Andriy Stavnitser: the stolen port, or the secrets of a "successful startup": part 1

Andriy Stavnitser: the stolen port, or the secrets of a "successful startup": part 1

«All great fortunes are gained in the most dishonest way!» — says a famous saying from «The Little Golden Calf». Of course, not everyone should be tarred with the same brush. But many Ukrainian wealthy people, who tell tales about how they started from scratch with hard work, are indeed thieves and crooks. A vivid example of this is the story of the Stavnitser family from Odesa, which controls the largest private port terminal in Ukraine, «TIS».

Lately, they have spent a lot of effort and money to create an image of «hereditary businessmen», «Euro-optimists», and modern effective managers of world level — which is why its head, Andriy Stavnitser, managed to gain the favor of President Zelenskyy, becoming his «assistant in Odesa». But what truth hides behind these commissioned reports and paid interviews?

Business and Coronavirus

In March 2020, when COVID-19 was rapidly spreading across Europe, and the first patients appeared in Ukraine, which was completely unprepared for such a challenge, the media featured optimistic news about one «initiative of Ukrainian innovators». It was about a company named Revel Laboratory from Odesa, which announced its intention to start producing special valves for ventilators on 3D printers, allowing two patients to be connected at once. In emergencies like a pandemic, when there is a critical shortage of ventilators (especially in Ukraine), such a simple device can save the lives of many patients. This encouraging news was broadcasted on all Ukrainian TV channels with the same enthusiasm as when the cardboard tanks made by the young designer Rostyk Abramov were shown, but then it was also quickly forgotten.

However, most Ukrainian media presented this news in an abridged form. For example, they only briefly mentioned that the author of these valves was an Italian company, Isinnova. When Italian doctors faced an acute shortage of ventilators and consumable materials for them, their engineers proposed to print the required plastic parts on 3D printers, which Isinnova did. It was impossible to simply copy the original single valve due to a lawsuit from the ventilator manufacturer, so they decided to print double valves of their own design, for which Isinnova registered an open and free patent for everyone.

A few technical details: at the factory, such parts are made by molding in matrix molds on a special press, so without such a mold, they cannot be made (and the mold cannot be manufactured without a dozen metalworking machines), but even for 3D printing, a digital model must first be created. So Isinnova created these digital models for these valves, also providing them to everyone for free since it was about helping the dying. This is what the Ukrainian company Revel Laboratory from Odesa took advantage of. However, calling it a company is quite an exaggeration! As it turned out, Revel Laboratory is just a 3D printing studio that began its work a few days earlier, in March 2020. It is located in the basement of an old two-story building №55 on Velyka Arnautska (thankfully, not Mala!), where there used to be a fabric store warehouse. There is no company or private enterprise with this name in business databases, perhaps it is just a sign for the studio, so it remains unknown to which legal entity Revel Laboratory is registered. But what is known is what it does! People vulgarly refer to it as a word starting with "F", and it strongly resembles the interests of the "genius" boy Rostyk Abramov.

In this video, you see a kind of «ersatz-ventilator», hastily assembled by engineers from Revel Laboratory. According to them, this genius invention can replace a real device — and theoretically, it is possible, if only it worked as a ventilator should, rather than erratically compressing a “bulb”, causing the patient either hiccups or agony. And below, you see a miracle-reusable respirator, in which the filter is... a disposable medical mask folded in several layers. So it’s entirely unclear what the point of this «innovation» is!

The offspring of the gloomy genius of Revel Laboratory engineers

Additionally, Revel Laboratory offered Ukrainian doctors a splitter for connecting four patients to a ventilator at once! This is simply wonderful, but why only 4, not 6 or 8, or even all 10?! And what did the doctors respond, interestingly? Perhaps they politely advised them to study the principle of operation and the specifications of ventilators, which simply cannot physically pump air simultaneously into four lungs (two is still possible), not to mention that the devices are adjusted individually for each patient’s parameters and condition.

Probably, Revel Laboratory should have simply printed a supply of double valves, but then a problem arose. A significant portion of the ventilators in Ukraine are either old models or cheap Chinese ones. And their valves differ somewhat from those on modern devices in Italian hospitals, for which company Isinnova developed 3D models. The studio Revel Laboratory managed to take the free program from the Italians and print a few valves for new ventilators, but they failed to independently develop 3D models for old devices. They tried to ask the Italians for help (there was a media report about «negotiations with Italian colleagues»), but they replied, saying, «guys, can’t you do it yourselves?». After that, the valve topic was closed.

This was expected after the scandal at Revel Laboratory that erupted literally the day before, at the beginning of March. It was a typical story for Odesa and all of Ukraine — a raider takeover. It happened like this: the co-owners of Revel Laboratory are young people Ivan Chebotaryov and Davyd Stavnitser, but the actual creator was an Odesa engineer Vasyl Tymoshchuk, who owned the studio equipment. Initially, everything was fine, but then Davyd Stavnitser suddenly went to Los Angeles (he actually lives abroad), and Chebotaryov sharply «attacked» Tymoshchuk, bringing his physically strong friend Oleksiy Kopyshynskyi for a «showdown». Kopyshynskyi hit Tymoshchuk in the face, threatened him with a hammer, and forced him to hand over his equipment (3D printers, servers, soldering station for a total of $30,000), plus a Mazda MX car. Tymoshchuk filed a report, Chebotaryov and Kopyshynskyi were arrested (Chebotaryov was immediately released on bail), so the first days of Revel Laboratory’s operation took place against the backdrop of court hearings and meetings with investigators.

