A major scandal erupted around the well-known electronics chain "Citrus", which led to the fact that top managers and employees began to resign from the company. The reason was a conflict between the two co-founders Dmytro Zinchenko and Hryhoriy Topal, who own the network equally. In an interview with the publication "GORDON", Zinchenko said that a business partner compromised him in front of his family and tried to take away his fortune in business.
This year, the citrus chain of electronics stores celebrated its 20th anniversary. Its founders are Odessa businessmen Dmitry Zinchenko and Hryhory Topal. The partners immediately divided the areas of responsibility: Zinchenko was involved in the development of the company, and Topal was in charge of security. Thus, they worked for many years and jointly managed to turn a small regional company into one of the largest retail chains in Ukraine, which has 60 stores and more than two thousand employees.
However, recently it became known that a conflict broke out between the owners. Zinchenko accused Topal of seeking raider capture. Dmitry Zinchenko told the GORDON magazine in an interview what caused the dispute and how the arguments affect the work of the network and its employees.
- At the beginning of July, your statement appeared on the Internet that "Citrus" was captured by raiders. The network operates throughout Ukraine, has thousands of employees, and it is quite difficult to steal such a large business unnoticed. Could you explain what happened?
- Events began to develop back in May. My partner Hryhoriy Topal and I have been running a business together for 20 years, and, I must admit, I do not understand at what moment he could be so offended by me that he decided to take over the company. I admit that the main motive is simple - money. He recently got married for the second time, expenses have increased. It is possible that there was a certain amount of envy before, because I was the face of the company for all 20 years. Perhaps someone warmed up these feelings. But these are only my guesses, since we have not had a constructive conversation with him in two months.
Hryhoriy never spoke aloud about his dissatisfaction, never voiced any complaints. I think he chose my wife Elena for an attack for a reason. She did not want to be friends with Grigory's new wife, which offended him greatly.
At the beginning of May, Topal told his ex-wife, who is friends with my wife, that I was allegedly having an affair with another woman, that I was going to move in with her, and leave my wife and 12-year-old son with nothing. Of course, she passed this information on in all details. What was said had nothing to do with reality, but the provocation was successful: Elena wrote an angry message to Grigory, not shy in her expressions. He said that he was offended and stopped communicating with us. Moreover, he took screenshots of the correspondence and began to show them to our partners, telling how unfairly he and I acted. This situation served as a formal reason for a quarrel.
After this, on May 8, our head of the security service met me at the door of the office and, lowering his eyes to the floor, explained that he had received an instruction from Grigory not to let me in. I reminded him that he should step aside and not interfere, but he did not start a conflict.
- Have you tried to settle the situation?
- I tried to talk to my partner through our mutual friend, but Topal replied that my wife had greatly offended him and his family, so he would not talk to us. My admonitions that it is unprofessional to mix business and personal life did not help. After some time, our mutual friend gathered us at the table and talked.
It should be noted that the last one and a half years were very difficult for me. We had various crises, difficulties, top management changed. One way or another, it fell on my shoulders. In Odessa, it is twice as difficult as in Kyiv to find talented tops, no one wants to come to us. There is a similar problem in other large cities, and even in the capital it is difficult to close such vacancies.
Therefore, in August of last year, I myself took the position of CEO and combined this work with the performance of the duties of the absent tops. It was uncomfortable for me, it was hard both physically and morally, plus the corona crisis hit, but everything was at stake: the fate of the company and 2000 jobs. And for all this time, I didn't even take the salary of the CEO, because I saved the company's money.
At the meeting, I explained that I had worked enough for free and asked for the salary of the CEO. In addition, I was the sole guarantor for the company's debts. Topal convinced me to do so. He did not want to risk his real estate, especially after his second marriage. Since I managed the company and was not a coward myself, I agreed to meet him and be the sole guarantor for all debts. But since we have disagreements, we are equal partners, I suggested that Grisha be equally responsible for the company's debts, which is UAH 500 million.
And my last demand concerned compensation for the imbalance in the seized capital. In three years, Topal withdrew a fairly large sum, because he had a new family, apartments, cars, and so on. As a friend, I treated this with understanding, I practically did not withdraw money myself, because the company was developing, it needed significant working capital. Relatively speaking, he was engaged in altruism. In response, I heard: "Why didn't you take anything? It was necessary to take it."
In fact, I had three key conditions: the salary of the CEO since the beginning of the year, the division of responsibility for the company's debts and the equalization of the imbalance in the withdrawn capital. I believe that these voiced moments became a trigger, and he went all in. He asked for a pause to think. Already now I understand that he was preparing for an attack.
- And what did you do?
- I warned all the leaders in advance that a big conflict was brewing, that one way or another they would be involved in it, so that people could prepare themselves morally and have the opportunity to distance themselves from the events.
