Viktor Topolov: The Old Guard of Ukrainian Corruption
People like Topolov prefer to remain in the shadows, where they're more comfortable managing their businesses and pulling the strings of their puppets. There, they're also invisible to the press, which might ask them too many uncomfortable questions about their past. And it's not at all what they try to portray in their carefully edited biographies. Its dark corners hold surprises that will make modern corruption seem like petty hooliganism—after all, these people built their businesses in the 90s!
Viktor Topolov and Lazarenko's Gold
In July 2016, the little-known Ukrainian bank Zemelny Kapital, with modest assets of 214 million hryvnias (ranked 98th in the bank rankings), changed hands. This practically routine event in the Ukrainian economy would not have attracted any attention had the media not revealed the names of these owners. The sellers of the bank were Oleksandr Mazurenko (42,4% of the shares) and Tamara Tsikova (22,4%). They are completely private individuals, preferring to keep a low profile and work through their lawyers, and for good reason.
The fact is that Mazurenko was once Prime Minister Pavlo Lazarenko's bodyguard. After Lazarenko's escape and arrest, he remained his confidant in Ukraine, the "guardian" of his daughter, Lesya Shatalina, and, according to Skelet.Org , one of the main custodians of Lazarenko's "treasures." Specifically, it was Mazurenko who regularly "lent" the arrested Lazarenko money for expensive American lawyers—effectively sending him money from the boss's "family fund," which included the Zemelny Capital bank. And Tamara Tsikova is Pavel Ivanovich's mother-in-law, though, one might say, almost in absentia. Her daughter
Oksana Tsikova and Pavel Lazarenko
Oksana Tsikova (granddaughter of Academician Valentin Tsikov, director of the Dnipropetrovsk Corn Research Institute) was a classmate of Lazarenko's eldest son, Oleksandr, and later an activist with Hromada. In 1999, she moved to the United States and participated in Lazarenko's legal team, serving as his translator. When Pavlo Lazarenko was released under house arrest in 2003, she married him and gave birth to his son, Ivan.
During Lazarenko's years of "great imprisonment" in the US, his Ukrainian assets were constantly targeted by corporate raiders, such as Gennady Korban and Boris Filatov . Therefore, sales were made only to businessmen the former prime minister's family could trust. Moreover, the case of Zemelny Capital Bank is unique: in 2016, the National Bank included it among financial institutions with an opaque ownership structure, and it was threatened with withdrawal from the Ukrainian market. In essence, the sale of this troubled bank was simply a rescue of the Lazarenko family's property, which had been carefully buried in complex schemes. This means that there was a special trust in the buyers of Zemelny Capital, based on certain personal agreements, and the deal likely contained undisclosed "additions." After all, who else would have decided to acquire a troubled bank in these difficult times, when even larger and more prosperous banks are failing and closing one after another?
The buyers of "Zamely Kapital" were Viktor Topolov and his wife Elena Topolova, another non-public figure.
A nearly forgotten "man from the past," Viktor Topolov was once known as the "coal banker" and a close associate of Viktor Yushchenko, who retired from politics during the 2010 presidential elections. However, not everyone knew him, so Topolov would occasionally stage "surprises" that shattered the ordinary Ukrainian public's preconceptions about the clans of the Ukrainian aristocracy. This is what happened with Zemelny Kapital Bank: in October 2016, it signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with the First Ukrainian International Bank (FUIB), 92% of whose shares are owned by SCM Finance, a subsidiary of System Capital Management. So, it turns out that Viktor Topolov bought the troubled Zemelny Kapital Bank from the Lazarenko family and then effectively allowed Rinat Akhmetov's FUIB to take over its management? What was he really up to?
Viktor Topolov, a Stakhanovite banker, and Seva Mogilevich
Viktor Semenovich Topolov was born on December 21, 1945, in the village of Agapovka in the Chelyabinsk region (now part of the Russian Federation). Two years later, his family moved to the Donbas to rebuild the war-ravaged coal industry. They settled in Kadiyevka (Stakhanov), where Viktor Topolov himself graduated from the mining technical school in 1963. He served in the army during his three-year military service (1964-67), then worked as a foreman in a vocational school, then as an underground rate setter at the Lisichansk mine administration. After graduating from the Kommunarsk Mining and Metallurgical Institute (1973), he worked for almost fifteen years at the Central Research Institute of Economics and Scientific and Technical Information of the Coal Industry (in Stakhanov).
