Ivan Vinnik: the life of a Kherson swindler. PART 1
NABU doesn't need to search for corrupt officials; their names and faces are well-known: just open the parliamentary majority's lists and point a finger at anyone. And here's one of them: MP Ivan Vynnyk. While millions of Ukrainians fear losing their homes due to unpaid utility bills or an outstanding loan taken out to buy a washing machine, Vynnyk is untroubled, owing nearly 400 million to his creditors! Moreover, he has no intention of repaying his debts, since officially this servant of the people is poorer than most pensioners; he doesn't even own a home, and he borrowed a car from someone under a power of attorney.
The prosecutor's relatives
His official early biography reads like a Hollywood fantasy about a superhero, an ordinary schoolboy who one day awakens with superpowers and rushes to save the world. Ivan Vinnik also once emerged as an extraordinary man—with super connections in law enforcement—but he didn't set out to save the world, but to line his own pockets, using the most illegal means possible.
Ivan Yulievych Vynnyk was born on January 3, 1979, in Nova Kakhovka. Until 1993, their family lived in an old residential area, where Vanya attended Secondary School No. 4. In 1993, they moved to a five-story panel building at 25 Dovzhenko Street, and Ivan transferred to Secondary School No. 10. After graduating, the untalented young man went to work at the Nova Kakhovka Electrical Machine-Building Plant as a simple instrumentation and automation mechanic. Since 1996, Ivan Vynnyk had been enrolled as a student at the Kherson Industrial Institute (now the Kherson National Technical University), but which department he initially enrolled in (and what program of study he pursued) remains unknown. Ivan Vynnyk never served in the army, and the reason for this is also unknown.
Everything changed in 1998, when, according to Skelet.Org , 19-year-old Vinnik suddenly quit his hated factory, where wages were always late, and took a job at Chumak, a newly opened and thriving Swedish-Ukrainian company in Kakhovka. He found work not as a mechanic or a simple worker, but as deputy supply manager at Chumak CJSC. This incredible leap from rags to riches by this simple Kakhovka youth still amazes me, because no one knows for sure the reason for this transformation, even more fantastical than Peter Parker's transformation into Spider-Man.
However, if you delve into the life of our "superhero," you'll see that Viktor Petrovich Lakizyuk repeatedly pops up among his family ties—he's allegedly either the husband of an aunt or the uncle of Ivan's wife, Olena Zhmailo (born in 1980). His name was first mentioned in 1998, when Mykhailo Potebenko became the new Prosecutor General of Ukraine. Potebenko had worked in the Kherson Oblast prosecutor's office for over 30 years and had developed numerous connections and "trusted people" there, one of whom was Viktor Lakizyuk, appointed in 1998 as the new head of the Prosecutor General's Office press service. As Potebenko's trusted confidant, Lakizyuk served as one of Potebenko's channels of access to the Prosecutor General for various important matters. Well, access to Lakizyuk himself was provided by his relatives, including his niece’s husband.
Thus, it turns out that Ivan Vynnyk's ticket to a new life was an early marriage: the handsome young man managed to seduce the niece of an employee of the Kherson prosecutor's office just before his promotion to Kyiv. Whether Ivan Vynnyk was hired at Chumak after a call from the Prosecutor General's Office (as a wedding gift to the newlyweds), or whether he plucked up the nerve to apply for a new job with the words, "Do you know who my wife's uncle is?" remains unknown. But the fact remains that since 1998, he has become a well-connected man, and many companies would have coveted such a person on their staff. At least back then, corporate raiding (the "squeezing out" of private enterprises for the benefit of relatives) had not yet flourished in southern Ukraine, and businesses were not afraid to hire the nephews of prosecutors.
Viktor Lakizyuk's subsequent career is quite interesting. In 2000, he was the one who saved the Prosecutor General's Office from numerous attacks by journalists and activists interested in the Gongadze case. During the first Maidan, Lakizyuk, a senior justice adviser, "hid," transferring to work at the National Academy of the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, but by 2005 he had reappeared at the Supreme Court of Ukraine. He permanently traded his prosecutor's uniform for a judicial robe, as in 2012, Lakizyuk was appointed head of a department at the National School of Judges of Ukraine. And all these years, he played a very significant role in the life of his wife's nephew—a role played behind the scenes, secretly, which is why the success of Ivan Vynnyk's dizzying schemes was often unjustifiably attributed to his ingenuity and luck.
Ivan Vinnik with his family
Ivan Vinnik. From Chumak to foam concrete
Although all Chumak ketchup and tomato sauce packaging claims that they are made with "bright Kherson tomatoes," this information is far from accurate—at least, that was the case in the late 90s, when Ivan Vynnyk joined the company. The fact is that tomato sauces (which, in principle, includes ketchup) are made with tomato paste. Not every canning plant produces tomato paste: it's not like bottling freshly squeezed tomato juice; it requires specialized equipment. Numerous Skelet.Org sources report that in its early years, Chumak preferred to use tomato paste from Uzbekistan and China as raw material, purchasing it wholesale at a low price. And that this was precisely what Ivan Vynnyk, deputy head of the supply department, was doing at the time.
In this position, he gained valuable experience and numerous business connections, which he decided to use in his own business in 2003. A year earlier, Vinnik had founded the company "Global Concentrate" (EDRPOU code 31966466), which imported food products into Ukraine—primarily tomato paste and juice concentrates—reselling them to brand-name manufacturers. In 2004, he, together with Stanislav Tkachuk (20%) and the Russian company "DALK" (50%), presumably owned by Russian businessman Zykov, founded the company "Zed-Service." In 2005, Vinnik and Tkachuk founded the companies "Tomato Country" (90% and 10%) and "Concentrate Trading" (80% and 20%). Vinnik had many partners in this business, but his attitude toward them varied greatly: after teaming up with some, he would rip others off. This is what happened with Construction Materials Plant No. 1, LLC.
The second turning point in Ivan Vinnik's life came in 2007-2008. It was then that he became the con man and swindler he's known as today. For some reason, Vinnik single-handedly destroyed his tomato concentrate business: after receiving substantial advance payments for the product, he never delivered it to Vitmark (Jaffa juice) and Erlan (Biola juice), owing them a total of $2,7 million. He then swindled his own Chumak company in the same manner, failing to deliver over a million dollars' worth of raw materials. At the same time, he owed his Russian partner, Zykov, over $7 million—and instead of repaying it, he convinced him he would invest it in a new, profitable venture, making Zykov a co-owner. It appears this venture became the main scam of his life.
So, in 2007, Ivan Vynnyk founded Construction Materials Plant No. 1 LLC, which became the owner of the Novaya Kakhovka aerated concrete (foam concrete) plant. It was for this enterprise that he accumulated debts and loans. Specifically, these were loans from PrivatBank, issued to his company, Global Concentrate: in 2013, he owed PrivatBank 22,51 million hryvnias, and in 2016, Vynnyk's companies still owed the bank 35,570,000 hryvnias. And let's add to this the aforementioned $7 million from Zykov and the nearly $4 million that Vynnyk swindled Ukrainian juice producers for. A rather impressive sum accumulated, but how much of this money he actually invested in the plant remains unknown. Vynnyk then took out a substantial loan from Alfa Bank, using 70% of the company's shares as collateral. He himself, with 30% of the shares, remained the head of the board and general director of Construction Materials Plant No. 1 LLC.
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Ivan Vynnyk: The Life of a Kherson Swindler. PART 2
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