German media dumped dirt on Zhebrivsky
“I see my task as part of the external control commission to conduct an independent assessment of NABU as helping to make this body as transparent and effective as possible,” reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
The newly appointed auditor of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau wrote about this on his Facebook page on June 19.
Pavel Zhebrivsky, a long-time loyal ally of Poroshenko, seemed to the president more suitable for checking the main anti-corruption body than an independent specialist from abroad, as representatives of civil society and opposition politicians demanded. In order to have a trusted person in this position, Poroshenko even ignored the legal requirements for the applicant to have “significant experience in preliminary investigation bodies, the prosecutor’s office, courts abroad or international organizations.”
But questions about Pavel Zhebrivsky as a champion of NABU transparency may arise not only because of his professional suitability. In the end, in order for the demands for transparency of anti-corruption bodies to sound more convincing from the lips of the new auditor, he himself must be transparent in everything, including in business. The Zhebrivsky family obviously has some problems with this. Particularly in Germany.
As reported by DW, in the town of Bad Homburg, near Frankfurt am Main, operates the company Vital Pharma GmbH, which is part of the Zhebrivsky pharmaceutical empire. This company has been trading on the German market for about ten years with raw materials for the production of medical products, which are imported, in particular, from Asia and South America. The annual turnover of the company, as evidenced by the reporting, is about three million euros.
The executive director of Vital Pharma GmbH is the daughter of Pavel Zhebrivsky, Anna. She headed the company while still a student. According to German anti-money laundering laws, the director had until October 1 last year to enter the names of the company's beneficial owners in the Transparency Register. After all, in order to combat tax evasion and money laundering, German authorities need to know who is behind the offshore companies that own Vital Pharma GmbH. As evidenced by the extract from the register obtained by DW, the daughter of the NABU auditor did not do this. For this, the company faces a fine of up to 100 thousand euros.
To find out who owns the company headed by Anna Zhebrivskaya, German regulatory authorities need to conduct an entire investigation. First you need to contact the German company register. From the documents of the German registry, you can find out that the company belongs to a holding company from the Netherlands - FARMAK GROUP NV. The ultimate beneficial owner is Filya Zhebrivskaya, the sister of the ex-governor and current NABU auditor Pavel Zhebrivsky. Thus, the German company is part of the structure of the Ukrainian group of pharmaceutical companies “Farmak”. However, the intricacies of the group's ownership structure do not end in the Netherlands. The Dutch holding, in turn, belongs to the Luxembourg-based holding Farmak Holdings S.à rl The Netherlands and Luxembourg are known as countries that offer owners of international holdings and concerns attractive tax minimization models.
However, it doesn’t end with Luxembourg. The Luxembourg company registry documents lead further to Cyprus. In the end, the final picture of the ownership structure of the Farmak group can be obtained by reading the documents of the company FI & P. HOLDINGS LIMITED. The controlling stake in the company belongs to Fila Zhebrivskaya. The second largest stake - about 10 percent - belongs to Pavel Zhebrivsky. According to Zhebrivsky’s declarations, he receives about one and a half million hryvnia in dividends per year from this company.
Financial assistance to minority shareholders
Much indicates that the ex-governor’s financial interests in the Farmak group are much broader than what a simple shareholder with a 10 percent stake formally has. As follows from the electronic declaration of income, in addition to dividends from the Cyprus company, Zhebrovsky received a million hryvnia of “material assistance” from the Ukrainian PJSC Farmak in 2017. The official seems to have significant informal influence on the company and one can even talk about the Zhebrivskys’ shared family business. The foreign companies of the Farmak group are managed not only by Zhebrivsky’s daughter, but also by his 24-year-old son.
Jan Zhebrivsky, as evidenced by documents from the Austrian company registry, is an authorized signatory in the company Farmak International Holding GmbH. This is a subsidiary of the Dutch FARMAK GROUP NV. The annual turnover of the Austrian company is from seven to 10 million euros per year. Number of employees, according to the registry: 0. Probably, the son’s role is only to sign payments on behalf of his aunt or father. The Austrian company obviously does not conduct full-fledged commercial activities.
Pavel Zhebrivsky’s interests in the pharmaceutical business are obviously not limited to the Farmak group. So, he owns the private enterprise “Yan”, which sells, in particular, medicines. In April last year, Lyubomir Shvedyuk became the head of this company. We are probably talking about the husband of Anna's daughter. In February of this year, as evidenced by an entry in the German register of companies, Anna Zhebrovskaya became Anna Shvedyuk.
DW was unable to obtain an explanation from the daughter of Pavel Zhebrivsky as to why she did not include data on the ultimate beneficiaries of the German company she heads in the Transparency Register. The office of Vital Pharma GmbH reported that she was on a business trip. At the same time, entering such data in Germany is of particular importance. Especially in cases where there is a lot of evidence that the beneficiaries may be the so-called PEP - politically exposed persons - politicians or high-ranking officials of other countries. This category of investors receives special attention from regulatory authorities.
Therefore, before taking on the transparency of NABU, Pavel Zhebrivsky, perhaps, should do some homework to ensure the transparency of the family business, the publication notes. At the very least, so that companies in his family's sphere of influence avoid heavy fines in the future. Indeed, in pursuance of the EU directive on combating money laundering and tax evasion, transparency registers are being created in the Netherlands, Austria, Luxembourg, and Cyprus.
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