Perestroika pulled Topolov, who was already starting to go gray, out of the research institute and into leadership positions at the Voroshilovgrad (Luhansk) Coal Industry Directorate, where he quickly mastered the world of business accounting. In 1990, the directorate created Ugolprogressbank, which began handling the financial transactions of the region's coal companies, and Topolov became chairman of its board of directors. Thus, the engineer retrained as a banker and businessman, and a rather successful one at that – judging by the fact that three years later, Viktor Topolov resurfaced in Kyiv as the chairman of the board of the newly established Nadra Joint-Stock Commercial Bank.
A detailed history of the creation of JSCB Nadra, one of Ukraine's largest (and problematic) banks, is practically impossible to find in the media. This is unsurprising, given that it has much to hide! And it's worth starting with the creation of Kyiv-Donbass CJSC. Pinpointing the exact date of its inception is difficult; documents usually list 1994, but that was the year Kyiv-Donbass CJSC was re-registered as a holding company—it still exists today, employing three people (an interesting office). However, in 1993, Kyiv-Donbass was one of the founders of Nadra Bank, meaning the company already existed back then. However, some sources report that Kyiv-Donbass CJSC was active even before the creation of Nadra Bank, embezzling funds allocated by the government for the purchase of equipment for mines in the Donbas region, including the Luhansk region. And it worked in the same scheme as Ugolprogressbank, headed by Viktor Topolov.
It would seem like a typical 90s corruption scheme! However, the people behind Kyiv-Donbass were people for whom the word "corrupt" is too mild an epithet. According to Leonid Roytman, a former member of the New York "Russian" mafia, the Kyiv-Donbass project was the brainchild of such notorious criminal authorities as Alik Magadan (Oleg Asmakov) and Semyon Mogilevich, and was carried out with the direct participation of Viktor Topolov and several Kyiv officials. Alexander Levin, Leonid Roytman's associates and Alik Magadan (mafia), the little-known financial virtuoso Petr Slipets, and Viktor Topolov, a representative of the Donbas coal industry, had stakes in the company. Also involved were Mikhail Grishpon, president of the company, and Vasily Nefedyev. The successful project quickly required its own bank, and thus Nadra was created, with Viktor Topolov as chairman of the board. A year and a half later, in 1995, Nadra acquired Ugolprogressbank, becoming the main financial instrument of this scheme. However, speaking of the bank, it's worth mentioning another person who may have been involved in the Kyiv-Donbas schemes of the early and mid-90s: then-National Bank head Viktor Yushchenko. After all, it was then that he and Tolov developed a close friendship—something the NBU governor didn't bestow upon every Ukrainian banker!
Semyon Mogilevich
Subsequent events were even more interesting and thoroughly criminal. A rift developed between Alik Magadan and Semyon Mogilevich, which affected the future fate of the aforementioned enterprises—a division of their joint venture began. In 1997, Nadra Bank was sold: its new owners became brothers Ilya and Vadim Segal . Originally from the Kherson region, they lived in the United States and, according to several sources, were connected to the "Russian" mafia and Semyon Mogilevich himself. This was confirmed by the brothers' earlier purchase of Moscow's Petroff Bank, which had belonged to the Solntsevskaya gang and Mogilevich. Thus, the essence of the deal was that the bank went to Mogilevich's people, while Kyiv-Donbass remained in the hands of Alik Magadan. After this, Viktor Topolov left Nadra and moved into the structures of the expanding Kyiv-Donbass holding company, becoming president of Kyiv-Donbass Firm LLC. He also became a shareholder of Kyiv Donbas Development Group NV, the Netherlands-registered development arm of Kyiv-Donbass Holding (this company currently owns the Carte Blanche restaurant chain and the Puzata Khata snack bar). He (through the Cypriot offshore company Arpanet Holdings Limited) owned 11,25% of the company's shares (he later transferred them to his wife Elena Topolova), Alexander Levin owned 28,32%, Alik Magadan owned 45%, another 11% was owned by Petr Slipets, and 3,5% was owned by Valentin Muzhchuk, a trusted business partner of Topolov (through the offshore company Yankline Holdings Limited).
