Konstantin Bondarev. "Tymoshenko's Man" Emerges From the Shadows. Part 1
Konstantin Bondarev, a sponsor of the Batkivshchyna party and the true master of the Kyiv region, prefers to remain in the shadows. He is inconspicuous, completely uncharismatic, even modest by modern PR standards, and taciturn.
His name is linked to a brilliant scheme to export Kharkiv lenses to Hong Kong worth 1 billion hryvnias; money laundering at Veles Bank, where Yulia Tymoshenko's party kept its "cash register"; the flop of the century—Bondarev vodka; and daring corporate raids in the Kyiv region.
Today, Yulia Tymoshenko is promoting Konstantin Bondarev as a "people's governor," oblivious to the fact that everyone remembers his criminal past. And just think, he has five supposedly closed criminal cases against him.
Skelet.Org tells the story of the man who "holds" Kyiv Oblast. Meet Konstantin Bondarev.
Konstantin Bondarev, "People's Governor" Project
In the fall of 2016, another major corruption scandal erupted in the Kyiv region, leading to the dismissal of Kyiv Oblast Governor Maksym Melnychuk . Law enforcement officers arrested Ihor Lyubko, the deputy head of the regional administration, while accepting a bribe of 200 hryvnias.
At that time, the majority of deputies voted to recommend the selection committee of the Presidential Administration of Ukraine to appoint Kostyantyn Bondarev as Chairman of the Kyiv Regional State Administration. However, Bankova Street ignored the regional council's decision. Moreover, the decision had no legal force, and the appeal appeared to be a trumped-up one.
The methods Konstantin Bondarev used to secure the governor's seat are of interest. He decided not to openly acknowledge the competition for the governor's position. Local mayors, village council heads, and ordinary people were supposed to vote for Bondarev as the "people's governor." And then there would be large-scale protests across the region, potentially escalating into blockades and burning tires. This would have fulfilled Yulia Tymoshenko's dream of a Third Maidan.
The idea for a repeat "Maidan" was conceived by Bondarev's business partner, Oleksandr Kachny, a former Party of Regions member (under Governor Prysyazhnyuk). The plan was supported by Yulia Tymoshenko. Lady Yu realized that this would help her demonstrate to the people the ineffectiveness of the presidential vertical and move one step closer to early elections.
But something went wrong: Konstantin Anatolyevich remained in the shadows. But this doesn't mean Bondarev has abandoned hope of taking control of power in the capital region, where he already wields considerable influence.
Konstantin Bondarev. From Students to Businessmen
Konstantin Anatolyevich Bondarev was born on September 13, 1972, in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The future politician's parents, Lyubov and Anatoly Bondarev, were simple workers. Little is known about little Kostya's childhood. However, Konstantin Bondarev still prefers to avoid talking about personal matters, giving interviews, or appearing at events.
According to open sources, Konstantin entered School No. 110 in Tashkent in 1979. The first-grader was interested in music, playing piano, and playing tennis. Bondarev only completed two grades in Uzbekistan. In 1981, his family moved to Kyiv. His parents enrolled their beloved son in School No. 91 in the capital.
In 1989, the young graduate entered the Kyiv Civil Engineering Institute, majoring in Industrial and Civil Engineering. Upon receiving his diploma, he immediately took his first steps in big business... And here we stop. Konstantin Anatolyevich excluded the fact of his criminal past from his "perfect" biography. According to Skelet.Org , in 1992, he was accused of document forgery. The court found Bondarev guilty under Article 194 (forgery of documents, stamps, and seals, their distribution, and use of forged documents; use of a forged trade ID) and even jailed him, where he served from 1993 to 1994. The conviction was later expunged. Otherwise, Konstantin Anatolyevich would not have been able to become a people's deputy.
Coming from a remote location, Bondarev decided to take up farming. For his extensive operations, he chose the depressed Ivankivskyi district of the Kyiv region, practically a "Chernobyl zone," which had been in decline since the Chernobyl disaster.
