In February 2023, the “drain tank” of the aggressor’s propaganda, the fake blogger Alexander Talipov, criminally stated that he transported, for aggressor’s soldiers, “1,500 canned goods… from the Kerch Proliv plant, which, after nationalization, began to help the front”. At the same time, the invaders’ propagandist criminally “expressed special gratitude” on this occasion “personally to Oleg Krishtal” as well as to some “athletes” from the occupied Kerch.
Previously, the criminal occupiers’ “bodies” stated that this fish cannery was on the illegal “list of objects subject to nationalization”. It was also recently stated that “at the end of January, people entered the territory of the Kerch fish cannery “Proliv”, who informed the “management” that it was dismissed from its “positions”.
Our Association has repeatedly covered the illegal activities of occupiers-controlled structures, involved in fishing and fish processing. They pointed to their connection with the international fishing mafia, the money laundering by the Russian special services associated with this, as well as the involvement in the “Crimean fish business” of characters close to the Belarusian dictator.
Therefore, the events related to the “Proliv” plant need detailed coverage using open sources, which is what ARC experts have done.
Before the occupation of the Crimea, two structures obviously connected with the Kerch plant were entered into Ukrainian registries, which were later liquidated. Firstly, it is an open joint-stock company “Kerch Fish Cannery Proliv”, code 05773155, with an authorized capital of more than 3.7 million hryvnias, the founders of which were the Property Fund of the AR of Crimea and the organization of tenants of the same plant “Proliv”.
Another structure was the agro-industrial closed joint-stock company “Kerch Fish Cannery Proliv”, with an authorized capital of 7.2 million hryvnias, code 30317443, founded by LLC “Spark”, code 31655841, by above-mentioned JSC “Proliv” code 05773155, by LLC with foreign investments “Corporation CMK” code 30539984, as well as “individual shareholders”.
At the same time, the founders of the aforementioned “Spark” are two firms from the Dnipro, “Exprommash” LLC, code 31780817 and “Sklotara Trading House” LLC, code 32099412. In turn, the Hungarian company “Ovis Trade” from Budapest, and the beneficiary is Tatyana Goryanets from Dnipro. However, until 2019, “CMK Corporation” declared Yuriy Kryshin, Sergey Bakharev and Sergey Nedoluga, also from Dnipro, as beneficiaries.
Dozens of Ukrainian enterprises are registered with these persons, including Yuriy Kryshyn, listed as the beneficiary of TOV “Proliv”, code 37466258, registered with an authorized capital of 4.5 million hryvnias in Dnipro, on Yavornytsky Street, 81. Also among the founders and beneficiaries of this TOV the companies “Walter Investment Co”, “Kiruna Impex S.A.”, as well as “Millview Properties Ltd” were awarded.
At the same time, Kryshin’s data coincide with the father of the former people’s deputy from the “People’s Front”, secretary of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Tax and Customs Policy since 2014, Oleg Yuryevich Kryshin, originally from the same Dnipro.
Until 2014, it was written in the press that it was Oleg Kryshin who controlled most of the shares of the “Proliv” plant, which produced products under the brands “Proliv”, “Vilnas”, “Bosporus” and “Laatsa”, before the start of Russian aggression. It was also pointed out that in 2008 the “CMK Corporation”, as also a “part of the Kryshin’s corporation”, acquired the Crimean enterprise “Yuzhrybkholod”, which was engaged in freezing and storing fish.
Prior to the occupation of the Crimea, no information about the alienation of the “Proliv” plant by its beneficiaries was published, and Sergey Degtyarenko was appointed as director of the enterprise. It was he who, in April 2014, announced the shutdown of the “Proliv” plant due to the occupation, but later the occupiers-controlled “press” circulated his own statement that the plant allegedly “started” an illegal “re-registration procedure … as a Russian enterprise” and that “the plant sells the bulk of its products through retail”.
At the same time, Degtyarenko’s statements were circulated that “during the fishery period, the Azov bull-calf, anchovy, tyulka, sprat, caught by Crimean fishermen in the Azov-Black Sea fishery basin, are used here, at other times they prepare the Baltic sprat, which arrived frozen from Kaliningrad,” and also that “over the past five years, about 4 million dollars have been spent on modernization at the “Proliv” and we do not intend to stop”.
In 2016, the aggressor-controlled “Kerch press” stated that “in the field of fisheries” the fake “award” “Golden Griffin” was “received by Sergey Degtyarenko, General Director of Proliv LLC.”
In the illegal occupiers’ “registers”, one can see the “LLC” “Kerch Fish Cannery Proliv”, “not operating” since 2021, “code” 911101001 with “director” Elena Tkalun and with the “founder” registered in the British Virgin Islands, “Barton Sales Limited”. At the same time, you can also find there “LLC” “Proliv Fish Cannery”, “operating” since 2021, “code” 9111000644, with “director” Yuri Mamaev and with the same Sergey Degtyarenko as the “founder”.
