Fozzy Group

Fozzy Media Group, LLC — is a Ukrainian company founded in 2016 with headquarters in Kyiv, which manages a web portal of culinary recipes shuba.life, news media bzh.life and VILLAGE.

Temabit, LLC — is a Ukrainian business software development company founded in 2018 with headquarters in Kyiv.

Retail

Silpo-Food, LLC — founded in early August 2016 with headquarters in Kyiv, a company in Ukraine that took over management of the Silpo and Le Silpo supermarket chain after Fozzy-Food, LLC, and later launched the online store silpo.ua.

OFFTOP — a chain of non-food boutiques was launched in 2020, the assortment of which, after the closure of the boutiques in early 2022, is located exclusively in the spaces of some Silpo stores.

FEELtrd — a chain of coffee shops was launched in 2020, which are mostly located next to the sales halls of the Silpo chain.

Fora, LLC — is a Ukrainian company founded in 2002 with headquarters in Kyiv, which manages the supermarket chain of the same name and the Favore delicatessen.

Legal issues

In February 2003, the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office announced that several cases involving tax evasion, counterfeit vodka and illegal equipment sales had been opened against Fozzy Group. Additionally, accusations were made by the Prosecutor General's Office that Fozzy Group engaged in illegal money laundering. At the time, Volodymyr Kostelman, President of the company, stated that the Prosecutor General's Office findings regarding tax evasion were based upon incorrect figures, and that Fozzy Group had not engaged in any illegal activities. It was also reported at the time that Kostelman "hinted that his company was framed by tax officials and that Ukrainian businesses are currently not safe from corruption."

In May 2016, the Solomyansky District Court of Kyiv seized the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC due to understatement of value added tax by officials. The investigation established that officials of Fozzy-Food, LLC, while conducting financial and economic relations with a number of companies by conducting non-goods transactions, understated VAT in January-February 2015 by the amount of 32.2 million hryvnias. The offense was recorded in the act of an unscheduled on-site inspection of the Fiscal Service in November 2015. During the inspection, inconsistency of the purchased and sold goods, non-confirmation of the reality of financial and economic transactions, and the absence of the possibility of fulfilling contractual relations were revealed. It was established that Fozzy-Food, LLC has accounts in Joint Bank Pivdenny PJSC and Bank Vostok PJSC, on which, in order to stop criminal activity and to further compensate the losses caused to the state, a seizure was imposed on them and it was forbidden to dispose of funds and it was ruled to stop spending transactions with the funds coming into the accounts.

On July 12, 2016, the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv decided to seize the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC to ensure the fulfillment of its obligations to VTB-Bank PJSC under the 2007 credit agreement, under which the total amount owed by the retailer to the bank is ₴302.48 million. With this decision, the court partially satisfied the bank's claim and ordered the seizure of funds on any Fozzy-Food accounts in the amount of ₴239.13 million. In addition, the Kyiv Commercial Court of Appeal, by its decision dated July 19, 2016, also partially satisfied the claim of VTB Bank, imposing a seizure on Fozzy-Food funds in Bank Vostok PJSC accounts in the amount of ₴64.8 million.

On August 2, 2016, the Court of Appeal of Kyiv overturned the decision of the Pechersk District Court of Kyiv to impose seizures on the accounts of Fozzy-Food, LLC, a structural unit of the Fozzy Group registered in December 2002, which had been engaged in the operational activities of the Silpo supermarket chain in Ukraine since August 2003.