Why this region? The fact is that Konstantin Bondarev's father, Anatoliy Ivanovich Bondarev, is one of the main partners of the notorious MP Bohdan Hubsky (a member of parliament from the BYuT faction since April 2006; expelled from the party and faction in September 2010), who is considered the founder and full member of the so-called "Kyiv group," along with Viktor Medvedchuk , the Surkis brothers , and others. Hubsky began his career under President Leonid Kuchma. His holdings include virtually the entire left-bank shoreline of the Kremenchuk Reservoir. Bondarev Sr. helped Hubsky carry out his endless land deals in the Kyiv region. So, the "fiefdom" for Konstantin's son was predetermined.
Konstantin Bondarev and his partners began to control a number of assets, including the Ivankiv Creamery, which produced dairy products under the Novovid brand, the APIK livestock farm, and the Polieski Meat Processing Plant. They used Chernobyl-related status to cover up their businesses, thereby avoiding the need to pay full taxes. Meanwhile, the businessmen regularly "terrorized" ordinary workers by delaying wage payments. The new owners owed the farmers over 200 hryvnias.
Moreover, Konstantin Anatolyevich initiated the creation of the "Obriy" society, which began using villagers' land and property shares free of charge. People pestered the regional state administration and the courts, but to no avail.
At the same time, Teterev LLC appeared in the Kyiv region, producing alcohol under the Bondarev brand.
In 1995, Bondarev registered his own company, of which he was the sole founder.
Let's get ahead of ourselves: after becoming a member of parliament, Konstantin Anatolyevich will call himself exclusively an "investor" in Kyiv region enterprises, skillfully concealing his outright racketeering and protection rackets.
Konstantin Bondarev. Kidnapping and the First Companies
Two years later, the newly minted entrepreneur began working as Commercial Director at MAXI-K LLC. The company was engaged in import-export operations, which were then considered a gold mine and generated colossal profits. In 1999, Konstantin Anatolyevich became CEO of MAXI-K. By that time, the company had become one of the largest importers of fuels and lubricants.
During this period, Bondarev found himself at the center of a kidnapping scandal. His business partner, Yevgeny Titov, director of the commercial enterprise Sistema-Market, had disappeared under mysterious circumstances. Konstantin Anatolyevich personally announced the ransom amount to Titov's wife: $30. The kidnappers allegedly contacted him personally and requested this amount. The woman collected the money and gave it to Bondarev, who took it to the location specified by the "kidnappers." But Yevgeny Titov has never returned home.
Rumors circulated that Bondarev himself had a hand in the disappearance: the partners had "fallen out" because Titov was trying to take over the business. Konstantin Anatolyevich repeatedly asked his partner to be more "modest," but Titov disobeyed and carried out the deal behind Bondarev's back.
The investigation lasted several years, but Konstantin Anatolyevich's involvement in the disappearance could not be established. So, let's leave that fact on his conscience.
Excerpt from the investigative report
The criminal turmoil didn't end with this high-profile scandal. While everyone was frantically searching for the missing Evgeny Titov, and our hero was pretending to save a friend, he was wanted by the SBU for smuggling and grand theft.
In 1999, the company "MAXI-K" smuggled 50 tons of M-100 heating oil worth 1,2 million hryvnias through the Korosten customs checkpoint. SBU officers declassified the "business plan" and even sent Bondarev to pretrial detention for four months. However, the case was ultimately reviewed: the serious charges of "smuggling" and "financial fraud" were reclassified as "abuse of power and official position" and "forgery in office." This allowed Bondarev to be released on bail instead of his arrest. The smuggling case was buried.
In 2000, Konstantin Bondarev became an auditor-consultant at Tetra-Audit LLC and simultaneously received a degree in business administration from the Kyiv National University of Economics named after V. Hetman.
Konstantin Bondarev. The Lens Business
Bondarev's main business began between 2000 and 2004, when he and his partners, Vitaly Troshin and Leonid Mudrik, registered a number of fictitious companies. Their purpose was to illegally reimburse VAT.
There were approximately 80 fictitious companies operating in the Kyiv region. They primarily engaged in "wholesale trade," boasting multi-million dollar turnover. Konstantin Bondarev made no secret of his activities: nearly 60 businesses were registered at four addresses. Fifteen were on the premises of the Ivankiv Creamery, another 15 on the premises of Teteriv LLC, 12 on the premises of the Polieski Meat Processing Plant, and 12 on the premises of the Ivankiv Distillery. The remaining companies were "registered" in nearby villages in the Ivankiv and Polieski districts. Even in this case, an unexpected incident occurred. Either in haste or out of ignorance, the businessmen registered the company at the address of... the Church of the Dormition of the Holy Virgin.