You may ask, what’s the point of this long story? The point is, Davyd Stavnitser is the son of Andriy Stavnitser. And his dad ensured that this scandal did not affect their last name at all. The scandal was not just quickly hushed up, but the Stavnytsers used a signature method — «whiting out» all negativity with some ultra-positive news, then claiming that mere ill-wishers are spreading false rumors about «successful businessmen helping the city and country». Nevertheless, in this case, it was possible not only to save the image of Stavnitser Jr. but also, according to SKELET-info’s calculations, to earn a good income from his «successful startup».

Davyd Stavnitser (left) and his parents Diana and Andriy Stavnitser

And literally, within a few days, Davyd Stavnitser found business colleagues in Italy and obtained 3D models for ventilator valves from them. It only remained to print a few pieces, invite journalists, and organize a pompous presentation with eyeservice. It’s just that after losing the competent engineer Tymoshchuk, Revel Laboratory could no longer independently create 3D models even of such simple details, so it began to engage in various nonsense, pretending to actively participate in the fight against the coronavirus. But even in this, it managed to earn, indeed becoming a «successful startup».

How? Very simply: after all, Andriy Stavnitser, with the blessing of President Zelenskyy, headed the Odesa Region Anti-Crisis Headquarters from March 16 to May 5, created as an association of businessmen and volunteers to help doctors. Mainly by raising funds (135 million hryvnias were raised) and purchasing various equipment and materials with them — including respirators (yes, those same ones!) and valves with splitters printed in his son David’s Revel Laboratory. Purchases were made through the Infomir group of companies, also associated with the Stavnytsers. So whatever nonsense printed on 3D printers in the basement on Velyka Arnautska was declared ingenious innovative solutions, extremely necessary for the fight against the coronavirus, and the Anti-Crisis Headquarters purchased it without regret. As they say, to whom is a pandemic — to whom is business!

Andriy Stavnitser

Odesa remembers!

However, Andriy Stavnitser’s main goal was not to «earn» on the coronavirus (though not without that either), but to firmly pave the way to the President’s Office, opening up the main prospect for him — to become the «overseer» for Odesa from Zelenskyy himself (or someone from the close boyars). And this is not a fabrication, as Andriy Stavnytser is already called the «assistant to the president for Odesa» in business circles and among officials, with broad unofficial powers. He spares no «investment» for this, transferring a solid sum to one of the presidential funds — formally, of course, for children, or rather - to combat coronavirus!

Do you know how he generally became familiar with Zelenskyy? Several factors played a role here. Firstly, the Stavnytser family has long been friends with Eduard Hurvits, and in Odesa, being among the «Hurvits» meant having certain connections in power, politics, business, the shadowy corruption world. From these connections, Andriy Stavnitser’s current circle formed: according to SKELET-info, among his friends are Serhiy Leshchenko, Mustafa Nayyem, Yehor Firsov, Maksym Nefyodov, Andriy Motovylovets, Volodymyr Shulmeister, Ihor Smilyanskyi. These are the so-called «sorosyata» and «Euro-optimists», from whom the Honcharuk government was composed, and there are many in the president’s entourage. Even Zelenskyy himself has a peculiar worldview through the lens of either «Euro-optimism», «libertarianism», or a chaotic set of modern Western world fetishes. The same way Yushchenko could be delighted with a clay whistle, so can Zelenskyy now — with a hipster demeanor, sprinkling the language with English words and projects of «successful startups», as it’s now fashionable in Ukraine to call business projects.

Oleksiy Fedorychev

Are the Stavnitsers like this? Davyd definitely is, this young dandy studied abroad for many years (Dubai, California, Malaysia) and now permanently lives in the USA, only occasionally visiting Ukraine. Regarding his father, Andriy Stavnytser, his acquaintances say he simply plays a role. He immediately realized that this play was the same pass to the new power as under Poroshenko it was an embroidered shirt under camouflage and «volunteer army assistance». This is why, in part, the Stavnitsers are now constantly using this word, why they pretend to be honest d’Artagnan businessmen who have risen and withstood in a horribly corrupt world, desperately wishing to build a «European society» in Ukraine. The most important thing is that someone who has been, in essence, the head of the business of a corrupt Russian oligarch Oleksiy Fedorychev for many years is hardly suitable for such a role. After all, it is Fedorychev who is the main owner of «Transinvestservice» ("TIS"), which the head of its board, Andriy Stavnitser, loves to boast about. But the most interesting part is that many Odesites call "TIS" a stolen port! Now you will learn why…

Serhiy Varis, for SKELET-info

To be continued...