As Ukraine’s presidential pre-election period kicks in, politicians and businesspeople are striking deals within the country’s mostly non-independent media industry.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former prime minister of Ukraine and Inna Avakova, wife of Ukraine’s Interior Minister Arsen Avakov, sold their Espresso TV channel shares to Atmosphere Entertainment Inc., a firm registered in New York but owned by Ivan Zhevago, son of Ukrainian oligarch and lawmaker Kostyantyn Zhevago, on Dec. 30.
Yatsenyuk owned 30 percent of the channel’s shares while Avakova owned 40 percent.
“Yatsenyuk sold his Espresso TV shares through a transparent procedure and will now pay Hr 7 million ($249,000) in taxes to the state budget,” Olga Lappo, Yatsenyuk’s spokesperson, wrote on Facebook.
Avakova sold her stake for $1.95 million, according to her husband’s Twitter post. She will pay Hr 9.7 million ($320,000) in taxes.
The change in ownership won’t influence the editorial policy of the channel, Espresso TV press service said.
The channel was founded in 2013 by Larysa Kniazhytska, wife of People’s Front Party lawmaker Mykola Kniazhytskiy.
Kniazhytska sold 7.5 percent of her Espresso TV shares to Zhevago’s company but still owns 22.5 percent, according to the company’s press service.
Zhevago’s Atmosphere Entertainment now owns 77.5 percent of Espresso TV making him the controlling shareholder.
“Yatsenyuk sold his shares in order to avoid any speculation regarding the TV channel being politically biased,” Lappo wrote. She also said that back in June Yatsenyuk bought 30 percent of the channel’s shares for Hr 3.8 million ($133,000).
According to her, the Atmosphere Entertainment sale deal is worth at least 11 times more than what Yatsenyuk bought it for and was signed in a completely transparent manner – without any tax optimization schemes or the use of offshore companies.
“All the financial transactions passed the checks in U.S. and Ukrainian banks,” Lappo wrote.
Avakova was unavailable to comment. In her husband’s last electronic declaration, the minister pointed out that his wife is the beneficiary of ten firms mostly based in Kharkiv.
Kniazhytskiy told ZIK TV channel that Kostyantyn Zhevago was planning to buy Espresso TV channel on Dec. 3. Two days later, Zhevago confirmed his intentions to TSN news service but refused to reveal any details of the business deal.
Zhevago is a member of the Verkhovna Rada since 1998 and co-owner of Finance and Credit Bank, which the National Bank of Ukraine ordered to liquidate in September 2015. He is also the CEO and co-owner of Swiss-based Ferrexpo, an iron producer company that owns mines in Ukraine.
According to Focus magazine’s 2017 annual ranking of the country’s top 100 wealthiest people, Zhevago is worth $635 million taking eighth place. According to Forbes, his real-time net worth is $1.7 billion.
The Ukrainian oligarch registered Hr 115,000 ($4,000) as his official lawmaker’s wage and more than $100,000 in bank accounts in his most recent electronic assets declaration.
He has been dubbed as a long-term ally of Batkivschyna Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko, the main rival of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko for the upcoming 2018-2019 presidential election.
Zhevago has been a member of Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc in Rada until 2012 after which he became an independent lawmaker.
