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Automatically translated version. May contain inaccuracies compared to the original.
As a partner of SKODA Auto, Oleg Boyarin robbed banks
Meanwhile, the owner of Atol Holding continues to talk about the poor investment climate in Ukraine.
In 2015 year, the owner of the group of companies Atol Holding and the Eurocar car assembly plant, Oleg Boyarin, who is part of it, did not make Forbes' millionaires list. Instead, he severely tarnished his business reputation with attempts to avoid paying about 200 million UAH in loans to Ukrainian banks, refusing to pay either directly or via surety agreements. This, however, does not prevent the businessman from giving interviews criticizing the government for the lack of reforms and a poor investment climate.
In special friendship with SKODA Auto. s.
When 14 years ago, 19 December 2001 of the year, in the village of Solomynove, Uzhhorod district, Zakarpattia region, the management of the SKODAAutoa. s. group along with the governor opened a new assembly plant for Skoda cars for the Ukrainian market, hardly anyone could have predicted what stain this might put on the reputation of a world-renowned company. Back then, plans looked rosy: the plant’s potential up to 100 thousand cars per year, an undersupplied developing market, an enthusiastic partner. Only the Czechs hadn’t calculated that the provincial mentality of the future head of Atol Holding, Oleg Boyarin, would break out, and the one who seemed a reliable counterpart would turn out to be an ordinary fraud.
“With our actions we give the state optimism, we want to show that it is possible to work and succeed even in difficult conditions,” said Vladimir Panov, a member of the board of Eurocar, at the 2014 year during the ceremony launching production of one of the new Skoda Octavia cars; today, former partners of the holding treat these words as mockery. After all, as early as 2013 year Oleg Boyarin chose a completely different path, adopting the principle of Igor Kolomoyskyi, which later became a proverb: “debts are repaid only by cowards.”
The subsidiary company Atol Holding — LLC EuroLeasing — engaged in leasing operations. When purchasing cars, loans were taken, then all leasing payments were supposed to be transferred to the bank’s account as loan repayments. But such payments never arrived.
Millions of discord
Even before the revolutionary events and military actions in eastern Ukraine and Crimea, in autumn 2013 year, the founder of Atol Holding decided to carry out a large-scale operation to avoid paying bank loans by the company Euro Leasing under his control. At that time, the company owed a whole string of Ukrainian banks with Western capital about 200 million UAH. Key creditors included UkrSibbank, UkrSotsbank (UniCredit Bank Ukraine), PUMB, Raiffeisen Bank Aval. But one day the Euro Leasing central office suddenly moved from Kyiv to Khmelnytskyi. And subsequently, by a suit of a related company, under the control of Oleg Boyarin LLC AutoCenter Kyiv, a bankruptcy case was opened: Euro Leasing allegedly owed AutoCenter about 470 thousand UAH.
Even the fact that a company with multimillion turnover (and another would not have given 200 million UAH in loans) went into bankruptcy proceedings on a claim of half a million raises questions about the fictitious nature of the whole process. It was devised, not least, to entrap real creditors. At the same time, despite the bankruptcy, EuroLeasing continues to operate actively. For example, judging by reviews on industry sites and forums, one of the main income sources of the company is the sale of equipment with inflated commissions, while the asking price in the ad is substantially lower than the market.
But the mere fact of entering bankruptcy proceedings is not illegal in itself (despite apparent signs of fiction). If the process had proceeded properly, at least part of the creditors could have satisfied their claims, for example, by selling property, including collateral. However, how surprised were bank representatives when, arriving one morning with a bailiff at the warehouse, they found none of the more than 500 cars that were pledged under loans. All these cars were in leasing from 2007-2008 years and physically are of little value. However, the fact that EuroLeasing sold (having first deregistered without the bank’s consent about 370 cars (130, the remaining ones, are on paper listed in the MOT, but in reality there are none in the responsible storage), is a blatant case of theft and fraud. After all, if the cars were deregistered, someone forged documents, including the bank’s consent. Which, of course, no one gave. And that is a criminal offense.
Leasing obligations, whose rights of claim were also pledged with the bank, would not be helpful to the banks: according to data from entrepreneurs, they had long since repaid all debts to Euro Leasing. The only “liquid” collateral remains the endorsement of Atol Holding.
But the owner of Eurocar ignores his obligations. He decided to deceive the court by filing false information claiming the guarantee agreement had ended. In reality, according to the document, the parties’ obligations remained in force. That is, until Atol Holding pays off all debts of the bankrupt Euro Leasing. At the same time, Oleg Boyarin’s savvy lawyers decided to bring the Kyiv Economic Court and present everything as if the guarantee ended after 6 months after the borrower entered bankruptcy. It took judges about a year, three levels of appeal, and a ruling from the Supreme Economic Court of Ukraine to sort out the contractual entanglements. However, when the Supreme Court of Ukraine finally sent the case back for re-examination to the first instance, the Kyiv Economic Court nevertheless found a way out: by a decision dated 12 November 2014 of the year in case No. 910/21245/13, Atol Holding was obliged to pay UkrSotsBank 17,9 million UAH, 3,4 million USD, and 166 thousand euros. In March 2015 of the year, this decision was confirmed by the Kyiv Economic Court of Appeal, and in June the case was again under consideration by the Supreme Economic Court of the country.
St. Val—2?
Nevertheless, Oleg Boyarin is not in a hurry to comply with the court’s ruling. Moreover, he deliberately gathered bank managers in the conference hall of one of Kyiv’s five-star hotels to personally inform them how little he cares about their requests. Rumors say the verb “to bend” was used.
The situation very much resembles another well-known lawsuit between automobile makers and bankers—the conflict between the AIS group of companies of Dmytro Sviataish and Vasyl Polyakov with UkrSibbank. However, unlike the Euro Leasing and Atol Holding situation, Sviataish and Polyakov at least did not push the story into legalistic fantasy, pretending it is a raider seizure of a plant. At the same time, Oleg Boyarin not only ignores creditors’ demands but cynically portrays himself as an honest and European businessman.
In this context, his critique of the government is somewhat amusing, as Boyarin blames it for stalled reforms, calls for tax cuts, and accuses the prime minister of incompetence. Boyarin says he wants to create in Ukraine conditions for a car market at least as good as Slovakia’s. And this is despite the fact that unlike imported cars, Skoda does not incur import duties, making it cheaper and more accessible—a clear preference codified in law, with how many concessions already? So one might ask: what have you done for Ukraine? You have shamed the whole country with petty fraud.
In fact, SKODA Autoa. s. leadership should deeply consider the advisability of continuing cooperation with Atol Holding, Oleg Boyarin, and Eurocar, whose activities cast a shadow not only over the Czech concern but also over its parent Volkswagen Group. Which in Europe may now be called no other than “the company whose partner in Ukraine steals millions from bankers and their depositors.” Not a very comforting name. Especially in a country that seeks new investments from Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. It is evident that under these arrangements, such investments in Ukraine are not visible.
Author: Ihor Stepashyn
kraina.name
Document: PDF proof of the original version of the news item "Як партнер SKODA Auto Олег Боярин обікрав банки". It records the publication content at the moment of the first scan, the preservation date and the source: ANTIKOR.
