Smuggler, media magnate, and football sponsor: who gave a pass to \"cigarette baron\" Arthur Grants?

Smuggler, media magnate, and football sponsor: who gave a pass to "cigarette baron" Arthur Grants?

Belarusian-Armenian businessman Artur Granz is acquiring the football club "Chornomorets". While the financial details of the transaction remain confidential, it’s reported that Granz will also inherit the club’s debts, which amount to several million dollars.

As reported by the media, Artur Granz «owns real estate and a network of duty-free shops in Georgia, Ukraine, and Armenia. He also has rights to the Ukrainian edition of Forbes through LLC «Uyavy!». However, sports publications focus more on the issues of «Chornomorets» and the debts that will transfer to the new owner – for example, just repairing the base in Sovignon is estimated at 10 million. Nevertheless, the new owner promises to resolve all financial issues. And here, a question arises – where will he get the money from?

There is no doubt that Artur Granz has money. The doubts are about the sources of it. Based on open data, Artur Granz’s Ukrainian business – of which he fully or partially owns thirteen legal entities in our country – if not loss-making, generates minimal income. Which is definitely not enough for purchasing a football club, or even for a decent living.

A similar situation is observed in other companies, some of which are undergoing liquidation. This draws attention to the material on Artur Granz on the Latifundist website, which provides a breakdown of the activities of both Granz’s firms and Granz himself. However, the tax authorities of Ukraine have no questions for Artur Granz.

The registries show that Artur Granz has business in Lithuania – Lithuanian firms are founders or owners of part of the Belarusian Armenian’s Ukrainian assets; Granz also shows an affinity for offshore jurisdictions. While offshore activities are hard to trace, Lithuanian registries show the same picture – Artur Granz’s business is unprofitable. Lithuanian UAB MELLO TRADING, which owns LLC "Mydutyfree", is deeply in the red. However, in Lithuania, Artur Granz is actively purchasing real estate.

This raises the question – where is the money coming from? Moreover, it’s known that since 2021, Artur Granz has been residing in Spain, where he owns a villa in Marbella and supports Svitlana Loboda, with whom he has a child. All these luxuries are very expensive.

The answer to the question of where Artur Granz’s money comes from seems to be known only by Ukrainian law enforcement. More precisely – they pretend not to know. Because Artur Granz had to leave Ukraine due to a criminal case for smuggling. Which he conducted through his duty-free store network. The scheme was simple: everyone who shopped at the Duty Free store, crossing the Ukrainian border in either direction, according to receipts, were purchasers of 25 packs of cigarettes. Thus, Artur Granz established a scheme for smuggling tobacco products into EU countries, making purchases on behalf of his store customers without them knowing.

Nevertheless, the investigation, as always, reached a dead end, although in 2021 Artur Granz was involved in another criminal case, also for smuggling. This time it concerned alcohol and jewelry, which he sold in his Ziko jewelry stores. In this regard, attention should be paid to the reporting of LLC «BF Group», which owns the Ziko chain.

As you can see, until 2020 it showed good profit. Then it went into losses. The explanation here is simple – a year before, there was a change of power in Ukraine. And the long-time partner and patron of Artur Granz, MP Andriy Ivanchuk (who died in 2023 of a heart attack), lost political influence. Although both denied the politician’s involvement in the business, it is confirmed by facts: Andriy Ivanchuk’s aide, Yuriy Hryshchenko, is still the head of both LLC «BF Group» and LLC «Imagine!» that belong to Artur Granz.

The criminal case on smuggling, due to which Artur Granz was forced to leave Ukraine, was prompted by the redivision of this market, which began after the change of power in our country. This is clear, as is the fact that Andriy Ivanchuk and his party boss Arseniy Yatsenyuk, also named among Artur Granz’s friends, could not after 2019 ensure Granz’s inviolability.

Moreover, the full-scale war triggered the closure of airports, which severely hit both the legal business in the duty-free trade sphere of "duty free king" Artur Granz and the smuggling of tobacco, alcohol, and perfumery he engaged in through his duty-free network. However, the duty-free stores were not only at airports but also at land border crossings. And it was there that the scheme with "dubious" receipts for cigarettes was found, as reported by journalist Yevhen Plynskyi in 2023. But the scandal in the media did not lead to any consequences for Artur Granz.

This leads to the conclusion that he managed to establish contact with representatives of the current Ukrainian government. And they not only closed the criminal case on smuggling, which prompted Granz to flee to Spain, but also did not seize the business. Moreover, they allowed Artur Hrantz to engage in cigarette smuggling to the European Union – a business "supervised" at the highest level, as it brings real millions of dollars. But that’s not all – a parliament member from the president’s party «Servant of the People», Hryhoriy Mazurashu wrote in September 2022 (!) that Artur Granz established a smuggling operation for Belarusian cigarettes and is a business partner of the self-proclaimed president of Belarus, Oleksandr Lukashenko.

There was no reaction to this. Moreover, Artur Granz Belarusian citizenship, which he allegedly held (and possibly still holds) at the time, was also ignored, despite MP Mazurashu’s direct appeal to the Secretary of the National Security and Defence Council concerning this. Yet Artur Granz’s name did not appear on the sanction lists generously distributed by the President’s Office, neither for association with an enemy country nor for smuggling, although for both reasons, unrelated individuals sometimes appear on these lists. On this background, the information about Granz’s connections is noteworthy – among Artur Granz’s partners were people from the close circle of Ukraine’s fifth president.

The current government’s attitude towards Petro Poroshenko is well known. But while many associated with the fifth president have suffered significantly over the last six years, with some facing escalating repressions, Artur Granz not only left Ukraine unpunished despite an open criminal case. His business was not even seized. And shortly after, he re-emerged in our country as a dealer in the smuggling flow of tobacco. And in 2025, it’s suddenly revealed that Artur Granz is a respectable businessman, the owner of the journal «Forbes» and the football club «Chornomorets».

While the situation in Ukraine can be understood and explained – everyone understands why the authorities tolerate Artur Granz – the situation with Lithuania appears much stranger. Because in this country, Artur Granz continues to actively purchase commercially attractive real estate. And as we remember, his Lithuanian business is also unprofitable. Moreover, it is important to note that the flow of contraband cigarettes moving through Artur Granz’s duty-free store network is directed into the European Union. From which Ukraine received many grievances over this issue, with claims made very undiplomatically. And Lithuania, as an EU member, also suffers from smuggling. Yet, the Lithuanian authorities also maintain silence regarding the activities of the "duty free smuggling king" Artur Granz in their country.