"Volyntabak" under the control of Kaufman and Stakovychenko as part of a large shadow scheme

Let’s, in the context of the resonant topic of "drops" and "financial companies," show how they are skillfully operated by "shady" businessmen of large caliber.

A couple of weeks ago, news appeared in the media that tobacco oligarch Borys Kaufman had acquired another cigarette distributor for himself — "Volyntabak."

The deal amount was even announced — $8 million.

The information is interesting, considering that Borys is under several criminal cases. NABU is chasing him on the topic of Odesa airport, and BES is pursuing "TEDIS" for legalizing 1.3 billion UAH.

Moreover, such a purchase returns the tobacco monopoly to Kaufman because his DL SOLUTION (formerly "TEDIS" and in the distant past "Megapolis") controls 45% of the market, and the acquisition of "Volyntabak" adds +10%.

But let’s analyze who actually bought what and for what purpose, as this is what is interesting in the context of financial schemes.

According to the registers, from 07.25, the owners of "Volyntabak" are:

LLC "Financial Company "Madryd" – 54.55%;

LLC "Liard Finance" – 9.09%;

LLC "Koloprim" – 9.09%.

The first question that arises is why financial companies "FK "Madryd" and "Liard Finance," which provide loans to businesses and deal with factoring (purchase of problematic debts), are buying a business that deals with cigarette resale?

There is no logical explanation for this. But that’s if you look at the legitimate side of the business.

If you consider that cash resale of cigarettes is one of the tools for collecting cash for conversion centers, then the goal of financial companies entering tobacco distribution is logical.

I described this once.

In short, tobacco factories sell cigarettes to distributors only officially, in the white market.

These "wholesalers" then separate the goods and documents, selling cigarettes for cash, collecting unaccounted cash from the market, and selling documents to firms that accumulate virtual batches of goods and then liquidate.

The cash is then sold at a price of +2% to the conversion market and at "conversion centers."

This is where our "drops" work in terms of selling cigarettes through TG channels.

The market for such cash operations is measured in tens of millions of dollars.

Is it possible that "Volyntabak," with a market share of 10%, was acquired precisely for such schemes?

Given the real beneficiary of the financial companies – quite.

Official registers of "FK "Madryd" and "Liard Finance" lead us to Kryvyi Rih, to people whose names say nothing.

But financial market sources claim that the real owner of the companies is Ihor Stakovychenko.

A person who is not very public, but very well known in narrow financial circles as one of the top converters in the country under the pseudonym "Glass," who in his activities uses, among other things, the mentioned financial companies. By the way, with the start of the war, he relocated to cozy Monaco.

Sources also say that it was precisely in consortium with Kaufman that Stakovychenko acquired "Volyntabak" to establish the same shadow (cash) distribution of cigarettes under it.

The white part of sales is supposed to remain under DL SOLUTION Kaufman, and the schemed part is to go under "Volyntabak."

And now let’s return to the announced deal amount of $8 million.

I don’t know where the journalists got this figure, but the fact that a company that controls 10% of cigarette sales cannot be worth 5 kopecks is evident.

But did the financial companies have such money? Official incomes show they did not.

According to financial statements, in 2023, "FK "Madryd" reported a net profit of 382 thousand UAH, and "Liard Finance" – 234 thousand. In 2022, it was even worse – 63 and 40 thousand, respectively. Almost a loss-making business. At least officially.

And this is a question for the tax authorities and the NBU.

How do they control the activities of financial companies which officially barely make a profit, but in reality buy assets for millions of dollars to scale the conversion business of the beneficiaries? How does this work?

It looks like a "gorgeous" investment in the shadow economy just at a time when Ukrainians will be imposed with restrictions on card transfers.

It seems to me that the voiced things open a large field for research and reaction of the NBU, NABU, and other law enforcement agencies.

The authorities must show that the fight against the shadow economy will affect not only every ordinary Ukrainian but also quite unordinary "businessmen." Even in Monaco.