journalists concluded that this could be related to the firm's unsuccessful participation in the "great privatization" orchestrated by the Yushchenko government, and in particular, the loss in the battle for the assets of Ukrainian regional energy companies.
But Igor Mazepa had already settled into his role as "investment company director." Then, his former boss at Prospect Investments, Mikhail Levchenko, opened a new firm, Interregional Financial Company (IC MFI), and hired him as managing director. Mazepa worked there from 2002 to 2004.
Two secrets of Igor Mazepa
And then came October 2004. The air was thick with the scent of an imminent change of power, and thus a major redistribution of property. And so Igor Mazepa, having scraped together $50,000 (savings from seven years of working in investment companies), founded his own firm, Concorde Capital. He took John Suggit, with whom he had worked at MFI, as a partner and associate. Mazepa later attributed their departure from Levchenko to "a slump in work," which was intended to be interpreted as an unwillingness to work for a salary alone (even though Levchenko gave him a small stake). But here's the question no one ever asked: was Mazepa taking a risk in starting his own business, or did he foresee the stunning success of Concorde?
Although this question has never been asked, we will answer it: according to numerous Skelet.Org sources , Igor Mazepa created his "Concorde Capital" based on existing projects, so he risked nothing. Moreover, $50 was more than enough to launch his "investment business," as the essence of this business differed significantly from our understanding of investors and investments. However, the most intriguing question remains the identity of those who, so to speak, helped Igor Mazepa open and expand his business. That these mysterious figures were connected to the first Maidan is certain. According to some reports, one of Mazepa's clients was Volodymyr Palihata, president of the Rosenergomash concern and "Ternopil raider." Andrey Portnov represented his interests in corporate raids in Ukraine (for example, the Lviv-based agricultural firm "Provesin").
But here's what's even more interesting: it was precisely between 2002 and 2008 that Igor Mazepa became deeply engrossed in certain specific philosophies and teachings. Social media accounts even suggest that Igor Mazepa was (or still is) a Scientologist, that is, a follower of L. Ron Hubbard's teachings, and that John Suggitt allegedly introduced him to Scientology. However, they claim that Mazepa isn't exactly a "true" Scientologist, but is under the influence of a certain Xenu (an evil superpower, something like Cthulhu). Of course, there is no direct confirmation of Igor Mazepa's membership in the Church of Scientology (recognized as a totalitarian cult in many countries), although not all members of this community publicly admit to it, like Tom Cruise. But the media also reports something else: that Igor Mazepa is openly and seriously interested in ontopsychology, which has also received a lot of negative press. It's worth noting that fans of Scientology and ontopsychology unanimously supported Viktor Yushchenko and the Maidan in 2004, as did a host of other sects, including Sunday Adelaja's "Embassy of God," whose ardent parishioner included Leonid Chernovetskyi.
Maidan 2004, unknown cults
Igor Mazepa's employees at Concorde Capital have spoken repeatedly about this passion. No, he didn't try to convert them—neither Scientology nor ontopsychology are proselytizing; they profess the "chosenness" of their adherents, elevating them above everyone else. But he effectively tried to turn his own collective of employees into a totalitarian cult, demanding 24/7 dedication and organizing regular "training" sessions for them.
While his employees' patience was compensated by good salaries, his wife Tatyana Zdanevich's ran out in 2007. No longer recognizing her utterly changed husband, who had begun to impose his peculiar philosophies on the family (declaring that a child over seven doesn't need a mother), Tatyana filed for divorce . But she didn't have time: her husband beat her to it, filing a one-sided divorce in the Novoaidarsky District Court of Luhansk Oblast. Why it was there, in the remote province of Donbas, far from Kyiv, was unclear. But he divorced her without her consent or presence, and although the court upheld their son's custody, it left her without her share of the family property, even though Tatyana Zdanevich had claimed half of his stake in Concorde Capital. Instead, as if to mock her, the court ordered her to pay child support in the amount of... 2075 hryvnia per month! This was exactly 25% of Igor Mazepa’s official salary as director of his company.
Igor Mazepa
Igor Mazepa. Flight of the Concorde
In her divorce from her husband, Tatyana Zdanevich claimed $130 million, based on information published in the magazine "Contracts" that Concorde Capital earned $260 million in total revenue in 2006. Of course, she received none of this, and the financial claim was unfounded (it was not the companies' income that was being divided, but their value), but the information itself was intriguing. At the same time, the Ukrainian exchange "First Stock Trading System" (FSTS) published information that, based on the results of 2006, Concorde Capital ranked second in its trading volume, with a total of 936 million hryvnias. This means that Igor Mazepa's company conducted over 90% of its transactions through FSTS.
Moreover, it was reported that back in December 2004, that is, in the third month of its existence, Concorde Capital became the top trader on the newly reopened PTFS. Quite a start! And quite surprising for a firm whose founder invested only $50. But there are a couple of nuances here. First, Concorde Capital didn't buy securities (stocks, bonds, and obligations) with its own money. He never revealed whose money it was using; that was the first rule of the firm's policy. Consequently, the hundreds of millions in the company's income were also not its own—with the exception of the agreed-upon percentages. Second, the media reported that Igor Mazepa only became the owner of a controlling stake in Concorde Capital in 2006, after John Suggit sold his 10% stake to him. Suggit then went to work for another "investment" company involved in buying up Ukrainian assets: Dragon Capital, owned by the infamous Tomas Fiala . And by the way, the similarity of their areas of activity and names hints that these companies have a lot in common.
But there's also other information: that these 10% went not to Mazepa, but to the offshore company Mossville Enterprises Limited, owned by British citizen Philip Nichols. Furthermore, following the scandals that prompted a more detailed examination of Concorde Capital's structure in 2015, it emerged that its beneficiaries also include Sarah Fairclough of the UK and Kenneth Deighton of Australia, as well as Hong Kong-based Ian Hazel, who owns his stake in Concorde Capital through the Cyprus offshore company Avalia Investments Limited. This raises the logical question: is Igor Mazepa not just the owner, but even a co-owner of Concorde Capital, or is he simply a hired manager? One of the most objective answers is that from the company's inception until today, its ownership structure has changed repeatedly depending on the situation, depending on what the company did, whose orders it fulfilled, and the sums it handled. Some experts believed that Igor Mazepa had long been merely the figurehead chairman of Concorde Capital, and therefore rumors of his multimillion-dollar fortune were exaggerated. Although, of course, he's not exactly poor, having managed to pad his nest egg with "bonuses" and "fees" over the years.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Igor Mazepa: Investment Shark or "Disguised Millionaire," Con Man, and Cultist? PART 2
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