Multimedia Invest Group

2013

In early 2013, Igor Guzhva, formerly editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian newspaper Segodnya, returned from the Russian Federation, where for about a year he was chief editor of the newspaper Moskovskiye Novosti . After some time, it became known about his plans to launch the daily free newspaper Vesti, which was attended by several dozen employees of the newspaper Today ^[2] .

In May 2013, the distribution of the free daily newspaper Vesti began, which was distributed in Kiev near the metro and was actively advertised through outdoor advertising . According to Guzhva, the newspaper will also be distributed free of charge in Dnepropetrovsk , Donetsk , Odessa , Kharkov and the Crimea, and in the rest of Ukraine it will be paid ^[2] .

In the middle of June 2013, it became known about plans to create a Vesti TV channel, a Vesti FM talk radio station, and a Vesti. Reporter ”, which will be licensed by the Russian Reporter. To create a television project, a 100% stake in UBR television channel was acquired ^[2] .

In July 2013, the former chief editors of Kommersant FM radio station Dmitry Solopov and Alexey Vorobyov agreed to launch a new news radio station in Ukraine for Multimedia Invest Group. Together with them, Egor Altman (chairman of the board of directors of the Hidalgo advertising syndicate, whose president is Dmitry Solopov) joined the Radio Vesti project, who took up marketing and the commercial component ^[3] .

In September 2013, three companies holding broadcasting licenses in Kiev , Kharkov , Dnepropetrovsk and Sevastopol were purchased from the UMH group media holding ^[4] . According to Igor Guzhayev, the future talk radio will be Russian-speaking, as it is “the radio of big cities, which, as you know, speak Russian in Ukraine. That is, we go from the needs of the audience ” ^[5] .

2014

On March 18, 2014 at 12:00, Radio Vesti radio station went on the air in Kiev (104.6 FM), Kharkov (100.5 FM), Dnepropetrovsk (107.7 FM) and Sevastopol (87.7 FM). ^[6] In the last designated city, it was closed a week after its launch, as the radio station was launched at the height of the annexation of Crimea to Russia .

As of June 2014, the circulation of the Vesti newspaper was 350-400 thousand copies, of the Vesti. Reporter ”- 50 thousand ^[7] .

On July 5, at 11-00, masked people pelted with stones and Molotov cocktails the editorial office of the Vesti newspaper located in the center of Kiev, also launching tear gas into the room. The media itself regarded this as an attempt to intimidate the editorial staff, and they require all possible measures to ensure the safe work of their journalists. City police began an investigation into the attack ^[8] .

On September 16, LIGABusinessInform reported on negotiations between the holding and First Ukrainian Radio Group (PUR) on the sale of Perets FM radio station, which was confirmed by the parties to the transaction. The station has frequencies for broadcasting practically throughout Ukraine (except for Lviv, Chernivtsi, Vinnitsa, Zhytomyr and Cherkassy), and after its purchase the Vesti radio station could greatly expand the broadcasting geography. According to market participants, the transaction is not economically feasible due to the unprofitable market position (a 25% decline is forecasted, the market has more than doubled in dollar terms), Pepper FM itself can cost 4-5 million US dollars ^[9] .

On September 9, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich announced that the Vesti newspaper was being persecuted in Ukraine for trying to convey the truth about the so-called anti - terrorist operation in Kiev . ^[10]

On July 29, 2015, Igor Guzhva sold his share in the holding and resigned as editor-in-chief of the Vesti newspaper. After that, the holding began personnel shifts and changes in the format of publications. In parallel, a number of journalists left the group, the reasons were the refusal to publish reports. Guzhva became the only suspect in the case of tax evasion in the amount of UAH 17.8 million. Vesti Mass Media company ^[11] . The new editor-in-chief of the newspaper was Olga Omelchenko, the head of the board of directors was Olga Semchenko ^[12] .

Ukrainian Pravda, citing sources, reported that after Guzhva’s departure, some of the holding’s materials were read by representatives of the presidential administration and Alexander Klimenko, and the publication itself would become more loyal to the authorities. The office denied this information ^[13] . However, a few months later, the Minister of Information Policy Yuri Stets pointed to a change in the content of the Vesti newspaper ^[14]

• Newspaper "News" ,
• Weekly magazine “ News. Reporter ”(Since the end of October 2015 it has been translated into electronic format ^[15] ),
• Radio News
• Best FM
• Business Channel UBR ,
• Internet portal Vesti.ua.

Igor Guzhva said that he is the sole owner of Multimedia Invest Group, and creates a company with borrowed funds ^[2] , and due to agreements he has no right to divulge the names of his partners ^[1] . He also stated that I invested all the funds that belonged to me in the development of a media holding , although he later stated that he was not an investor in the project ^[16] .

