Leonid Yurushev
One of the most enigmatic figures in Ukrainian business is billionaire Leonid Yurushev. Throughout his entire business career, he has never given a single interview or comment to the press. Rumors circulate about his biography: some say he served time in prison, others that he launders Arab money, and still others claim he has ties to the "Donetsk gang." While Ukrainian media speculate about his identity and origins, the businessman continues to "make money" through various scams in the construction and financial sectors. So who is Leonid Yurushev, and what lies hidden in his past?
Mysterious past
Leonid Leonidovich was born back in 1946 in the Donetsk region. He received his education at a mining technical school. According to the Ministry of Education, Leonid Yurushev does not hold a higher education diploma. According to his official biography, he began his career as a worker in a furniture factory. After that, there is no information about his life until 1994, suggesting that someone carefully concealed his past activities. Rumors abound that he had serious problems with the law, but no information is available about how he "resolved" them.
In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union, Leonid Yurushev managed to create a cooperative movement engaged in the sale and production of household goods. It was this start-up capital that helped him become a co-founder of Forum Bank, through which he made his fortune. According to sources, from 1999 to 2001, Yurushev headed Forum Bank's audit committee, and from September of that year, he chaired its supervisory board. Notably, one of the bank's shareholders was the Geneza publishing center, controlled by then-Prime Minister Pavel Lazarenko and his entourage. Rumor has it that he used this organization to launder his hard-earned fortune.
Pavel Lazarenko
In 2006, Leonid Leonidovych secured permission from the AMCU (Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine) to purchase 50% of Forum's shares. From that moment on, he became its direct owner (previously, he controlled it through Provita and Elmak). Following this, the businessman began active negotiations to sell the bank to foreign investors. Ultimately, it was purchased for a colossal sum (almost $800 million) by the German Commerzbank.
Nothing personal, just business
Leonid Yurushev is closely connected to the railcar manufacturing business in Ukraine. This led to his "business" friendship with Sergei Tigipko in 2002. Together, the businessmen gained control of the Kremenchuk Steel Plant. Later, Yurushev and Tigipko's TAS Group seized control of the Kryukov Railcar Plant. Together with Tigipko, they also acquired the Dniprovagonmash plant. The two were on the verge of creating a huge railcar manufacturing consortium, but in 2005, a conflict of interest between the businessmen led to a full-blown war, during which the Kremenchuk Steel Plant was the subject of several corporate raids.
The most brutal battle occurred on May 17, 2006. Shareholders scheduled a meeting for that day at the Dnipropetrovsk research institute Ukrchermetmekhanizatsiya. A group of approximately 200 people attacked the meeting room where the meeting was to take place. They were armed with bats, brass knuckles, and chains. After breaking down the doors, they began beating the meeting participants and their security guards. The orgy was stopped by police and a Berkut unit. During the operation, 172 people were detained, and their voting proxy, signed by Natalia Pukhalskaya, a member of the Forum supervisory board, was confiscated. Yurushev was accused of organizing this "terrorist" attack, but he (surprisingly) did not attend the "bloody" meeting. Serhiy Tigipko won the battle for the Kremenchuk Steel Plant, and Yurushev's protégés were quietly removed from their leadership positions.
Sergey Tigipko
Another high-profile episode in the relationship between Yurushev and other oligarchs was the division of the Dnipropetrovsk Railcar Repair Plant. Until 2006, this enterprise belonged to Leonid Leonidovich and Mr. Oleksandr Boyko, who served as head of the supervisory board at the plant. Boyko, back in the late 1990s, had acquired a controlling stake in the enterprise, owning more than 50%. When Yurushev bought 40% of the company's shares from Invest-Holding and First Euro Alliance Ltd. in 2005, the situation at the plant became tense, as the plant's management positions were divided equally between its main shareholders. This fueled ongoing squabbles between the oligarchs. They developed a conflict of interest, as Yurushev's railcar-building projects were linked to Iran, while Boyko had plans for projects in Russia. Unexpectedly, Leonid Leonidovich decided to sell his shares.
Essentially, after the deal, Boyko became the sole owner of all the plant's assets, but he also proved to be a complete fool. Having bought the shares from Yurushev at a discounted price, he never expected that, as early as November, due to behind-the-scenes dealings with Dnipropetrovsk Mayor Ivan Kulichenko, the plant was closed. More accurately, it wasn't closed; it was relocated, with the rationale being that a new residential area needed to be built on the site of the "industrial zone."
Construction scams
Leonid Yurushev was once a tireless builder. After founding the company "Yaroslaviv Val" in 2001, he became embroiled in a number of major construction scandals. Less than a year after establishing this construction company, the businessman, together with his insurance company "Forum," founded the company "Aquapark," which won a tender for the best architectural design for a water park in Kyiv. Yaroslaviv Val was supposed to complete construction within two years. The project was ambitious, but as we can see, the water park on Lake Telbin still exists. By selling a huge number of shares in the "promising" project to investors, Yurushev earned almost 20 million hryvnias, which he immediately invested in his bank.
Leonid Leonidovych's most controversial construction project was the construction of luxury housing right in Mariinsky Park, at 9a Hrushevsky Street. Neither Oleksandr Omelchenko, then Kyiv's mayor, nor his successor, Leonid Chernovetsky, with his "young team," were able to stop the construction. Initially, the plan was for a 15-story building, but the infamous Serhiy Babushkin, Kyiv's then chief architect, approved his own design, which included a 22-story building. The prosecutor's office opened a criminal case against the Kyiv City State Administration employees who approved the construction, investigating a criminal case for abuse of office, but the building was nevertheless built.
According to the publication oligarh.net:
The controversial residential complex at 9a Grushevsky Street
According to Ukrainian media reports, Leonid Yurushev remained Arseniy Yatsenyuk's main investor for a long time. According to the publication "Ukrainska Pravda," the current prime minister's campaign received nearly $20 million from Yatsenyuk. When the time came to "pay off his debts," Yatsenyuk happily sold several profitable projects to his patron. One of these was the granting of the largest duty-free space in Boryspil to BF & GB Travel Retail, a company controlled by Yatsenyuk.
Read more in the story:
As we can see, Leonid Leonidovich has no shortage of secrets. In a sense, Arseniy Yatsenyuk owes him a debt, and now, having come to power, he's trying to earn back the money spent on him. Yurushev, as the "gray cardinal," asks him only for "small" favors that earn him millions. And our current prime minister no longer cares about all the hours spent on the Maidan with a megaphone in hand. He's hand-feeding one of the Donetsk clan members, albeit one who carefully hides.
Dmitry Samofalov, for SKELET-info
Subscribe to our channels in Telegram, Facebook, Twitter, VC — Only new faces from the section CRYPT!