There is an extensive network of companies with Russian roots in Ukraine. At first glance, inconspicuous companies that are part of or doing business with the GNT Group holding of Odessa businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko work in the agricultural sector, which is now of strategic importance in terms of filling the budget of our country, against which Russia has unleashed a large-scale war, writes UNN.
Journalists have repeatedly told that the GNT Group of Groza and Naumenko has a connection with Russia. In particular, it was about the company GNT Europe SA. One of the directors of this Swiss company is Mikhail Ipatov, who has close ties with the Russian Federation.
Since 2020, he has been a managing partner of Algorithmics Central Europe. Algorithmics (Algorithmika in Russia) is a leading Russian online programming school co–owned by Mikhail Ipatov. In 2022, he also opened Algorithmics in the Czech Republic and Switzerland.
According to media reports, Ipatov has a connection with Vladimir Putin's very close subsidiary billionaire Vladimir Potanin. His company Winter Capital had previously invested $10 million in Ipatov's school.
NT Europe SA is not just part of the GNT Group agroholding of Groza and Naumenko, it owns shares in a number of companies in Ukraine that continue to operate even after the large-scale invasion of Russia. Moreover, some are even suspected of grey grain exports.
The company pays the most attention to Ukrainian elevators. For example, GNT Europe SA is the founder of Kryzhopolsky Elevator, Novograd-Volynsky Elevator, Sukholesky Elevator and Berdichev-Grain LLC.
She also founded the companies Agro Grain Service, Inagro-Drabov, Real Safe Company and Cardinale.
It should be noted that Sergei Groza, his stepson Alexander Gorbunov and Vladimir Naumenko are somehow connected with all these companies. In most cases, they are the ultimate beneficiaries.
There is another interesting company in the orbit of Odessa businessmen - GNT Trade DMCC. She founded Metalzukrain Corp LTD, Inzernoexport and Olympex Coupe International. These companies appear in a criminal case being investigated by the Bureau of Economic Security for tax evasion and gray exports of grain and oilseeds, and the latter previously also operated the Olympex grain terminal. But this is not about them.
GNT Trade DMCC is the founder of the Swiss company Omega Terminal S.A. E the director is the Russian citizen Mikhail Ipatov, already mentioned by us. The Omega Terminal-Ukraine enterprise operates in Ukraine, the founder of which is this Swiss company.
All these companies have ties with Russia and at the same time work in a strategic industry – the agricultural sector, and some, according to law enforcement, are engaged in tax evasion and gray grain exports. At the same time, they are all connected with Odessa businessmen.
Add
Earlier, UNN found out that the company of the famous smuggler Vadim Alperin "Agiros", which participated in the scheme of gray "export" of grain from the Olympex terminal in the Odessa region in 2023, when it was managed by the companies of Odessa businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, exported more than 20 thousand tons of corn to Egypt. Probably, this is exactly the grain that was pledged by American funds and was allegedly disposed of
Recall
The GNT Group of companies, owned by businessmen Sergei Groza and Vladimir Naumenko, in 2019 and 2021 received investment loans from two American funds for the development of the Olympex grain terminal in the Odessa region, which it owned at that time.
Having decided not to return the funds to creditors, Groza and Naumenko took loans from the Ukrainian banks Vostok and Yuzhny secured by the property of the grain terminal, which was already secured by the Americans.
Through the scheme using controlled companies and Ukrainian banks, they resold the property of Olympex several times, thus trying to maintain control over the terminal.
Ukrainian law enforcement officers have opened several criminal cases in connection with the situation around the "Olympex". And creditors, in turn, demand the return of their funds in international arbitrations and quite successfully. In particular, the English court decided to freeze the assets of Groza and Naumenko worldwide.
You can read more about the conflict over the Olympex grain terminal in the article: "Groza and Naumenko's company GNT Group blocked the operation of the grain terminal in Odessa. Detailed chronology of the conflict