Igor Stakovichenko. Who's protecting the converter?
The problem of currency conversion centers, through which hundreds of billions of hryvnias are siphoned off from Ukraine's state budget, despite the current government's campaign promises, hasn't gone away. Moreover, it has reached catastrophic proportions over the past three years, writes Antikor.
Perhaps the most depressing aspect of this orgy of unbridled theft isn't even the staggering sums of money being processed through these currency exchange centers. What's most frightening is that the organizers of these "envelopes" haven't simply stopped hiding—they've become public figures. And in the current government's system of coordinates, they've transformed from criminals wrecking the economy of a country at war into leading experts and investors, publicly and privately offering advice on economic development.
Igor Stakovichenko. Who's protecting the converter?
What you see in the picture above is a vivid confirmation of the surreal state of modern-day Ukraine. A man whose conversion center's annual turnover exceeds 40 billion (!) hryvnias, instead of appearing in crime reports, is being portrayed by leading media outlets as an economic expert.
No one denies that Igor Stakovichenko understands economics—it's no wonder his "envelopes" have been in operation for years, and his clients work in the highest offices. But only in Ukraine is it possible for a fraudster and thief to offer advice on the country's development. It would be laughable if it weren't true.
This appears absolutely surreal and a freak show, if only because Igor Sergeyevich Stakovichenko, who dispenses advice left and right on "how to improve Ukraine," is named on eight sanctions lists stemming from Russia's war against Ukraine. Including those from the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine:
Igor Stakovichenko. Who's protecting the converter?
Sigma Invest Group LLC, owned by Igor Stakovichenko until April 2021, is also located there:
However, there are reasonable doubts as to whether the current beneficiary of Sigma Invest Group LLC, Maria Shvedchenko, is the true owner of the enterprise.
Moreover, another co-owner of the company, the venture capital fund DK Investments, appears extremely odd and leads to a whole chain of equally odd business entities. They are united by an extremely convoluted ownership structure and the same sanctions lists.
The same lists also include sole proprietor Igor Stakovichenko, who, according to the registry, is engaged in the restaurant business:
Igor Stakovichenko. Who's protecting the converter?
Please note: entrepreneur Stakovichenko is a single taxpayer. This means his business is considered small. Roughly speaking, the same tax system applies to those who trade at markets. Can you imagine a trader from the Troyeshchyna market as an expert explaining the results of the Davos forum? We don't. But the reality is this:
Igor Stakovichenko. Who's protecting the converter?
It's not Davos, of course, but the level is quite high. This is modern Ukraine. Which is actually terrifying.
Because behind all this grandiose advice, Igor Stakovichenko is actually concealing the operations of equally cosmic-scale conversion centers. Furthermore, his modest status as a sole proprietor conceals a rather substantial business. Igor Stakovichenko owns the Villa Riviera restaurant near the yacht club in Osokorky—one of the most expensive in Ukraine:
Villa Riviera
He also owns a Leopard 51 Powercat yacht, valued at approximately one million dollars. It is located and maintained at the elite Osokorky Yacht Club in Kyiv.
Leopard 51 Powercat
An elite house with a total area of over 800 square meters in Koncha-Zaspa, with a territory of 5 hectares and private access to the lake.
How exactly Stakovichenko earned his millions, yachts, and villas is unknown. Information about Igor Stakovichenko's activities is rather sketchy, which is unsurprising given that the activities of currency conversion centers are illegal.
It is known that, at least until recently, his primary residence was the eighth floor of the IQ Business Center at 13-15 Bolsunovskaya Street. Artem Igorevich Mishukhin, known as Artem-Global Opt, reports directly to Stkovichenko. His business operations were reportedly conducted at 10 Lipskaya Street, where he occupied two floors of the former Party of Regions office.
The main activity is the purchase of grain and oilseed crops, oil and sunflower cake for cash from companies provided by his patron, Igor Sergeyevich Stakovichenko, for further export without reimbursement of foreign currency earnings.
Also directly subordinate to Khomukha is Maksym Ivanovych, who handles all technical work for Stakovichenko's conversion center. This group's turnover reaches up to 70 million hryvnias per day.
Furthermore, it is known that Stakovychenko actively embezzled from the Kherson region's budget in 2019. He was invited by Ihor Klim, head of the Kherson region's tax service and well-known in the inner circles of southern Ukraine's financial criminal underworld as the organizer of large-scale conversion and cash-out centers. Subsequently, these two financial terrorism geniuses organized a scheme to illegally export agricultural products through fictitious enterprises. The scale of the crime exceeded the Kherson region's legal exports, amounting to over four billion hryvnias.
At that time, the total losses incurred by criminals to the state in VAT alone exceeded one billion hryvnias, exceeding the VAT paid by all real businesses in the Kherson region.
Some of the fictitious enterprises through which money was transferred at Igor Stakovichenko's conversion centers are also known:
LLC "Adonis Mega Torg" (42269440), LLC "Virtex-A" (42269388), PP "Botein" (43449277), PP "Imexplaza" (42844631), LLC "Agrodom Ukrtavrik" (43253887), LLC "Stable" (43321490), LLC "Meganat" (41736387), LLC "Smaragdovy Svit" (42303266), LLC "Ekspotov" (41984015), PP "Barton Grand" (41866057).
But, most likely, this is already “used material” - after their names became known to the general public, these companies had to be abandoned.
However, neither the tax authorities nor the countless other law enforcement agencies of Ukraine, of which our country has proliferated in recent years, are aware of the names of the companies used by Igor Stakovichenko to steal money.
The fact is that any conversion center's operations are impossible without protection from these very agencies. Moreover, the greater the turnover of the "envelope," the higher the patronage. And for Igor Sergeyevich Stakovichenko, or "Stakan," as he's known in certain circles, this turnover is simply off the charts. And, accordingly, his protection lies at the very top of the Ukrainian government.
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