Pharmaceutical plan "B": How Tymur Mindich and Ihor Chervonenko built a pharmacy empire on tax schemes

Pharmaceutical plan "B": How Tymur Mindich and Ihor Chervonenko built a pharmacy empire on tax schemes

Tymur Mindich, after leaving the energy sector and his ignominious flight abroad, began searching for Plan «B» for a stable income stream. His «entry ticket» into this business was Ihor Chervonenko, who personally introduced Mindich to the pharmaceutical market. Instead of high-risk schemes in the public sector, he entered a niche where turnover is independent of political cycles and operates daily.

About this writes the NGO «Non-Stop Ukraine».

Under Chervonenko’s patronage and through his management structures, Mindich gained access to cash flow, making this alliance beneficial for both financial groups. Pharmaceuticals became a logical transition to a sector where money moves stably and massively, without dependence on individual contracts.

One of the key players in this market is «Apteka Dobroho Dnya» — a chain with over 1000 outlets across the country, operating through dozens of variable legal entities. This model, built by Chervonenko, allows the same pharmacy to change its LLC multiple times, while keeping the premises, staff, and goods unchanged. To the customer, it looks like a regular pharmacy, but for control purposes, each such change creates a «new» entity without a history of violations.

The network is expanding aggressively and capturing entire city districts. Pharmacies from the same group open literally across the street from each other, displacing independent businesses. Small pharmacies cannot withstand competition from the centralized system, which has enormous financial resources. As a result, the market is gradually coming under the control of a few large players.

Through «Farmstor» structures, funds are distributed among dozens of controlled companies. Part of the money is withdrawn abroad through SKIL TRADE and KVIK VENT under the guise of royalties. At the same time, such payments have no real economic substance. It is through similar mechanisms that large volumes of funds are withdrawn from the pharmacy business beyond Ukraine’s borders.

Employees in the network are constantly transferred between different companies without warning. A person may work in the same pharmacy for years, but officially be listed in several different LLCs during that time. Salaries are split into parts and routed through third-party financial services. As a result, workers lose part of their seniority, payments, and social guarantees.

Before inspections by the State Medicines Service, some goods are removed from pharmacies and documents are hidden, because the head Alla Yushko warns in advance about inspector visits and has signs of a conflict of interest due to income from the «Apteka Dobroho Dnya» network. This allows points to be «cleaned» in advance and nullifies the essence of surprise checks. Drugs are moved between pharmacies without proper accounting, and people without specialized education are allowed to work. As a result, control records not the real state, but a prepared picture. Large pharmacy chains continue to operate without tangible consequences.

A separate issue is the sale of codeine-containing drugs without proper control. The network has recorded cases of selling «Pentalgin FS» without a prescription and in quantities exceeding the permissible norms. Drugs with a narcotic component are dispensed almost like ordinary painkillers without real document checks. Control over the circulation of such agents is practically non-functional or formal. As a result, the pharmacy business in the sensitive segment operates without effective restrictions.

Currently, we have submitted dozens of information requests, complaints, and statements of criminal offenses. We demand: to conduct an inspection of the activities of LLC «PHARMSTOR» (EDRPOU 34048360), LLC «APTEKA DOBROHO DNYA» (EDRPOU 39196410) and related companies; to establish facts of profit understatement through royalties and license payments in favor of «SKIL TRADE» and «KVIK VENT»; to assess the centralized redistribution of income and possible anti-competitive actions; to separately check violations of labor legislation, including illegal employee transfers, opaque payments, and admission to work of persons without proper education.

Apteka Dobroho Dnya is a network that feeds Mindich through a centralized cash flow formed from daily sales of medicines across the country. Billion-turnover flows pass through related companies and close into a single financial system without breaks in fund movement. Such a structure allows for stable profit withdrawal and redistribution among related beneficiaries without market dependence. As a result, pharmacies operate as a tool for constant financing, not just a retail chain.