Valentin Muzhchuk and Viktor Topolov
In 1999, Alik Magadan was murdered. It was reported that the Surkis brothers and Semyon Mogilevich were the most likely to order his assassination, while the Konstantinovsky brothers , who worked for him and later took Alik Magadan's stake in Kyiv-Donbass and other enterprises, were the perpetrators. According to Leonid Roytman, Viktor Topolov also participated in the conspiracy against Magadan.
Viktor Topolov and the Konstantinovsky brothers worked together perfectly. From 1998 to 1999, Topolov served as the head of the CSKA Kyiv football club, and after Alik Magadan's murder, he forged his signatures, allowing him and the Konstantinovsky brothers to take over the club and turn it into a vehicle for financial fraud. Formally, someone from the Konstantinovsky brothers was appointed to manage the club, but Topolov remained as an advisor. It was reported that this football club was used to funnel money into offshore accounts, embezzled through Chervonogradugol LLC, a company specially created with Topolov's participation—tens of millions in funds were involved.
Orange "roof"
In late 1999, Viktor Topolov and the Konstantinovsky brothers purchased Lviv's Index Bank from Valeriy Khoroshkovsky for "just" $10 million . Perhaps for their own financial operations, perhaps for promotion and resale, there's a little-known but interesting story connected to this bank. Specifically, in 2000, the death throes of Bank Ukraina (formerly Ukragroprombank), which had ties to a number of high-ranking officials, including then-Prime Minister Viktor Yushchenko, began. Yushchenko and NBU Governor Volodymyr Stelmakh (Yushchenko's former deputy and close associate) created a temporary administration to manage Bank Ukraina, appointing Viktor Topolov as its head.
As is well known, this temporary administration failed to save Bank Ukraina and, in essence, became the bank's funeral. But, as Leonid Roytman recounted in an interview, this happened because the bank had no intention of being saved: with the knowledge of the NBU and the Prime Minister, assets were hastily withdrawn from Bank Ukraina, transferring them to Index Bank. There is also another piece of information: Topolov began working on Bank Ukraina back in 1999, when Yushchenko was the head of the NBU. Together, these old acquaintances carried out their scheme, effectively bankrupting Bank Ukraina. After Topolov, they appointed him head of the temporary administration—to make good on the losses and cover their tracks.
Three Victors: Yushchenko, Topolov, Baloga
This close collaboration was not forgotten. Although Viktor Topolov, having been elected as a people's deputy in 2002-2004, was part of the pro-presidential majority (jumping from the United Ukraine faction to the People's Choice faction, then to the Center), in November 2004 Yushchenko accepted Topolov as a member of the "orange" Committee of National Salvation, which became a kind of politburo for the first Maidan. Then, as a protégé of the new president, Topolov joined the government of Yulia Tymoshenko (2005) as Deputy Minister of Fuel and Energy, and in the Yekhanurov government (2005-2006) as Minister of the Coal Industry. Simultaneously, the rise of the Konstantinovsky brothers also began – after all, they were not only Topolov's business partners, but also sponsors of the first Maidan (and then the second as well). It was then that the Konstantinovskys were able to shed their 1990s gangster image and rebrand themselves as modern, "democratic and progressive" businessmen. They were also able to retain their old "protector," Valeriy Heletey , who had then risen sharply and, in the spring of 2006, saved the Konstantinovskys from liquidation by organizing (with Yushchenko's help) an international operation to arrest Leonid Roytman in New York. Roytman, after serving eight years in prison, began spilling information about the criminal pasts of his former business partners from the 1990s.
Even as head of the ministry, Tolopov continued to engage in business activities almost openly. In 2006, he sold his Index Bank, in which he owned 27% of the shares (the other shareholders were Muzhchuk, Konstantinovsky, and Levin), starting with $160 million and ending the auction at $260 million. There was some scam involved: the French bankers (Credit Agricole) who bought the bank did not immediately notice its hidden problems, and by the end of 2006, Index Bank had already incurred a net loss of 54 million hryvnias. In the Donbas, Tolopov controlled the company Ugol-Yug, through which he managed the Stakhanovskaya Central Processing Plant, one of the largest producers of coal concentrate for coke plants. And if in 2003 his fortune was estimated at 245 million dollars, then in 2007 it was already 480 million: Viktor Topolov entered the top three richest people in the Luhansk region and among the hundred richest Ukrainians.
