28-year-old German financier Sergey Kreymer appeared on the Ukrainian business market in 2014. Within a few weeks, he had approached numerous Ukrainian businessmen, investors, and startups with incredibly lucrative offers for investment, withdrawing funds from Ukraine, and assistance in entering foreign markets. He also became friends with all the country's business journalists on Facebook and began actively commenting on industry discussions. His incredible online activity and enticing offers alerted market participants, and some of them contacted AIN.UA to inquire about Sergey Kreymer and whether they could trust him. The investigation took several days and hours of phone and Skype conversations with residents of several European countries. It was worth the effort—the stories we heard from our interviewees were truly impressive. We've compiled the most interesting ones in this article.
Sergey Kreimer
A Google search for "Sergey Kramer" yielded several pages with links to his op-eds on Ukrainian portals such as LIGA Business Inform, Delo, Obozrevatel, Korrespondent, and other popular resources. The author of these articles certainly comes across as an expert in his field. But after carefully asking around, we encountered a group of Belarusians who presented Kramer in a completely different light. They say they are still trying to recover money paid to Sergey for various brokerage services that were never rendered. It turns out that Kramer lived in Belarus in 2012-2013, where he engaged in various commercial activities, including delivering goods from abroad, providing financial and legal consultations, and much more. Here's what his former clients have to say.
A road trip through Belarus
Brest-based lawyer Nikolai Zhorov recalls that in 2012, his company paid Kramer approximately $1200 for services to remove a truck from Interpol's wanted list. Zhorov's company learned that the vehicle was wanted after purchasing it and registering it with the State Traffic Safety Inspectorate. According to Nikolai, Kramer took an advance payment for his services and, about a month later, stated that to remove the vehicle from the wanted list, he needed to pay a court guarantee equal to 30% of the purchase price of the truck—at that time, approximately €16,000. "After we made inquiries, it turned out that there were no claims filed in our company's name in the European Union courts. Kramer, however, was persistent in phone conversations, asking for €16,000. After being refused and demanding a refund, he simply disappeared," the lawyer recounts. “The search was unsuccessful, and only later did I realize that we had simply been ripped off.”
A similar story happened to another Belarusian, Maxim Verizhnikov. He told AIN.UA that he gave Kramer an $11,000 advance payment for a truck, receiving a receipt and Kramer's German passport as collateral. In a Skype conversation, Maxim said there were "complications" with the delivery of the vehicle, and he was left without his money. Afterward, he traveled to Vilnius and Kyiv several times to meet with Kramer, but, according to Maxim, Kramer never returned the money. Kramer, for his part, claims his passport was stolen and all the receipts were forged.
Another "automotive story" was told to us by Minsk resident Andrei Gordeychik, who claims he transferred 1800 euros to Kramer in Brest as a down payment for a car purchase in Germany. "Kremer fed me 'little breakfast' and tried to calm me down for about two months, and then he disappeared," Gordeychik recalls.
Another Belarusian citizen, Valentin Kravchenko, complained to us about Kramer's deception. He said that in March 2013, he transferred approximately $2000 in advance payment to Kramer's company in Vilnius for a shipment of office paper. Vladimir Novikov is trying to get back another $450. "Kreimer promised to deliver scarce photographic equipment at a good price, but he didn't fulfill his obligations," says Novikov. According to our sources, several criminal complaints were filed with the Belarusian police at the time, but due to a lack of evidence, the cases were not pursued. Most of Kramer's clients claim they transferred money to him without any documented guarantees.
An excerpt from an invoice issued by Kreimer's Lithuanian company
Baltic trace
One of the aforementioned interviewees introduced us to Aleksandr Skub, director of the Lithuanian company UAB Euromigracija. He explained that in 2012, Kramer moved to Lithuania from Belarus, where he had encountered a number of problems with the police and citizens he had defrauded. "Kreimer settled into the cheapest hostel in Vilnius on Sodu Street and began actively exploring the Lithuanian market," Skub explained. At the time, Lithuania's EU funding program was ending, and many businessmen were hoping that European banks would provide funding for their business development. According to Skub, Kramer promised Lithuanian businessmen assistance and financing through German companies.
An extract from the Lithuanian State Register
"He collected advance payments under any pretext. He equipped a ship to go to Africa to catch and sell fish, built solar and wind power plants, established a representative office for a German company that makes ambulances, built a biofuel plant from sugarcane in the Kazakh city of Atyrau with subsequent sale of the product to Germany, and delivered trucks and cars," Alexander lists Kramer's initiatives. He also recalls how Kramer tried to borrow about 100 euros "for living expenses" under the pretext that the bank had frozen his account containing 30 litas—about 000 euros at the time. Skub also recalls that Kramer often asked third parties to sign his contracts, citing that he was going through a divorce and feared financial claims from his wife.
According to Alexander, Kramer owed him 3300 euros for registering three legal entities in Vilnius. He recounts that when persistently asked to pay the debt, Kramer claimed to be in a German hospital, although he was actually in Vilnius. "One Ukrainian he deceived spent a long time sending letters to Germany by courier service until he discovered that the address Kramer provided was an ordinary supermarket," writes Alexander Skub. UAB Euromigracija managed to write off the money spent as a loss after some time, but this took a considerable amount of time and effort. Kramer's company, UAB Trasolit, is still listed in the Lithuanian register of legal entities with a social security debt of 479 euros.