The turnover of these companies and small businesses showed incredible profits—5 billion hryvnias in 2005. But the profit tax amounted to 0,01% of revenue—330 hryvnias. You'll agree, this is a pretty good way to run a business.
Skelet.Org, in light of the VAT refund business, reports on the largest fraud scheme involving 33 companies from the Kharkiv, Odesa, and Donetsk regions, as well as Kyiv. It involved ophthalmic lenses.
Konstantin Bondarev, while managing Remzhitlofond-2000 LLC, organized the fictitious export of eyeglass lenses at inflated prices from the Izyum Optical and Mechanical Plant to Hong Kong. Just imagine, the amount was 1 billion hryvnias!
What was the whole scheme?
So, on paper, everything looked perfect, no fault to be found: an LLC with the reputable name "International Trading House Izyum Optical and Mechanical Plant" was being established in the urban-type settlement of Ivankiv in the Kyiv region. The trading house imported optical blanks from the renowned company Corning SAS from France through 18 intermediary firms, all registered at the same address in Ivankiv. According to official documentation, the price per unit was 104 UAH.
Then the Izyum Optical and Mechanical Plant in the Kharkiv region stepped in and transformed the blanks into premium lenses. They were then exported to the Hong Kong company SANMAX ENTERPRISES through 12 other intermediary companies. The markup wasn't that significant – the price of a premium lens was 114 hryvnias per unit. And there would have been nothing suspicious about this story, were it not for one detail: the French company Corning SAS never supplied any optical blanks to Ukraine.
In fact, in a dilapidated and abandoned basement in Izyum, cheap, domestically produced lenses were packaged in "elite" French packaging with counterfeit "Made in France" stickers. Furthermore, the entrepreneurs didn't bother to create a separate sticker for each pair of lenses—they simply duplicated them. Therefore, all the packages had the same date and time.
It's worth noting that these were leftovers from the state-owned Izyum Ophthalmic Lens Plant, which ceased production in the early 90s. The cost of an optical blank was... 6 hryvnias. Thus, Bondarev and Co. inflated the price by 20 times.
Such well-known enterprises as the Kyiv Central Department Store, the Odessa Cognac Factory, the Donetsk trading house Amstor, and Promgaz Ukrainy were involved in the export of “elite” lenses.
This scheme resulted in fictitious VAT. Twelve companies underpaid the state treasury 540 million hryvnias. Initially, this scheme did not generate significant interest from tax authorities, as only a tax credit was generated for the products, and there was no discussion of budgetary reimbursement.
An interesting aspect of this story involves the Hong Kong firm SANMAX ENTERPRISES. Its director was a certain Oleg Chebotarev, a Ukrainian citizen. By a strange coincidence, this Chebotarev was also the head of the international relations department at Gambit Law Firm LLC. This firm provided all legal services to the companies involved in the fraudulent scheme. Furthermore, according to a Verkhovna Rada certificate, a man named Chebotarev was listed as an assistant consultant to then-MP Konstantin Bondarev.
Where did the fictitious VAT, worth hundreds of millions, go? Bondarev used the money to offset the excise tax on vodka bearing his own name—"Bondarev." His partners in the vodka business were Oleksandr Kandyba and Irina Goncharova (future Batkivshchyna candidates for parliament in the 2012 parliamentary elections and for the Kyiv Regional Council in the 2015 local elections, respectively; minority shareholders of Bondarev's bank, Veles). Konstantin Anatolyevich paid no excise taxes on the vodka bearing his own name.
Konstantin Bondarev with his signature vodka
This allowed him to become quite rich. Although he himself called his vodka business "the most unprofitable business project" of his career. Well, everyone's definition of wealth is different. For Ukraine, from which hundreds of millions of hryvnias were siphoned off, the project was truly more than unprofitable.
Arina Dmitrieva, for Skelet.Org
CONTINUED: Konstantin Bondarev. "Timoshenko's Man" Emerges From the Shadows. PART 2
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