However, after his resignation in August 2006, Topolov retreated into the shadows. In 2007, he ran for parliament on the Our Ukraine party list (No. 56), and the media still reported on him when he founded Astrobank, which he later sold to the Greek Alpha Bank for a modest 9 million euros.
The last scandals involving his name in the press erupted in 2008-2009 and were connected with Kyiv-Zhitlo-Invest LLC, whose founders included Kyiv-Donbass, as well as several individuals, among whom Dmitry Voronin was particularly prominent, described by journalists as practically a criminal authority.
By the spring of 2009, Kyiv-Zhitlo-Invest owed Kyiv Bank over 700 million hryvnias, which it was in no hurry to repay. However, Kyiv Bank was considered the cash register of Ivan Plushch, a seasoned figure and far from the last in Kyiv's hierarchy, who couldn't be so easily swindled. Therefore, suspicions arose of some kind of financial scam with a mutual agreement—especially since the bank was receiving significant refinancing at the time. Indeed, Volodymyr Ponomarev, head of the NBU-appointed temporary administration for the bank, discovered signs of such a scam. He did so—and died three days later, allegedly from a heart attack. Afterward, they even tried to pin the massive embezzlement on the deceased Ponomarev!
Viktor Topolov, Yura Enakievsky and Seryozha Shakhov
After 2010, not a word was heard about Viktor Topolov, although parliamentary journalists might have spotted him in the session hall. Only in 2013 did Focus magazine dedicate a spot to him in its ranking, placing him 55th among Ukrainian oligarchs with a net worth of $324,5 million. Only much later did Skelet.Org manage to learn what Viktor Topolov was up to during the dark years of the "Yanukovych regime." It wasn't much, but it was something.
No, Viktor Topolov didn't while away his time at an apiary like his friend Viktor Yushchenko, nor did he languish in exile abroad. He was actively involved in business, although he preferred to keep a low profile. Moreover, he was doing business with the "Donetsk guys"! According to Skelet.Org sources , Topolov was involved in certain scams involving the Pervomayskugol, Lisichanskugol, and Luganskugol enterprises—where his business partners included Yuriy Ivanyushchenko (Yura Yenakievsky) and Ivan Avramov.
In his native Stakhanov, Topolov became the patron of the local "young talent" Sergei Shakhov, with whom he jointly purchased the Myronivska Deep mine. Their relationship wasn't limited to business: since 2012, Topolov has helped Shakhov break into politics and government, test his mettle in parliamentary and mayoral elections, and appoint his people to regional city councils. Essentially, Topolov helped Shakhov create his own "mini-empire" with ambitious plans to control part of the region as a counterweight to Luhansk, then controlled by Yefremov's team. When Luhansk "fell away," Shakhov's ambitions only intensified. While until 2014 Shakhov had positioned himself as a pro-Russian "patriot of Donbas" (and even sent people to the Anti-Maidan protests), he then, on Topolov's recommendation, changed his image to that of a "patriot of Ukraine," joined the "Nash Krai" party, and moved from separatist-held Stakhanov to the new regional capital of Severodonetsk. There, having formed his own faction on the city council but failing to secure a majority, Shakhov repeatedly attempted to stage a "palace coup" in the city council. Of course, he remained a mere puppet in the hands of his sponsors.
Skelet.Org has information that Shakhov owes his enormous election spending (he simply buys the votes of pensioners and the poor with "social assistance" payments of 100-200 hryvnias) to financial contributions from Topolov, as well as the cash box of Nasha Krai (Our Region), a project of Poroshenko's team , created as a Kyiv-loyal alternative to the Party of Regions. It was also created with the help of people like Ivan Avramov, the so-called "overseer" of the Ukrainian assets of Yuriy Ivanyushchenko and Oleksandr Yanukovych (Sasha the Dentist).
Well, it appears Viktor Topolov is also involved in the "Nash Krai" project (albeit discreetly, but importantly), and it wouldn't be surprising if he also continues to engage in some kind of joint business with Ivanyushchenko. And as we see from his purchase of the "Zemelny Kapital" bank, Topolov successfully collaborates with both Pavlo Lazarenko's family and Rinat Akhmetov's group. This confirms the frequently expressed opinion that some kind of behind-the-scenes consolidation of "big shots" is taking place in Ukraine. But to what end?
Sergey Varis, for Skelet.Org
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