Valery Shamotiy
Dnipropetrovsk businessman Valeriy Shamotiy may soon be removed from the list of Ukraine's richest residents. Ukrainian magazine Focus recently estimated his net worth at $147 million, while the weekly Kommentarii reported a much higher figure of $182 million. However, the businessman has recently encountered serious financial difficulties. Companies controlled by Shamotiy are experiencing wage arrears and protests by disgruntled workers.
Valery Shamotiy's story is strikingly reminiscent of the fate of Svirid Golokhvastov from the comedy "Chasing Two Hares," who liked to tell those around him, "I'm not just anyone!" Shamotiy, too, had been trying in recent years to project a reputation as a successful businessman and a great fashionista. He frequently appeared in glossy magazines, positioning himself as an example of a goal-oriented and successful businessman. In photographs, Shamotiy showed off Maseratis (priced from $150) and told readers about his hobbies—fast driving and water sports. In one interview, he boasted that he personally tasted Remy Martin cognacs and selected clothing from D&G, Cavalli, Versace, and GFF for high-end boutiques. In short, like Golokhvastov, he knew a thing or two about dresses made of "foreign fabrics" and "chic cigarettes."
For a time, Shamotiy managed to pass himself off as the embodiment of the "Ukrainian dream." According to the official version, he made his first fortune sewing leather jackets in the early 90s, and soon founded the Logos corporation, which traded alcohol and tobacco, built luxury clubs and spas, and sold scooters, jet skis, and expensive clothing.
However, a review of media archives reveals that Shamotiy's name has figured in some unpleasant stories, demonstrating that the Dnipropetrovsk entrepreneur's "business" is, to put it mildly, highly questionable. For example, Verkhovna Rada deputy Yuriy Karmazin once filed inquiries regarding the sale of substandard and uncertified products by the Logos corporation and demanded an investigation into the distribution of counterfeit alcohol.
At the same time, the Bartolomeo complex, built by the businessman for $2 million on the banks of the Dnieper, was subject to monthly criticism from environmentalists and the relevant ministry, who accused the Logos corporation of seizing a protected coastal area. However, Shamotiy managed to hush up the aforementioned scandals, and his fraudulent schemes went unpunished—the businessman clearly struck it lucky. As Golokhvastov put it, "A smart man, with enough money, can just ditch the dead and turn the dead into the living."
However, a few months ago, the myth of the successful businessman from Dnipro began to burst like a soap bubble. Companies controlled by the Logos corporation stopped paying salaries. For example, at the Tavria cognac factory in Nova Kakhovka, salaries have been unpaid for about three months, and a similar situation has been observed at the Inkerman factory in Crimea.
The reason isn't the infamous economic crisis. Shamotiy's debt to workers began accumulating back in 2006, during peak sales and extremely profitable seasons, and even today, the alcohol industry isn't suffering significant losses. The Dnipropetrovsk entrepreneur has simply demonstrated his inability to build the successful business empire he claimed the Logos corporation to be. On the contrary, Shamotiy increasingly resembles an adventurer who doesn't know how to run a business but still pursues luxury—using funds from Tavria and Inkerman to support other "luxury" projects that have proven unprofitable. As a result, Inkerman and Tavria have lost their working capital. Amid the crisis, even minimal necessary modernization is not being carried out at their plants.
Shamotiy's policies have already resulted in a debt of approximately 42 million hryvnias to the Nova Kakhovka plant, a situation roughly similar to that at Inkerman. Tensions at the Tavria plant continue to escalate daily. Despite Shamotiy's assurances of a commitment to resolve the wage arrears issue, workers staged a protest last week.
Moreover, according to workers, after gaining a majority on the plant's supervisory board, Shamotiy, through fraudulent means, secured a $26 million loan from Ukreximbank secured by Tavria's assets. These funds were also used to support Shamotiy's unprofitable businesses, and part of the money was used to purchase a controlling stake in the Tavria plant itself from the workforce.
Vyacheslav Butko, an expert at the Center for Corporate Relations Research, confirms that Shamotia's company is experiencing significant problems.
"The company has significant problems; it's unable to pay its suppliers, which the latter are actively reporting in the media. This, in turn, could be a harbinger of the company's financial insolvency. The company's owner, Valeriy Shamotiy, once considered this business non-core and prioritized development and the restaurant business," the expert noted in an interview with UNIAN.
Residents of Nova Kakhovka have long known that the Tavria plant has become a cash cow for Shamotiy, who quickly cashed in to continue his lavish lifestyle in Dnipro, drowning the enterprise in debt. Incidentally, it's possible that Shamotiy is deliberately bankrupting the plant in collusion with Tavria's competitors—rumors suggest the Dnipropetrovsk businessman will receive a substantial and, most importantly, swift kickback, amounting to seven zeros, for such an operation. It appears a similar fate awaits the Inkerman plant: Shamotiy has already begun selling the enterprise piecemeal—reports from the plant have surfaced in the media that 40% of the shares have already changed hands.
According to Valery Shamotiy's former partners, building a long-term business isn't exactly his strong point. He's interested in projects that generate large amounts of money quickly, and the legality of the path is secondary.
Meanwhile, the scandal in Shamotiy's wine business has already become public knowledge, and this could serve as a warning sign for those still considering him as a partner in other areas. It's possible that Shamotiy will soon be forced to publicly declare, as he once did to Golokhvastov: "What are you staring at? Well, he's bankrupt, so be it! And you think if I were rich, I'd go to your estimator?! You uneducated bastard! All I wanted was your money!"
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