That same year, 2013, Ukrainian Dmitry Krivenko, who at the time owned a small business in Lithuania, gave Kramer a 1998 BMW 525 for subsequent sale. According to Dmitry, he never received the money, after which he filed a complaint against Kramer with the Lithuanian police. "But since the contract was verbal, and I transferred the car to Kramer voluntarily, the case was closed 'due to lack of evidence,'" Krivenko recounts. During the investigation, Dmitry received numerous threats from an unknown individual who claimed to be Kramer's German lawyer and demanded that he drop his claims.
"Your statement fully complies with the 'false accusations' article of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania. Not to mention the charges against you: large-scale fraud, tax violations, fictitious entrepreneurship, official forgery, and document forgery. And believe me, from my many years of experience, this will be enough to ensure you see nothing but a checkered sky for the next ten years," these were the messages Dmitry received at the time. The full text of the correspondence is available to AIN.UA.
Ukrainian Startups: A Simultaneous Game
In 2014, Kramer continued his commercial activities in Ukraine, where he is the founder and director of Amond Invest LLC. According to Sergey's German passport, he was born in Ukraine—in the village of Kamenogorka in the Vinnytsia region in 1986.
Entrepreneur Yaroslav Maksimovich, who declined to collaborate with Kramer, recounts his conversation with Sergey. Kramer promised to attract investment for the 2Event project. "Sergey called back promptly and said his investors would provide full support in bringing the company to the European market. However, after asking him to clarify what exactly he meant by 'bringing', Sergey disappeared for two weeks," Maksimovich recounts. Even then, the investor was alarmed that about 95% of the conversation focused on registering a German legal entity, which, according to Kramer, it was highly desirable to open through him for 2000 euros. At the same time, Maksimovich says, there was virtually no discussion of any growth metrics for the company itself.
"I remembered that last year, a guy was using a similar scheme and collected $3000-4000 from a dozen Ukrainian pharmaceutical and IT companies for registering legal entities in Las Vegas, promising to bring in investments. As far as I know, everyone duly got their legal entities in Las Vegas, but no one received any investments," Yaroslav recalls. Maksymovich ultimately refused to cooperate with Kramer, after which Kramer lost interest.
Vlad Lishafay, CEO of the startup Luckyprice, also shared his suspicions with AIN.UA. He said Kramer offered to register a legal entity in Germany for €4400 to enter the European market. Vlad recalls that Kramer also suggested his friend transfer funds from the sole proprietorship to accounts in European banks at the NBU and Visa exchange rate of 16 UAH per dollar plus a 1,6% service fee, while the market rate was around 20 UAH. "The unprecedentedly generous auction aroused suspicion, and a friend found the forum link I posted on Facebook. Sergey insisted it was the work of blackmailers he couldn't find, but he threatened to sue me for slander," Lishafay recounts.
Another story was sent to our editorial office by Kyiv resident Maksym Slizkoukh, whom Kramer promised to help with participating in European tenders. "After some time, we reached the point of drafting a contract, but he wouldn't provide contact information for direct clients and insisted it was more profitable to do everything through him," Maksym writes. He recounts that Kramer initially sent an unprofessional technical specification and asked for a 5% security deposit to participate in the tender "to ensure the partners' confidence." Simultaneously, Maksym found an online community of Kramer's "former clients" and contacted the AIN.UA editorial office to share his story.
While preparing this article, we repeatedly contacted Sergey Kramer and asked him to comment on the online rumors and suspicions against him. He assured us that everything written on online forums is anonymous fabrication and bears no relation to reality. He also stated that he believes everything that's going on is blackmail perpetrated by his girlfriend's ex-husband, Viktor Kosenko. Kramer also claims to have filed a complaint against Maxim Slizkoukh with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Prosecutor's Office, demanding that they open a criminal case for blackmail.
We were able to obtain a comment from Kyiv businessman Viktor Kosenko after the article's publication. He had previously refused to speak about Kramer. "Kreimer has two illegitimate children from different women, children he doesn't acknowledge. He sold my ex-wife's business and a new Japanese SUV, and they squandered all the money," Viktor writes. He adds that Sergey uses women for his scams. "Together with my ex-wife, they squandered the money from the sale of a four-room apartment and are now living with her mother. They have two more apartments, and I'm afraid they'll be squandered, and they'll end up on the street," Viktor shares details of Kramer's life. Kosenko himself, however, says he's not motivated by revenge or envy toward Kramer. "I've been happily married for two years now, I have a successful business, and I don't care about them," he concludes.
We also conducted a small experiment and asked Kramer to help us withdraw approximately $350 from the Moneybookers system. Kramer returned the money six weeks after the transaction, after numerous persistent reminders, requests, and offers to come to a convenient location. AIN.UA is also aware of several instances of Kramer receiving advance payments for his services from participants in the Ukrainian startup market, who asked not to be mentioned in this article.
In addition to the above facts, we have additional documents that corroborate the statements of our interlocutors, each of whom we spoke with by phone or Skype. We have also deliberately refrained from publishing information from the internet—all of the above was specifically provided by the participants in the events for this article and consented to the use of their real names.
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