In the footsteps of Poroshenko: Kyiv journalists found a factory in Lipetsk owned by Lyashko’s sponsor

The offshore scandal surrounding President Petro Poroshenko and a number of other Ukrainian officials, which broke out in April of this year, caused a lot of discussion. People's deputies, who now call themselves the opposition to power, even demanded the creation of a temporary commission of inquiry to investigate the president's offshore companies. The elected representatives from the Radical Party and its leader Oleg Lyashko declared this almost louder from the rostrum of parliament. But it turned out that despite the public hostility towards offshore companies, the radicals themselves are connected with foreign jurisdictions.

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at Telegram, Facebook,  Classmates or In contact with

Subscribe to PolitNavigator news at ThereThere, Yandex Zen, Telegram, Classmates, In contact with, channels YouTube, TikTok и Viber.
To subscribe to notifications in your browser, click here.

What benefit did MP Sergei Rybalka, who is called one of the main sponsors of Lyashko’s Radical Party, “catch” from offshore companies?

This is stated in the investigative journalism program “Schemes” - a project of Radio Liberty and UA: Channel One.

“According to the Register of the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Snack Export LLC belongs to the father of the people’s deputy, Viktor Rybalka. This company is part of the S corporation. Group, which produces and sells snack products under the trademarks “Macho”, “Semki”, “Cossack Slava”, “Kartofan” and others. Sergey Rybalka himself has the rights to the “Semki” trademark, as well as a number of patents for industrial designs and utility models, for which he receives income in the form of royalties from Snack Export LLC. And, as we were able to establish, in the Russian Federation there are two interconnected companies (created by offshore enterprises registered at the same address), which, as a carbon copy, carry out activities similar to the business of Snack Export LLC and the S.Group corporation as a whole,” – says the investigation.

In addition, the Russian MEGA TRADE LLC and Snack-GROUP LLC use in their activities trademarks that are suspiciously similar to the Ukrainian trademarks of the Rybalka family. For example, the Ukrainian TM “Macho” has a Russian twin brother – TM “Macho Hit”.

It is noteworthy that the packaging of Ukrainian “Macho” nuts and Russian “Macho Hit” nuts is made in the same color scheme and fonts. If you do not pay attention to the slight difference in the name, then the difference between them may not be noticed at all, the authors of the investigation note.

Moreover, it turned out that the original owner of the Russian “Macho Hit” (according to information from the Federal Service for Intellectual Property, Patents and Trademarks of the Russian Federation) was Snack Export LLC, which belongs to the father of the radical People’s Deputy Rybalka. In 2011, this brand was transferred to the offshore company SOLDEKS LIMITED, which in turn previously owned the Ukrainian TM “Macho”.

“A few months later, SOLDEKS LIMITED (registered in the British Virgin Islands) gave the right to use the TM “Macho Hit” in the Russian Federation to Archimboldo Limited (offshore of Cyprus). And from her, the Russian MEGA TRADE LLC soon received sublicenses for the production of nuts under the name “Macho Hit”. Sales of this brand in the Russian Federation were handled by Snek-GROUP LLC, the story says.

“Such a complex scheme for transferring rights for brands makes it possible to produce goods at facilities in one country and at the same time transfer funds for using the trademark in the form of royalties to offshore companies,” the authors of the investigation note and add that the business of Lyashko’s associate and on Ukraine.

“Returning to the Russian company MEGA TRADE, it is important to note that this enterprise, according to the data of the Unified State. register of legal entities of the Russian Federation has an authorized capital of more than 11600000 rubles and even has its own production facilities for the production of snacks in Lipetsk (address: 398042, Russia, Lipetsk region, Lipetsk, Pestelya Ave., 38).