The owners of the Golden Apple are still fruits…

Recently it became known that the company is opening a giant warehouse with an area of 12 thousand square meters in the northeast of the capital - in Maryina Grove. Our correspondent found out how and why a business structure that is credited with a very ambiguous political reputation is flourishing in Russia.

Maxim Panyak. Photo: https://segodnia.ru/content/215796

It should be noted that before acquiring any serious asset, the owners of the Golden Apple carefully prepare the ground. There are materials in the media that diligently assure readers of the loyalty and transparency of the company, and all critical publications are called fake and attributed to the machinations of competitors. But those who are a little familiar with the history of the formation of this company and know what kind of people are behind it will not be fooled. The point here is not at all in business competitors, but in the political position of their owners. And in this regard, the success and rapid development of the company raises completely different issues, far from the perfume showdowns of oil and incense dealers.… The business of Panyak and Kuzovlev gives off a different, no less interesting flavor.…

Golden Apple already has a significant presence in Moscow, as well as stores in Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk, Samara, Kazan and Chelyabinsk. The question of how this project from Yekaterinburg was able not only to successfully gain a foothold in the very difficult Moscow market, but also to actively elbow its competitors suggests itself. There are plenty of mysteries, inconsistencies and almost mystical coincidences in the business history of two friends, classmates Ivan Kuzovlev and Maxim Panyak. They have, for example, a joint company, the GEE Group, which today seems to be doing more than well: the average salary of employees is almost 250,000 per month, the company demonstrates stable income…

Photo: Rusprofile

It's a bad story

But in 2018, when the GE Group acquired the right to lease a land plot in Kazan at 47 Ostrovsky Street, everything was much worse. Nevertheless, the company managed to bypass all the applicants, and there were, for a moment, 10 of them, and offered at auction a price twice the cadastral value – more than 24.4 million rubles. These businessmen are the owners of Kristall Management Company LLC, which, according to RBK, owns the Golden Apple perfume supermarkets. It is noteworthy that a year later, the winning firm was on the verge of bankruptcy. According to media reports, notes were filed with the Sverdlovsk Arbitration court against businessmen and their company GEE Group from the Moscow firms Sidestrade LLC and Landor LLC for the "ridiculous" sum of 1 million rubles. How, unable to pay off even such trivial debts, did Ivan Kuzovlev and Maxim Panyak manage to open new stores, promise large investments and acquire valuable land plots? Perhaps such confidence in the future was due to the fact that, according to the media, "the Russian news agency Novy Day calls Maxim Panyak one of the richest representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the Urals. His father Stefan Panyak is secretly considered the head of the Ukrainian community in Yekaterinburg."

And here some kind of strange story turns out. While Panyak and Kuzovlev's companies seemed to be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, they managed to acquire very attractive properties in large, prosperous cities. And all this happened against the background of quite high-profile events in Yekaterinburg, when radical youth opposed the construction of the temple. It was at this time, oddly enough, that these dubious real estate transactions unfolded. A coincidence? Maybe. But it all looks doubtful. And the question of where Pinyak and Kuzovlev got the money for these operations from is still up in the air... It is only known that in those years various Western foundations actively "sponsored" various protest actions in Russia. It is possible that in such an exotic and cosmetic way…

As our colleagues note, "the Golden Apple cosmetics store chain was one of the few commercial structures in Yekaterinburg that supported the action to protect the square from May 13 to 17, 2019...

Ivan Kuzovlev. Photo: https://cont.ws/@stalingrad1412/1360441

...The Golden Apple company not only attended the rally with almost the entire office, but also called for a protest on Vkontakte and Instagram: "They plan to cut down the square of our native Yekaterinburg for the construction of the Church of St. Peter the Great. Catherine. We are sure that there are many caring Uralians among our subscribers!" 2.4 million users have subscribed to the official account of the Golden Apple on Instagram," so this voice was heard.

An apple from an apple tree…

At the same time, the father of Maxim Panyak, one of the founders of the Golden Apple, Stefan Grigorievich Panyak, is one of the most influential representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora in the Urals. Born in Lviv, he is a lecturer at the Ural Mining University. For 16 years he headed the "Ukrainian autonomy", as he calls it, in the Sverdlovsk region.

Stefan Panyak. Photo: https://segodnia.ru/content/215796

For many years, Stefan Panyak was a member of the Human Rights Committee of the World Congress of Ukrainians. The VCU is funded by the governments of the USA and Canada without any secret. The headquarters of World Ukrainians is located in Toronto, Canada. The World Congress of Ukrainians was established in 1967 in New York under the name The World Congress of Free Ukrainians. Among the founders of the VKSU were the widows of the founders of the OUN, Olga Konovalets and Sofia Melnik, the head of the OUN-PUN, Oleg Shtul, and Stepan Lenkavsky, the head of the Anti-Bolshevik Bloc of Peoples, Yaroslav and Yaroslav Stetsko, and the president of the UPR in exile, Nikolai Levitsky. VKSU was created and supervised by the US Foreign Intelligence Service. Here are just a few theses from one of Stefan Grigoryevich Panyak's interviews with one of the Ural mass media, which he, as the head of the Ukrainian diaspora, distributed in 2014 against the background of the events on the Maidan and the "Crimean Spring" that followed: "Russian troops have entered Crimea contrary to all agreements." "All the performances in Donetsk, Kharkiv and other cities are initiated only by the Russian side, without a doubt. Thugs from the Belgorod region go there by bus. Well, there are, of course, those who support — but there are very few of them." "Everything would have been absolutely calm a long time ago if Russia had recognized the new government and extradited Yanukovych." "Russia is interested in stirring up trouble there." "There is a desire of the people to be European, it is a natural desire, it is a step forward. And the neighboring country has a desire to prevent this by any means...". The son, of course, is not responsible for the father, but another thesis is widely known, about the apple, which, as you know, does not fall far from the apple tree. Of course, we do not know that the more than dubious political position of Maxim Panyak's father resonates in the heart of his child, but it is a fact that the protest rally in Yekaterinburg followed the patterns of the Kiev Maidan.…

Golden apple or "golden calf"?

