You're reading: Ukrainian says wild, poor Liberia better for business

What would it take to drive a successful Ukrainian businessman to a war-torn country where reports of cannibalism are common, bribes are endemic and educational standards are low?

The answer is: it’s better than Ukraine’s pathetic business climate.

After his thriving network of 402 gambling parlors in Ukraine was made illegal overnight by a law passed in 2009, Sergey Chernyshov, now 39, decided he had had enough. He started looking for a land where doing business would be easier, and – strangely enough – he landed in Liberia, where the majority of the population lives in poverty.

Tipped off by a friend, he decided to try his luck in the country he himself calls “ridiculous” and “completely idiotic.” But what matters is that his business there gives him “almost no headaches.”

“Liberia is a country of huge possibilities,” says Chernyshov. “There is virtually no manufacturing in the country, but the consumption market and raw material export bases are incredible. Whatever you start here will work. You have the right to make a mistake when there are no competitors.”

Chernyshov now owns one of three casinos in the country, investing part of the income into gold and diamonds mining. Both of these industries are in an embryonic stage of development, he says.

According to Chernyshov, clientele at his gambling venues in Liberia include foreign investors, Chinese road construction workers, affluent locals and government authorities.

Chernyshov is just one of many thousands of Ukrainians looking for a better life and business opportunities abroad. The nation’s official statistics show that around 11,000 people left the country for good between January and September this year.

The number of Ukrainians applying for a green card (permission to live and work in the U.S.) reached 853,000 this year – up by nearly 100,000 on 2010.
Sociologist Yevhen Kopatko, the founder of Research & Branding Group, says a desire to emigrate is strong among Ukrainians, especially the ones “of an active age.”

According to his company’s research, 13 percent of respondents say better earnings are the reason to leave the country, and 10 percent want to leave for good.

“Those who have a high social status, who established themselves, want to leave the country the most,” says Kopatko. “And it’s bad.”
Chernyshov fits this description.

“They didn’t let me do my business [at home],” he says bitterly, explaining that the authorities took away the gambling license for his whole network of casinos after a casino that belonged to someone else burned down in Dnipropetrovsk in 2009, killing nine.

The ban on gaming came later that year. More than 10,000 casinos and gaming parlors were outlawed overnight. Many of them, however, continued to operate in the shadows.

Chernyshov attempted to fight the ban by co-authoring a new draft law regulating the industry with the government. But his draft law was shelved.
“I bought my license for Hr 150,000 and they took it away two years before it expired,” remembers Chernyshov. “They didn’t pay me Hr 8 million of my taxes back either. I have lots of questions for Ukraine, actually.”

Chernyshov claims that 87 percent of his earnings were taxable in Ukraine, which is a sharp contrast of the 7 percent he has to pay in Liberia. He says he earns much more now, but is shy about his numbers.

“Come here, work as I do and you will find out,” he laughs.

Chernyshov and his second wife live in Monrovia, the capital of Liberia, a West African nation of 3.5 million people.

Ukraine sits alongside the Central African Republic, Congo, Uganda and Tajikistan in 152nd place of 183 countries in Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index released on Dec. 1. Corruption is also widespread in Liberia by all accounts, but much less so than in Chernyshov’s native Ukraine. The nation ranks much higher in Transparency International’s ranking, at 91.

Chernyshov said the legal base in Liberia is next to zero. The state agencies are disconnected and detached. Like in Ukraine, corruption is institutionalized.

Bribes, which are referred to as “small-small,” are common in Liberia, Chernyshov said. An employee of the Trade Ministry will hesitate to execute the minister’s order unless he receives a little “small-small” from the minister.

“Ukraine is a holy country when it comes to bribes,” says Chernyshov. “When you bribe someone in Ukraine, you at least know the person is doing his best to solve your problem. Here the situation is turned upside down. When you bring money, they understand that you are interested in your request, and that you are ready to pay for it to be solved, so they keep sucking money from you, doing nothing.”

But Chernyshov said he has figured his way around this problem. His tip is “don’t give them ‘small-small,’ just ask for whatever you want, leave them and wait,” he says. “They will come to you and do what you want. Just wait.”

He says the peculiarity is the reason why Liberia is still so badly underdeveloped: businessmen come, lose money and achieve nothing, then leave.
“People here know everything about each other, especially about the newcomers,” he says. “All the tribes and groups send people to Monrovia to scout.

So, when someone new, especially if he’s white, comes to the country, everyone tries to swindle him. Over time, you start to understand their way of thinking and don’t let them trick you anymore.”

It took Chernyshov a year to figure that out.

He says that the law does not work outside the capital. “People outside the capital use ‘traditional law,’ easily deciding whether they should kill a person or let them live,” he says.

Still, Chernyshov says he sees more progress and promise for his business there, in Liberia, then in Ukraine. He has no plans to come back to Ukraine. His last visit back home was over a year ago.

“Most of my former partners stayed in the same [gambling] business, paying individual officials instead of the state. I don’t want to run an underground business. I appreciate Ukraine only as my motherland,” he said.


Kyiv Post staff writer Alyona Zhuk can be reached at [email protected].

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