In the summer of 2013, Alexei Vorobyov and Dmitry Solopov, who were invited to cooperate with the holding, themselves did not know who his investor was ^[3] . The media associated Multimedia Invest Group with the Ukrainian billionaire Rinat Akhmetov ^[7] , according to other versions, the company is associated with Viktor Medvedchuk , the first vice-premier of the government of Ukraine under President Viktor Yanukovych Sergey Arbuzov and billionaire Sergey Kurchenko , who was considered the “Yanukovych wallet” ^{[17] [18]} . There were also versions that the media holding is controlled by the authorities of the Russian Federation through loans issued through their Vnesheconombank ^[2] .

The option of holding the former Minister of Taxes and Duties Alexander Klimenko ^{[19] was also considered} , in particular, former holding journalists ^{[20] [21] [22]} called him as the main investor. Kurchenko’s press service in July 2013 denied the entrepreneur’s relationship with Multimedia-invest Group ^[2] .

In July 2015, Igor Guzhva announced the sale of his share and resigned as head of the holding and editor-in-chief of the Vesti newspaper. The new head of the holding was the former press secretary and common-law wife of Alexander Klimenko Olga Semchenko ^[23] .

In April 2016, in accordance with the requirements of the law on transparency of media ownership, the ownership structure was published. According to it, the main assets belong to the Kiev companies Agei Media Ukraine and Media Invest Plus. The owners of Age Media Ukraine through the Cyprus offshore MEDIA HOLDING VESTI UKRAINE are Denis Mozgovoy (80%) and another Cyprus offshore NEDERMAN LIMITED (20%), which is owned by the same Cyprus company MEDIA HOLDING VESTI UKRAINE (20%) and Tatyana Alexandrova ( 80%). Media Invest Plus is owned by the same Cyprus offshore NEDERMAN LIMITED (99%) and Tatyana Alexandrova (1% ^[24] ).

In April 2014, during a tax audit of the city of Sumy, compliance with tax legislation by Vesti Mass Media LLC revealed a number of violations of Ukrainian legislation. On April 28, information on committed criminal offenses by the officials of this LLC under part 2 of article 1 was entered into the Unified Register of Pre-trial Investigations. 205, part 2, article 28, part 3, article 209, part 3 of article 29 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine ^[25] .

On May 22, 2014, the tax police and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine visited the office of the Vesti Mass Media company that publishes the Vesti newspaper ^[7] . During the search, Igor Guzhva discovered 1.5 million hryvnias, 313 thousand hryvnias in his personal accounts and 97 thousand in Vesti Mass Media accounts were also arrested. 2 days before the search, the tax police of Ukraine blocked the accounts of Vesti and Igor Guzhva, where there were 97 and 313 thousand hryvnias ^{[17] [26]} .

A pre-trial investigation found that about 94 million hryvnias ($ 8 million) were received from the fictitious company at the expense of Vesti Mass Media, which were then legalized. The money came from firms related to the wanted businessman Sergei Kurchenko ^{[17] [26]} . Igor Guzhva regarded the actions of the police and tax authorities as political pressure on the authorities and appealed to Ukrainian journalists for support. Representatives of the Ukrainian authorities emphasize that their actions are aimed only at combating money laundering by the "family" of ex-president Viktor Yanukovych ^[17] .

On September 11, on the basis of the decision of the Pechersky court ^[25] , the security service of Ukraine came to the newspaper’s editorial office on the basis of the second part of Article 110 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (“Attack on the Territorial Integrity and Integrity of Ukraine”). According to Guzhva, the reason was the articles published in the Vesti-Reporter magazine “Makhnovsky state”, “Slavic-proletarian republic” and “Junta! Betrayed! Down with ^[27] ! ” The servers providing the work of the site vesti.ua were seized, journalists were not allowed to work ^[28] . Later, Igor Guzhva announced the resumption of the newspaper, he linked the search with the upcoming elections to the Verkhovna Rada and the publication of material about the daughter of the head of the Security Service of Ukraine, Valentina Nalyvaichenko , who, according to the newspaper, “rents housing in a prestigious area of ​​New York ^[29] .” In the same month, a lawsuit was filed in the Kyiv District Administrative Court on behalf of the deputy prosecutor of the city of Kiev against Izvestia Media LLC and Media Reporter LLC to stop the publication of the Vesti newspaper and the Vesti magazine. Reporter ”for the publication of a number of articles aimed at violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the third party in the process is the State Registration Service ^[30] .

On June 18, 2015, representatives of the tax service of Ukraine, on the basis of a court ruling in the case of Vesti Mass Media LLC, searched the Gulliver business center, where the Vesti holding management company, as well as the editorial office of the Vesti newspaper and the magazine are located “News. The reporter". Representatives of the holding announced broken doors and not allowed lawyers ^[31] .