11.07.2024 Money laundering

PR on Okhmatdyt. How the Tragedy of Ukrainians Became a Reason for PR

The rocket strike by Russia on the Okhmatdyt children’s hospital not only served as a reason for the unity of Ukrainians and a new wave of hatred towards Russia, but also as an excellent opportunity for PR for some figures. Bloggers instantly began opening their own “funds” for donations and visiting the site. Some initiated the purchase of medicines, water, and food for the victims, while others filmed the destruction and expressed their opinions, criticizing the authorities, for which they, of course, received a barrage of paid articles and suddenly became enemies of the people.

The next day, on the day of mourning, influential figures began to publish their contributions to the rebuilding of Okhmatdyt. The head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleg Kiper, donated 100,000 UAH, the Kyiv Regional Military Administration team donated 1.5 million UAH, officials from the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration donated 300,000 UAH, and Vlada Molchanova and her Stolytsia Group donated 2 million UAH. Former OPZZH member, developer, and “overseer” of the capital Vadim Stolar also contributed, sending 10 million UAH to the hospital’s account. And this is far from an exhaustive list of those who financially helped Okhmatdyt.

Of course, it is pleasant to realize that officials and businessmen, having financial means, did not stand aside and helped with their donations. Although they have already managed to earn more than one billion by destroying the environment, historical cultural monuments, bypassing the tax mechanism, and violating the law.

There were also those who turned the horrors of Okhmatdyt into their own PR game.

100 million UAH for Okhmatdyt

Yesterday, literally all the most famous million-subscriber Telegram channels published an impressive donation of 100 million UAH for the Okhmatdyt clinic, made by the businessman better known as the king of smuggling – Artur Grancz. The oligarch was praised, but not for long. In the evening, a refutation appeared. Artur Grants stated that he did not donate to Okhmatdyt.

“It seems that someone tried to tarnish the reputation of the famous Belarusian businessman by associating him with the restoration of the children’s hospital. He is not involved.”

We have guesses about who ordered the media attack in the Telegram channels. Grigory Kozlovskyy, a Lviv philanthropist and businessman, owner of the same Emily Resort, has long had a grudge against Grants. The men cannot share the smuggling and tobacco schemes. That is why, on Kozlovsky’s orders, the famous Joker announced a whole media war against Grancz, publishing daily “exposés” about him. Well, let’s recall the figures of both and compare their similarities.

Tobacco King Kozlovskyy

The smuggling of tobacco products into the EU territory has reached a grand scale with the invasion.

In March, Hungarian law enforcement detained a group of smugglers of counterfeit cigarettes of Ukrainian production. The group operated on the Hungary-Romania-Ukraine border. During the special operation, 50,000 packs of cigarettes were seized, which were illegally brought from Ukraine.

During further inspection, it was found that a significant part of the cigarettes belonged to the “COMPLIMENT” brand, produced by the “Vynnyky Tobacco Factory” – one of the largest illegal factories in Ukraine. In total, 69 law enforcement officers and customs officers were involved in the large-scale operation, and the expected budget losses are estimated at more than 100 million euros.

There are grounds to believe that the Vynnyky Tobacco Factory is controlled by Grigory Kozlovskyy, despite his documented departure from its leadership in 2023. The factory specializes in the production of counterfeit non-excise cigarettes and has repeatedly come under the scrutiny of law enforcement agencies.

For example, from 2016-2018, no enterprise in the Lviv region purchased a single excise tax stamp for cigarette production, but almost 5 billion cigarettes were produced in the Lviv region during these three years.

That is why Kozlovskyy is considered the main supplier of contraband cigarettes to Europe, which has been repeatedly confirmed by law enforcement. Thus, Kozlovsky gained the status of the tobacco king.

According to one of the materials, the Vynnyky Tobacco Factory has recently significantly increased the production volumes of counterfeit cigarettes. The most alarming thing in this situation is the silence of our country’s top authorities, who are “extremely concerned” about the slowness of European countries in supplying us with weapons. But, as we can see, they are not at all worried about Kozlovsky regularly “smuggling cigarettes” into the EU. They don’t care.

“Kozlovskyy probably has some serious ‘protection’ if he allows himself such lawlessness under the noses of the authorities and law enforcement. Literally at the beginning of January, his people in Lviv region earned 150 million UAH in a week from land resale. They stole 17 hectares of Lviv land and then sold it with impunity.” – write journalists.

Untouchable Smuggling King Grancz

Armenian with a Belarusian passport, Artur Grancz, managed to earn millions in the duty-free business, which can be a cover for smuggling. He is a co-owner of VBet, which journalists suspected of having connections with the aggressor country. In addition, his family still lives in Russia and has a business there.

As we wrote earlier, Grancz’ LLC “Duty Free Trading” at the Porubno-Siret checkpoint (on the border with Romania) managed to “sell” 4,252,700 packs of cigarettes in 2022 alone. That is, according to cash receipts, each buyer purchased an average of 25 packs of cigarettes. In fact, with the cooperation of customs officers, Grancz obtained personal data of Ukrainians crossing the border and made excise goods purchases in their names, of course, without the knowledge of the citizens.

These manipulations are carried out to formally write off tobacco products. And the cigarettes themselves without excise taxes are sold by fraudsters under Grants’ leadership to smugglers and sent to EU countries.

And again, law enforcement is silent about the activities of the smuggler group, although it is obvious that such actions hardly went unnoticed by law enforcement. So what’s the matter?

As we can see, the main bone of contention between Grancz and Kozlovskyy was the smuggling of tobacco products. The businessmen cannot share the sphere of influence, so they order media wars against each other. That’s why publications appear in your favorite Telegram channels, which ask for 15,000 UAH per post. So just imagine how much is paid monthly to law enforcement for silence. Probably, these amounts far exceed the total donations to Okhmatdyt.

As we reported earlier, we studied the activities of both Kozlovskyy and Grancz, and sent materials to law enforcement agencies. Let’s see what excuses the law enforcement and controllers come up with this time to cover up their inaction.

To be continued.

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