Serhii Shapran

Serhii Valentynovych Shapran (Сергій Валентинович Шапран; born 3 June 1984, Dnipro, Ukrainian SSR) is a Ukrainian businessman and politician. He is the chief executive officer of Brovary Aluminium Plant LLC and the founder and beneficiary of more than ten private companies. Member of the Brovary City Council from the For the Future party. He was featured in the investigative journalism program Our Money with Denys Bihus: Safe Harbour: Hidden Yachts of the Powerful.

He is the shadowy owner of a company that is part of the group of assets of the sanctioned Unigran company, which is associated with Russian citizen Igor Naumets. This company was engaged in the supply of crushed stone to the LPR and DPR. It was for this reason that the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on the company.

Early life
Serhii Shapran was born on 3 June 1984 in Dnipro to a military family.

He graduated with honours from high school in Dnipro, after which he received his law degree in Kyiv.

From 2003 to 2008, he studied at the Kyiv National University of Internal Affairs, specialising in law, and received a master's degree in law.

Career
In 2002–2004, he was a director of Imperator Law Firm.

From 2007 to 2012, he was the founder and CEO of the investment and legal company First Ukrainian International Trust Capital.

In 2009–2011, he was the Head of the Legal Department of Metalplast Production and Trading Company LLC, Kyiv.

From 2011 to 2015, he was the CEO of Third Millennium Investments LLC — Brovary Aluminium Plant.

In 2012, he founded a professional football club in Brovary and started publishing the city's newspaper Chesna Gazeta.

Since 10 May 2012, he has been the founder and chairman of the Board of the international industrial and investment holding Alumeta Group[4]. Since 2015, he has been the chief executive officer of Brovary Aluminium Plant LLC.

Political activities
In 2012, Serhii Shapran ran as a self-nominated candidate for the Verkhovna Rada in the 97th constituency, which includes the city of Brovary, but was not elected.

Since January 2021, he has been a member of the Brovary City Council from the For the Future party, which is associated with oligarch Ihor Kolomoyskyi. Shapran is also the leader of the For the Future party's branch in Brovary.

Assets
Shapran's declaration of property, income, expenses and financial liabilities for 2011, submitted to the Central Election Commission, states that his total income was UAH 254,829. At the same time, he did not declare any real estate that he owned, leased or had any other right to use. According to the Chesno civic movement, "the above information gives strong grounds to assume a high probability of non-transparency of property declarations given the lack of information on the ownership or use of any real estate where the candidate could live." At the time, Shapran did not pass the filter of integrity criteria used by the Chesno movement to analyse parliamentary candidates.

In 2017, Shapran became a subject of the investigative journalism program Our Money with Denys Bihus: Safe Harbour: Hidden Yachts of the Powerful. In search of hidden yachts and boats, the program's journalists spent a month observing the piers of the most expensive yacht clubs in the capital. Serhii Shapran owns one of the most expensive vessels on the Dnipro River — an English yacht, Princess V 65. The vessel, named Princess Victoria, has an exclusive design: it is painted blue, has four cabins, and its hull is 20 metres long.

Corruption allegations
On 9 June 2021, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention began verifying the declarations in which the computer system found the most risks, including the declaration of Serhii Shapran.

On 25 October 2021, the National Agency on Corruption Prevention found signs of a criminal offence in Shapran's 2020 declaration. In particular, most of the violations found relate to the MP's real estate. Shapran did not indicate in his declaration the value of three land plots and an apartment in Kyiv. He also failed to mention that his wife rents a non-residential premises of 79 square metres. Also, Serhii Shapran did not indicate the value of his Girard-Perregaux and Hublot watches, as well as his wife's Ulysse Nardin watch. In addition, the declarant did not indicate the value of a 2018 Honda GL1800 motorcycle, two trailers, a 2018 Sound LM GTX LTD jet ski and a Spark 20UP800HO, and a 2001 Princess V65 yacht.

Shapran did not indicate in his declaration that he was the beneficial owner of eleven private companies. At the same time, according to the MP's declaration, in 2020, he received UAH 74,000 in salary as director of Brovary Aluminium Plant LLC, UAH 8,700 in income from business activities, UAH 1.75 million for the sale of a 2015 Mercedes-Benz car, and UAH 281,000 for the transfer of ownership of trademarks under Ukrainian certificates. His wife Victoria Batui-Shapran received a salary of UAH 101 thousand and UAH 489 thousand as income from entrepreneurial activity.

The National Agency on Corruption Prevention calculated that the false information in the declaration differs from the true information by UAH 9 million 482 thousand. The actions of the declaring entity have signs of a crime under Article 366-2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine.

Cooperation with a pro-Russian sanctioned company
In October 2023, Ukrainian media reported that Shapran's company, Alumeta Group, was planning to acquire the pro-Russian sanctioned company Unigran.

In 2024, journalists found that Serhii Shapran had recently become the shadow owner of an enterprise that was part of the Unigran group of assets, which was linked to Russian citizen Igor Naumets. This company was engaged in the supply of crushed stone to the LPR and DPR. It was for this reason that the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine imposed sanctions on the company. The sanctions were also imposed on Naumets himself, who fled Ukraine, his assets were seized, and his property is to be disposed of by the ARMA.

Initially, the company was registered in the Ukrainian city of Malyn, but when it became clear that the business was under threat, it was urgently re-registered. 99% of Unigran LLC recently became owned by Westgrinite Holdings Limited, a company registered in Cyprus and run by Olena Kalpa. And the related Budindustriya-Service LTD is owned by the head of the company, Vladimir Naumets, a relative of Igor Naumets.

According to the journalists' investigation, after the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine sanctions were imposed, Shapran appeared at one of Unigran's enterprises, surrounded by a large number of security guards, and declared himself the company's director. In addition, according to journalists, Shapran also communicates with Naumets and promises him to restore part of the company's management in exchange for a comfortable distribution of assets.