It should be noted that the historical connection of Sergey Degtyarenko is noted in the Ukrainian registers for a number of companies, including the mentioned Dnipro-registered “Proliv” LLC; for example, today, according to open sources, he is a signatory of “Ukrnadra” Company” LLC, code 34562446, registered at the same address on 81 Yavornytsky Street, the beneficiaries of which are the same Serhiy Bakharev and Serhiy Nedoluga.
In 2018, the Center for Journalistic Investigations wrote that “in the income declarations of people’s deputy Oleg Kryshin, the company “Proliv” LTD is indicated, the ultimate beneficiary of which is his father, Yuri Kryshin. The address of the company indicated in Kryshin’s declaration coincides with the address of the owner of “Proliv” LLC: they have one mailbox – box 146”.
It is worth noting that the former parliamentarian was marked by the press on other occasions, for example, when in 2017 he wanted to bail the owners of the Dnipro car market “Terminal” Alexander Oksamytny and Farid Partoev, who were accused of kidnapping.
Kryshin himself, as the press wrote, announced the alienation of his “Crimean business”. At the same time, it is at least obvious that characters once associated with the Dnieper businessmen, such as Sergei Degtyarenko, for a long time without hiding, “led” the “Proliv” plant in the occupied Kerch, and this enterprise was illegally “re-registered” after 2014, including fraud with offshore companies.
Separately, it is worth exploring Oleg Krishtal, mentioned by propagandist Talipov, as a criminal supposedly “new government” at an illegally “nationalized” plant. Until 2012, Krishtal was a city deputy in Kerch from the “Party of Regions” and in 2012 he tried to be re-elected as a “self-nominated”.
Then the press pointed out his role as a sponsor of the “Kerch” football team, general director of “First Kerch Shipyard” LLC, director of “Market-Service” LLC and business development director of “Pronet”, as well as the founder of a private enterprise “AM “New Project”, involved, among other things, in a scandal with a forgery of a construction license and debts of 700,000 hryvnias.
It was mentioned that in November 2009 the Crimean police published a criminal episode – according to the investigation, the deputy Krishtal falsified the license for his private enterprise “AM Novy Proekt”, the founders of which were he and Pavel Ieno. The information was revealed during the verification of the statement of the Odessa company “Orion-Techno” on Ieno, accusing him of misappropriation of 683 thousand hryvnias.
This activity could not pass by the functionaries of the Yanukovych regime, and Krishtal, among other things, was awarded, on the occasion of the Day of the Tax Service of Ukraine, by the then Finance Minister Mykola Azarov. It was noted that the award was presented “for the outstanding contribution of the “Pronet” company to the creation of information systems for state public institutions”.
It should be noted that the current “Pronet” company code 21680973 was registered in Kiev in 1997 and, as indicated on its website, “is a leading integrator of IT and engineering systems in the Ukrainian market” and “specializes in the creation and support of information computing systems of various levels”. Before the occupation, Krishtal founded the “Ukrainian Choice for Native Kerch” public organization in Kerch, code 38710180, as an obvious local cell of the criminal structure of Viktor Medvedchuk.
After the start of the occupation, Oleg Krishtal began to actively cooperate criminally with the Russian invaders, in the role of “president of the football club” “Ocean”, organizing not only his activities in the illegal “championship of the Republic of Crimea” but also illegal “friendly matches” with Russian teams in the Krasnodar Territory.
At the same time, not only the “football club” “Ocean-Kerch”, “code” 9111015841, but also the “firms” “Randeks”, “Advertising Agency Wizard”, as well as “Market-Service”, “code” 9111005145 were in the illegal occupiers’ “registries” of Krishtal. The last “company” is notable for the fact that its “co-founder” in 2014 was Alexander Ieno, the son of the aforementioned swindler Pavel Ieno. Ieno Sr., we recall, is now playing the criminal role of “Director of the Department of Transport and Road Infrastructure Development” in the Russia-occupied Sevastopol.
It is also worth noting the “registration” on Krishtal in 2018 of the “OP Group” structure in Temryuk, Krasnodar Territory, along Tamanskaya Street, 5, “encoded” as 2352054795; whose “principal activity” is “wholesale of solid, liquid and gaseous fuels and similar products”.
We add that both the swindler himself and his relative Yaroslav Krishtal managed to “mark” themselves in frauds with the “firms” “Randeks”, “Eltigen Beach and Rehabilitation Center” and “K-Park”, regarding the “rent” of all kinds of real estate and land plots, in Russia-occupied Kerch.
Thus, it can be assumed that Krishtal is at least associated with a number of groups of collaborators, not excluding the aforementioned Pavel Ieno, henchman of the Sevastopol criminal “governor” Mikhail Razvozhaev, and that the sphere of criminal interests of Krishtal, as well as his obvious non-public partners and “roof” much wider than the fishing industry, and includes, among other things, fraud with fuel.
The illegal activity of the “Proliv” plant under the aggressor’s control, both now and until 2023, regardless of the “statements” of the criminal Talipov, is quite obvious.
Therefore, for the authorized body of Ukraine, it can be recognized as an important task to establish the real beneficiaries of the plant, both in the period from 2014 to 2022, and in the current conditions.
It is also important to establish the possible current participation of these real beneficiaries in commercial activities in the controlled territory of Ukraine.
