Back in 1997, the young and talented Volodymyr Zelenskyi founded the “95th Kvartal” KVK team, which he headed, always remaining in the captain’s position.
Indeed, all of Ukraine admired the chic boys and girls from Kryvyi Rih – they cheered as if for the national football team.
They talentedly played, joked, sang and created, for which the team won the highest awards of the KVK twice (Ed: 2000, 2001).
After such success on the Amotorsk stage, already in 2003, Volodymyr Zelenskyi together with the Shefirs brothers founded the professional studio “Kvartal – 95”, which became the basic business asset of the entire team.
During the first years of its existence, the studio’s projects broke into the TOP ratings of Ukraine and the CIS – the popular “95th Quarter” concerts were launched in the October Palace, and later in the “Ukraine” Palace, visiting them became not just interesting, but a fashionable trend, filmed and box-office series and films are produced (Ed.: “Matchmakers”, “Three Musketeers”, “Chasing Two Hares”, etc.).
The culmination of the team’s creative activity is the series “Servant of the People”, which actually brings Volodymyr Zelensky into big politics.
It should be noted that Volodymyr Zelenskyi and his companies were not involved in any particular scandals from the distant 1997 until the beginning of his political career. They were mentioned only once in a journalistic article about the use of offshore companies
However, it must be agreed that those were indeed the times and entrepreneurs had a simple choice: either use offshore schemes, or give 50% of their earnings to Yanukovych’s “young reformers”.
So, the choice was obvious and we are not trying to blame V. Zelenskyi for it.
However, is everything so “smooth and clean” in his environment? And here there are certain doubts, which we will share with you.
So, it is no secret for anyone that the world of show business is quite tough and based on the commercial component: box office fees from rental, royalties, etc.
Sometimes, well-known artists and groups perform at private parties and are settled with them in cash, similarly, the settlement can be made for fees from the rental of films, series and other content.
And if everything is clear with non-cash payments – officially received, paid taxes, sleep peacefully, then with cash – it’s more difficult.
First: they must be accepted at the place of the corporate event;
Second: reship to the appropriate jurisdiction;
Third: legalize (if necessary) or hide.
It was precisely on the solution of these delicate problems that a stratum of various kinds of financiers/lawyers/schemesmakers was born, who got into the trust of artists and earn a good fortune from it.
As they say: “there would be a demand, but the offer will not be delayed.”
A well-known Ukrainian lawyer, whose name we will not mention in this article, became a domestic pioneer in the organization of similar schemes. However, we must note the simplicity of the scheme and its genius.
Its basis is the use of intellectual rights to audio/video or printed content.
So, a conditional creative studio shot a conditional clip in Ukraine and signed a service contract with a legal company that had offices in the CIS and Western countries. Further, acting within the framework of the concluded agreement, the legal company registered the copyrights for the intellectual product in Ukraine and received the corresponding certificates of the state model. After that, the so-called license agreements were concluded between the copyright owner and portable non-residents of Ukraine, according to which the non-residents had to pay royalties to the copyright holder for the commercial use of the content. In addition to this, a mirror image of a similar scheme was organized, but the right holder was already a non-resident, and the licensee was a resident. Simple and brilliant.
Thus, this mechanism made it possible to transfer money all over the world – veiled and to a certain extent legal. Including: accepting and transferring cash payments.
Agree that it is very convenient for people in creative and artistic professions who are focused on creativity.
And that’s how everything would work: quietly and calmly, satisfying the needs of artists, producers, content producers and the like, if there was not someone who “surpassed the artist” and introduced a different approach to the implementation of the task.
Meet, young talent, “director”, “producer” and “actor” – Vitaly Sirenko
So, if in the first version of the scheme everything worked more/less close to the requirements of the law, at least at a superficial glance, since the main component was a real product (film, TV series, music video, commercial, etc.), which was really high-quality and was in demand among the audience, then in the upgraded version – Mr. Sirenko decided to save costs for the production of content. Simply put: either don’t do it at all, registering intellectual property rights only on paper, or use budget funds to produce films that no one has watched.
This is how the “famous” film companies “Filmstream” (Ed.: 2006) and “ABC Film” (Ed.: 2014) were born.
The “exceptional talents” of film director and producer Vitaly Sirenko have allowed his film companies to shoot more than 98 films and series, mostly at budget expense.
But do you remember the name of even one of his masterpiece products?
Probably not, although according to Wikipedia they collected up to 16 million views.
Taking this into account, we can assume that all of Mr. Sirenko’s “cinematic masterpieces” are banal fiction with artificial ratings and views, and the only purpose of his structures’ activity is to create the possibility of transferring funds under the guise of fulfilling the terms of license agreements with a very wide geography: from Turkey to Russia and most countries of the world.
However, even this is not the culmination of our story.
Thus, in particular, on 3 August 18, 2020, thanks to his directorial talents, the political career of Vitaliy Sirenko began – he was appointed an adviser to the Vice-Prime Minister of Ukraine – the Minister for Strategic Industries of Ukraine.
Think about it, a director, actor, producer and draftsman, who has never worked for a day in the public service, and especially in strategic branches of industry, is appointed to such a responsible position.
For reference: The mission of the Ministry of Strategy and Industry consists in the formation and implementation of state industrial and military-industrial policy, state policy in the field of defense orders and the defense-industrial complex, as well as in the aircraft industry and in the field of space activities.
That is, from 2020, Vitaliy Sirenko becomes involved in the entire defense industry of the state, the sphere of defense orders, aircraft construction and space.
It looks like some crazy. But there must be logic in everything, especially when appointing people with a clear corruption trail to such responsible positions.
In our opinion, the logic in this purpose is very simple:
1.) Vitaly Sirenko proved himself to be a capable organizer of the scheme for withdrawal of funds from Ukraine and enjoys the trust of his patrons;
2.) The scheme, which began as an innocent model of helping artists to legalize royalties, transformed into a “state program” for embezzlement of the budget;
3.) Vitaliy Sirenko was appointed “observer” in the field of defense procurement and weapons production.
It is a pity for such conclusions, but facts are facts.
The only question to which we cannot find an answer is: “Who is behind Vitaly Sirenko and the “state program” of embezzlement from the budget?”