The turning point for me was the story with the million. On Saturday, June 13, Grigory suddenly called me in the morning. And he declared that he had brought a million dollars in cash to my office the day before. He allegedly left a black bag with money under the table. And he didn't tell me about it under the strange pretext: "You were busy, I didn't want to bother you." Of course, I didn't find any money. Since the office is under video surveillance, I asked the security service for a video to see if anyone came or not. By an amazing coincidence, the cameras were not working that day.
Of course, it was a divorce. I again invited Topal to chat. He came to the meeting. I asked, is the emu not ashamed? We spent so many years together as comrades in arms, how can we act like this now? He lowered his eyes, said that someone must have stolen the money and that he would file a complaint with the police. I suggested him to think and apologize so that we forget this story.
But Hryhory decided to play the play to the end. A few days later I found my office door sealed. On the hanging piece of paper it is written: investigative actions are being conducted, Primorsky District Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, ERDR number, seal.
I am to the head of the security service. He assured that he had no idea what he was talking about. Of course, he lied.
Therefore, I called my friends and asked them to find out what the police had. I was told that my partner came in the morning and asked to urgently register a criminal case on the fact that one million hryvnias (not dollars) was missing from our office. He did not accuse anyone in particular. On the same day, the investigator started calling, inviting me and my driver for questioning. So there was another way to get on my nerves.
And soon the culmination came: on July 1, Topal gave the order not to let me into the office and introduced the new CEO - his godfather Vadym Lysyuk - to the employees. This is a former military man and a rather rude man, who already worked for our company, and my partner and I fired him once.
At the same time, Topal told the people: "Dmitry Aleksandrovich is tired, he needs rest." Here is a new CEO. Solve all questions through him."
Of course, the workers immediately started calling me to find out what happened. They said that on that day they posted a lot of security at all the entrances and exits to the office, just so they wouldn't let me in. But I decided to take a break and see what happens next. I understood that Topal would not cool down and the business would smell bad.
- You said that you were being watched. How did you come to this conclusion?
- There is a concept of video monitoring. It exists in many companies, stores, and offices. And in "Citrus" too. Grigory and I had an agreement that there would be no cameras in my office and living room. But he repeatedly offered me to arrange surveillance on my family members, I guessed that they could also monitor me. But, I confess, I didn't want to believe that.
Then these guesses were unexpectedly confirmed. On my birthday, July 8, my partner gave me a "gift": he posted a fabricated intimate video from my office in the corporate chat, to which a huge number of Citrus employees have access. By a "strange" set of circumstances, a complete stranger appeared in this corporate chat (he had been fired earlier for theft), who also invited my wife there. It was not enough for them to defame me in front of all the employees, they even organized a live discussion of the details in this chat. Among the people who openly harassed my wife was the company's new CEO. He hid under an anonymous nickname, but I have known him for a very long time, I know his vocabulary and manner of communication well. I believe that, having committed this dirty deed, Grigory and Vadym completely lost their male honor.
- And your wife didn't leave you after all this?
- My wife is a very smart woman, she understands people perfectly and perfectly understands that all these actions were a pitiful revenge, the purpose of which is obvious: she will leave me with my main support - my family. Elena reacted with her inherent sense of humor. Many employees also did not support this trick, some were not afraid to express their opinion about such a low concession. It is clear that they wanted to demoralize me.
However, I received evidence of the existence of a hidden camera in my office. Since it was Topal who was responsible for security and coordinated the actions of the head of the security service, it is clear to me who organized this surveillance. By the way, the fabricated video posted in the chat was dated April 28. And this is another argument that confirms that it was not a quarrel with my wife that caused our conflict with Topal. He started preparing a long time ago and just spent some time collecting the incriminating information he needed. My business partner clearly overstepped the mark.
- But there are enough complaints on the net from former employees about total surveillance in your company. Couldn't you not see them?
- Earlier, when I read such reviews about total surveillance, cameras with sound, which are almost in the toilet, I thought that it was the fear of big eyes, the workers were simply exaggerating. I'm sorry I didn't trust this information earlier.
Now I understand that surveillance could be used not only for control, but also for blackmailing employees. By the way, there are facts that employees' phones were also tapped semi-legally, and their movements were monitored. And this is illegal. Similar actions are possible only within the framework of the investigation and by court decision. This is a very toxic story for everyone.
- What is your current status?
- Topal has already managed to wring something out. He disconnected me from all information sources in the company, from mail and corporate chats. Employees are forbidden to communicate with me under fear of dismissal. Since the end of June, he has blocked my access to the company's finances, dividends, rental income (we have several real estate properties in common use). In fact, now he fully controls the company, cash flows, financial activities and can do anything.