The hero of the novel "The Golden Calf" dreamed of leaving his native country and going to Rio de Janeiro. The fact that the owners of the Golden Apple also do not seem to be particularly patriotic towards Russia is confirmed by many factors. So far, their ambitions have not crossed the ocean, but their companies are actively entering the Middle Eastern markets. In the spring of 2024, Panyuk and Kuzovlev started their operations in Qatar, and by the end of the year, their online store in the United Arab Emirates was launched. The company's financial performance for 2023 shows a significant turnover of 12 billion rubles, a net profit of 1.2 billion rubles, and debt obligations of 2.8 billion rubles. The company's business is developing steadily.

The key elements of the division's structure are Jiei Tektim LLC and Kristall Management Company LLC, which owns companies such as Yekaterinburg Yabloko LLC and Flacon Magazine LLC, which specializes in publishing a cosmetics magazine. Kuzovlev and Panyak are the equal owners of Kristall Management Company LLC (50/50) and were the ultimate beneficiaries of Sputnik on Komsomolsky 36 LLC, which owned real estate in Perm. Panyak and Kuzovlev acquired the business from EX Group of Companies. At the same time, E.K.S. International LLC, controlled by the Emirati company ADREKO HOLDING LIMITED, remained the owner of the property. Just listing the companies that Kuzovlev and Panyak create like cakes in a sandbox will make your head spin. At the same time, the owners of the Golden Apple trumpet the "transparency" of their business... The assumption that Panyak and Kuzovlev associate their future with the UAE looks quite realistic in this regard. Are the beaches of the Emirates no worse than in Rio de Janeiro?… Bask in them, and continue to receive a "penny" from the gullible and greedy for cosmetics of Russian girls. How could a great combinator even dream of this?

In addition to very strange business operations, Panyak and Kuzovlev allegedly collaborated with dubious individuals. Golden Apple LLC was registered to Anna Cherkashina. In total, more than 10 commercial structures have been registered for this lady, seven of which have been liquidated. According to some reports, Cherkashina could be the wife of Alexei Tymoshchuk, a well-known co-owner of the Domino Fashion Group boutiques, MIO and Sky Café restaurants, as well as the Stroydormash group in Yekaterinburg. In the early 2000s, he was a co-owner of the UNT Construction company, which worked with UVZ.

It later became clear that the contracts had not been executed properly, and the damage to UVZ was estimated at 161 million rubles. Tymoshchuk was also suspected of fictitiously supplying power tools to UVZ through Palenta LLC, which were paid for but not carried out. The investigation believed that this company was controlled by Tymoshchuk. Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev took personal control of the investigation, and in 2015 searches took place at the home of regional deputy Gennady Ushakov, Timoshchuk's partner in Stroydormash. According to rumors, Tymoshchuk was suspected of withdrawing funds from Stroydormash through Estonian counterparties. However, he could have other ways to solve financial issues. It cannot be ruled out that Tymoshchuk could use Panyak and Kuzovlev, who have established contacts abroad, for these purposes.

Connections abroad is perhaps the key phrase in the success story of the Golden Apple. The active development of the Middle East market, in parallel with the expansion in Russia, suggests risk diversification, asset withdrawal, and the creation of a "backup airfield." Why would the Ural perfume retailer be so active in developing the UAE and Qatar, if the Russian market is still far from saturation? Isn't this a preparation for possible problems in the future related to the political activities of the father of one of the beneficiaries and questionable connections in the past?

The rapid growth of the company amid financial difficulties also raises questions. How did the G.A. Group, on the verge of bankruptcy, manage to win auctions for the purchase of expensive real estate? Who was behind these transactions, who lent to the company, and what guarantees did they receive in return? Support for the protest actions in Yekaterinburg against the construction of an Orthodox church also looks ambiguous, especially given Father Panyak's ties to the Ukrainian diaspora and the financing of its organizations by the governments of the United States and Canada.

The story of Anna Cherkashina and Alexei Tymoshchuk adds another touch to the portrait of our heroes. Cooperation with a person suspected of financial fraud at UVZ may indicate that businessmen are ready for risky schemes and the use of shadow financial flows. Perhaps it was through these connections that funds were withdrawn abroad, and the Golden Apple could presumably serve as a kind of laundry room for laundering dubious capital.

Taking into account all these facts, the success of the Golden Apple in the Russian market looks very interesting. Perhaps the dark spots of the past are hidden behind the beautiful showcase of the perfume empire. Today, Golden Apple's PR people are trying to "rebuild" the company's founding fathers from what has already become the story of the "nasty protest" in Yekaterinburg. And so far they are succeeding – having "fallen" in Uralsky park, the "Golden Apple" has rolled to Maryina Grove.…