It is clear that Topal would not have turned it all around on his own. Some employees could not take a balanced position and took the side of my partner, helped him realize the capture of the company. Among them were the financial director and the head of the legal department.
- Do you have business documents left?
- The structure of our company was typical for Ukraine, when assets were distributed among a number of companies. Topal was engaged in the legal organization of the business and the optimization of taxes. In most operating companies, where the main assets are concentrated, neither he nor I figured. And Grigoriy was in every way opposed to structuring everything correctly so that there would be a holding with two shareholders.
Now, retrospectively assessing the situation, I understand that this was a deliberate game in order not to structure our assets. After all, when you have property rights, it will be much more difficult to check such a disorder.
We have the Zt-Invest company, which owns all the company's trademarks, including the Citrus brand, LAPTI, E-ton, Like.Bike, and so on. It has two shareholders who own equal shares - I and Hryhory Topal. All other enterprises were under the so-called nominal directors, who are recognized by our lawyers, who also took the side of my partner in this conflict.
On June 24, they re-registered the Placement Invest company, which is important for our group, and which was fully owned by my 74-year-old father, to his own person. Lawyers put a deed of acceptance and transfer in a stack of powers of attorney, which he constantly signs. The Pope trusted them, because they had cooperated for a long time, and signed all the documents without looking. He did not even suspect that there could be a trick. But in such a simple way, the company was transferred to Topal's trustee. He was sold corporate rights for 1 thousand hryvnias. I found out about this by accident when I started to deal with paper.
They also fraudulently took away a corporate car registered to my mother by forging signatures. And, by the way, the car was transferred to a friend of my ex-partner. That's how, having enlisted the support of lawyers, my ex-business partner acts completely brazenly behind my back and does not think about the consequences.
- And what might be the consequences for the company and its employees?
- At the moment, "Citrus" is experiencing an outflow of personnel. First of all, the top management leaves - people who have put considerable effort into the image of the brand (which, by the way, is valued at $65 million today). The head of the corporate university and co-author of the unique project "TseConstitutsiya" Frol Kharko, operational director Alexander Chistyakov, head of the educational project Alexander Voytovych, head of online business citrus.ua Vitaly Pilypenko, head of customer support Yulia Tikhonchyk have already left. This loss is irreparable. And the brain drain continues.
It pains me to say this, but the future seems unenviable. In my opinion, there can be only three scenarios: the takeover of the company by a third party, although this is unlikely due to the presence of a conflict between the owners; the disappearance of the company; her transition to Topal, who will simply abandon the network's employees, partners and creditors in order to take possession of all her assets.
But, despite everything, I still own 50% of the company. I don't need someone else, but I don't intend to give my fate in the company to anyone. And even if my business partner sells his share to anyone, I will not give mine away. This means that whoever buys a part of Topal will not have a controlling voice in the management of the company and will be forced to talk to me directly.
- Are you so calm about everything because you have already found a way to resolve the conflict?
- I was ill with the coronavirus for almost the whole of July and was in isolation. Believe me, this is not the most pleasant state. I was also lucky that the disease was caught at the earliest stage, when the lungs were slightly damaged. Of course, I'm not going to give someone 20 years of my life and half of the company.
- Why don't you go to court?
- Essentially, the Citrus network is a whole series of legal entities. And, as I said earlier, they are registered to nominal persons, namely to representatives of various departments of the company that directly report to Topal (lawyers, security service employees, financiers). This complicates the resolution of the conflict in the legal field.
The situation with "Citrus" is a lesson for all businessmen who, creating a business in an agreement to optimize the tax burden, neglect the protection of their rights. However, there are other levers of influence, so effective methods will definitely be found. (Laughs.)
I would like to break up with my partner peacefully and civilly. However, the point of no return in friendly and business relations has already been passed. So I let the situation cool down. My partner decided to take advantage of the break that I took, including due to illness, and committed, in fact, fraudulent actions, and also interfered in my personal life, trying to completely destroy it. Of course, it distracted me for a while, but it didn't stop me. I have no doubts about the return of Citrus group of companies under my control.
On the one hand, it is important to note that business is the easiest way to show the world what you believe in. The unique experience that customers get when they come to our stores is a reflection of my idea of how people should meet innovations and open the future with the help of technology. Without this vision, the project will lose its competitive advantage and turn into another faceless square meters selling technology.
On the other hand, the world is becoming more and more transparent. Not a single action outside the law and ethics goes unnoticed. Moreover, low concessions tarnish not only one's own reputation, as happened with my partner, but also the reputation of counterparties who provide financing, distribution rights and enter into system collaborations. I know for sure that modern businessmen are not comfortable with people without honor. That is why I have no doubts about my victory.
